Weise’s wild night is long-awaited payback
PHILADELPHIA >> In a game built for redemption, primarily because the Flyers’ second period was almost unforgivable, Dale Weise’s payback performance was almost too rich for words.
Probably the Flyers’ most maligned and least used forward has been working since the summer to make up for the lost time that was his last two seasons. Since signing a free-agent contract in 2016 after a couple of solid seasons with Montreal, Weise has too frequently been a non-entity, even if his presence in the locker room always met with favorable reviews.
Praised by Dave Hakstol Wednesday as a guy who had pumped up his work ethic and improved his game, Weise finally earned a scoring reward Thursday night, and his timing couldn’t have been better.
The Flyers, having given up the lead in the second period by somehow allowing two shorthanded goals on the same power play, were lost as the third period commenced. But then Weise made a play that sent goalie Darcy Kuemper scrambling in a chaotic Coyotes crease, and linemate Scott Laughton found the puck and scored to get the Flyers within a goal.
Then with regulation ticking down, Shayne Gostisbehere gained some redemption himself with a play in the neutral zone that sprung the not exactly fleet of skate Weise on a breakaway.
Rather than finding the goalie pads, Weise made a terrific lastsecond lift of the puck that went for a tying goal at 17:47. That set the stage for Gostisbehere’s blast of a Jake Voracek pass 61 seconds into overtime and a 5-4 Flyers victory.
It counted as a memorable night for Weise, Gostisbehere and every other Flyer who put aside embarrassment to gain redemption.
“Yeah, brutes,” Gostisbehere said of his team’s Coyote-ugly second period. “But is what it is. We won. It’s over.”
It looked to be over in the second, after a Flyers power play resulted in Coyotes goals by Derek Stepan and Michael Grabner, both off neutral-zone turnovers and breakways against overmatched goalie Cal Pickard. The latter of those horrendous gaffes came via Gostisbehere. He should have caught the breaking Grabner, but instead got caught up trying to get past linesman Michel Cormier.
After Grabner scored, Gostisbehere came close to getting in Cormier’s face. He was still feeling it after the game.
“I don’t know, man, it’s hard not to get mad right now,” Gostisbehere said. “But, you know, it happened. Thankfully we came back, the boys did great and we won. It definitely made it a little harder, but we won.”
Asked if it was hard to not get mad in the moment with Cormier, the grimacing Ghost looked for a laugh: “Yeah, definitely, I had a weapon in my hand ... I’m just kidding. Nah, I’m just kidding. It is what it is, part of the game. I definitely got heated, he gets heated, it is what it is. Thankfully, like I said, we won.”
For Weise, it didn’t have to be so dramatic. His long-sought moment in the spotlight was made only brighter by the circumstances.
“It feels great,” he said. “The situation, to tie the game like that, I think that feels better. I’m not a guy that stresses over points or goals like that. I’ve been all around it. I know it’s going to come. I don’t really judge myself on goals. I know I’ve been playing well. That’s the huge part for me. But it obviously feels good to score.”
On his game-tying goal, Weise knew how desperate his team was. Gostisbehere picked off a pass in the defensive zone, saw Weise “cheating” up ice near the Arizona blue line and promptly sprung him on a breakaway. Chasing was the much more skilled Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
“I thought he was going to catch me,” Weise said. Instead, Weise caught the net, and the Flyers were on their way to winning with a dramatic flair. It seemed almost justified.
“Dale’s been in some dark times; like when he thinks he’s not going to play again the rest of the year,” Gostisbehere said. “But he works every day, even when he’s not in the lineup, and it’s showing right now. He’s getting results and he scored a big goal for us tonight.”