The Flyers faced former captain Claude Giroux and his Ottawa Senators last night on the road for a 2-1 loss. Their play last night was a completely different tune from Monday night’s appearance against Seattle, and was far more comparable to last week’s 5-2 loss against Winnipeg. Lots of the progress from Monday seemed to have worn off, as our penalty kill died and the team played slow all around.
Let’s start with numbers. Our offense was slow and unable to keep possession of the puck for any true scoring chances. The Flyers were outshot 33-23, making Vladar an even more valuable asset to this team. Another number I can’t stand: 12 penalty minutes. 12 minutes of some of the worst hockey this team seems to play, seeing as though they’re top 10 in short-handed time per game. Sure, this team is gritty and plays hard, but this can’t keep happening if they can’t handle the penalty kill. While their own man advantage has seen some improvement this year, their penalty kill has certainly not.
Michkov’s slow progression continues to worry fans and the team. An unsuccessful breakaway out of the box kept the Flyers from the advantage in the first period. He left us to dry again in the second after a turnover by Jamie Drysdale. Originally, I had hoped for Michkov’s turnaround when Tocchet moved him to play alongside Zegras earlier this week. That was apparently stupid. He’s still not seeing the growth, grit, and skill we had seen from him last season. I had excused it in earlier games as we discovered an ankle injury had kept him largely out of camp, but we’re seven games in now. His play in the upcoming week or two will be very telling, and I’ll be curious to see how Tocchet handles the situation if we don’t see improvement. Torts would have benched him by now, and Tocchet already switched his linemates like he’s done for others. Time will tell.
After a successful start, with Foerster scoring 29 seconds into the game, the Flyers seemed mostly dormant. Yet by the second period, they seemed like they might have had a chanse. The aggression was coming back, not to the same extent, but it was more similar to the gameplay of the early first and previous games. That’s the Philadelphia Flyers for you, keeping you on your toes when a team notorious for falling apart in the second comes together to play semi-watchable hockey for 20 minutes. There were plenty of good opportunities that were not built into chances. The team needs to get back to creating those chances as they have been in other games this season. They could have won, or at least tied, this game multiple times in the second, yet they fell short.
A failed powerplay and a few too many penalties in the third reverted them back to the first period status. Even pulling Vladar for the final nearly minute and a half for the man advantage wasn’t enough. Ottawa’s defense sustained the 2-1 lead.
At least Vladar has proved himself to be capable of sustaining his success when the rest of the team leaves them to dry. The Flyers look to turn things around as they return home for a 12:30 puck drop against the Islanders on Saturday.
Philly's Next Shift 