Flyers Finally Get a Lift From Special Teams

VOORHEES — Jake Voracek is a realist. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He speaks from the heart.

Last year’s leading scorer has one tally on the season so perhaps his frustrations from that make him even more brutally honest when he speaks.

In the next breath after he said the Flyers may have been “scared to win” Monday night, he also said that even-strength scoring is still a disappointment. Special teams, however, are starting to look how the Flyers envisioned them to.

The biggest example against the Carolina Hurricanes Monday may have been Claude Giroux’s shorthanded goal, the Flyers’ first on the season.

“(Sean Couturier) did a good play,” Giroux said. “I don’t think he was trying to give me a rebound, but I’ll take it. We were aggressive (Monday). We did a good job.”

It was the highlight of what has started to become an impressive streak. The Flyers have killed 13 straight penalties across the last four games. At one point in the early going, the Flyers’ penalty killing was in the basement of the NHL. Heading into Tuesday’s action it was ranked 18th.

“I’ve always said it’s the little things,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We went a few games in a row there where every game we’d make a tactical or critical error and it would end up in the back of our net. Right now, those errors are certainly fewer and further between. When we do make an error, we’re making a save. That has a way of loosening up your penalty kill.”