The Flyers played their 3rd of 6 consecutive home games against the Colorado Avalanche yesterday afternoon in what ended up being a close 3-2 loss, yet it didn’t always look like that was a possibility.
The Flyers were given very low expectations heading into this game, given that Colorado is the best team in the league by far, being ranked #1 in the NHL with 3 more points and 1 less game played than the #2 spot (Dallas) and 9 more points than the #3 (Washington). Although Colorado was on the 2nd game of a back-to-back weekend, and the Flyers had just hadn’t played since Wednesday, it’s also important to note that the Flyers were without some of their best players both offensively and defensively. Cam York is still out day-to-day, while Foerster remains on injured reserve after an upper-body injury in last Monday’s game. Although Colorado was always expected to win this one, the Flyers current injury statuses certainly didn’t help.
The Flyers were able to kick things off positively, as Sean Couturier was able to score just 2 minutes in on both his birthday and 900th NHL game.
Unfortunately, that was the only positive part of the first period. The Flyers went on to be outshot 12-3 as our defense left goalie Sam Ersson out to dry. Ersson allowed 2 goals for Colorado, the tying goal midway through the period by Brent Burns and the leading powerplay goal by Brock Nelson to close the 1st. While Ersson wasn’t exactly on it in the first period, much to fans’ dismay, the Avalanche’s 2-1 lead was anything but his fault. The team overall looked disjointed and messy, as they played sloppy hockey and let the Avs run away with the game. There were multiple opportunities the Flyers could have had, yet instead ended up in careless turnovers leading to minutes of Colorado possession. The first period curse was roaring, and eventually went on to cost them the game.
The second period did show improvement, yet it simply was mediocre hockey to start rather than the awful performance of the first. By the second half of things, the team started to come together, yet there still was enough time for the Avs to get their third and final goal of the night early on by Valeri Nichushkin. Travis Konecny was able to respond on a short breakaway, giving the Flyers their second and final goal of the night.
After a few minutes of slowed play after Konecny’s 7th goal of the season, another shot attempt by the Flyers’ assistant captain seemed to reroute the game for Philadelphia. They were able to close the gap between the teams, as Colorado only outshot us 13-9 in the second period.
For the rest of the game, the Flyers really held their own and even seemed to be the better playing team in the third period. They dominated the play all around, only allowing Colorado 3 shots compared to Philadelphia’s 13, a complete 180 from the first period. They had what seemed to be a guaranteed opportunity to tie things up early in the 3rd, when Trevor Zegras got his eye on a breakaway, yet was stopped with a holding call against Nathan MacKinnon. He was awarded a penalty shot, which seemed like a clear path to success for Philadelphia as Zegras is one of the top penalty shot takers in the league. Yet in true Flyers fashion, Zegras took one of the weakest penalty shots I’ve seen from him, and the Flyers were not able to tie things up.
The Flyers went on to have a flurry of chances in the final minutes of play after calling a 30-second timeout. They pulled Ersson for the extra skater and seemed as though they could pull it off. This team is known for its comebacks this year, yet they weren’t able to get any past the Av’s Blackwood.
Although many fans were confused by Ersson’s starting over Vladar, Ersson played one of the strongest games I’ve seen from him. He made 25 saves on 28 shots against the top team in the league; he certainly wasn’t the issue. Our issue was our first period- big shocker. Although they played well for the back half of the second period, and truly played exceptionally in the third, the first period was so discombobulated that the recovery time cost them half the game. Had they played even as they did in the 2nd period to start, they would have had a serious chance at some points against Colorado. They even seemed to have chances in the final minutes, yet it was all unfortunately rushed as the clock ran out. They need to be able to overcome these roster moves or rusty play after some time off if they’re going to be a competitive team. It’s clearly in there, it’s just a matter of getting there in a timely fashion.
The San Jose Sharks come into town for a 7:00pm faceoff at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Either goalie wouldn’t surprise me to start, yet I hope to see Cam York back on the ice.
Philly's Next Shift 