Will the real Philadelphia Flyers please stand up? For real now…we’re waiting. The orange and black are trying to rewrite the script of inconsistency, and start searching for more consistency. Some answers are needed from the players, as former General Manager Ron Hextall was terminated yesterday. What a day of hoopla for this once proud organization and its fans.
The Flyers are searching for more consistency. From a two game losing streak, to a two game winning streak. There were multiple reasons for this losing streak. Most notably the leaky defense, the horrid penalty killing, and Goaltending. We will really find out just who these Flyers are here shortly, but they have to find a way to close out games with a full 60 minute effort. Hopefully, the coaching can lead us in the right direction from here on out. “It’s a tough morning, a tough morning for all of us,” Dave Hakstol said yesterday. “I’m, I’m going to focus and work on doing that job to the best of my abilities. That’s what I told the players.”
The Flyers had their legs early in this one, as it appeared the Hextall firing, or the talk that Hakstol gave the players yesterday morning gave them the jump they needed to defeat the Ottawa Senators. The orange and black came out of the gate well, against a young Senators team that really isn’t that bad. Anthony Stolarz got the start in this one, as he backstopped 20 saves in the 4-3 loss. The Senators roared back in the third period, where they notched three goals to defeat the Flyers. Without further delay, here are our three observations from a tough defeat for the orange and black.
Flyers Lineup:
Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
Weise-Patrick-Voracek
JVR-Weal-Simmonds
Lindblom-Laughton-Raffl
Defense:
Provorov-Hagg
Ghost-MacDonald
Sanheim-Gudas
Net:
Stolarz
Scoring:
1st period-
PHI- Konecny (7) 4:23- assists Giroux, Provorov
OTT- Chabot (7) 5:51 assists Stone, Tkachuk
2nd Period-
PHI– Voracek (6) 3:22- assists Provorov, Laughton
PHI- Gudas (1) 6:00- assists Laughton, Lindblom
3rd Period-
OTT- Tkachuk (8) 11:32- assists Stone, White
OTT- Tkachuk (9) 13:26- assists Chabot, White
OTT- Duchene (11) 17:01- Unassisted
Third Period Meltdown
If there’s one thing the third period showed us against the Senators, it’s that this Flyers team unfortunately is a fragile bunch. Travis Konecny did all he could do in the final 50 seconds to try and notch the game-tying goal to no avail.
The Flyers tried to play it safe in the third period, as they were up two goals. Unfortunately, Stolarz would like a few of those goals back, but the Flyers fell back and stopped attacking. No matter who you’re playing in today’s day NHL you cannot take your foot off the gas pedal. All the feistiness that this team showed through the first two periods was extinct in the third period. “There is no excuse there,” Hakstol said following the game. “We had a job tonight to go out and get it done and we didn’t do that so there is no excuse for other things. When it’s game night you focus on the things at hand and that’s the end of it.”
Special Teams
The Flyers power play, or power outage continued today against the Senators. They were 0-0 on the PP. Moreover, the orange and black came into the game with just a measly 11 PP goals for on 70 attempts, and a Power Play success rate of 15.7%, which was good enough for 25th best in the NHL. Jakub Voracek tallied a goal in the second period that negated what would have been the Flyers only Power Play of the game.
Penalty Kill? What Penalty Kill right? The Flyers entered Monday’s contest with an atrocious Penalty Killing rate of 69.7%, which was the worst in the NHL. Usually, they appear to just sit back and eat bon-bons, while being a man down. Well, maybe Lappy has finally taken the criticism to heart, and made the necessary changes on the PK, at least for tonight he did. The Flyers were aggressive from start to finish, and it looked like they finally found their niche.
This young Senators team has some players that can put the biscuit in the basket such as, Mark Stone, Maxime Lajoie, and Brady Tkachuk. They did a really good job at sealing players off, while forcing players to the edges.
Anthony Stolarz
Stolarz entered the day with his cards stacked against him to perform up to the standards of beating a well coached team in the Senators. He was flat-out dialed in from the start, as Stolarz made his first start in the NHL, since the 2016-17 season. However, the third period got the best of him, as he gave up three third period goals in the Senators come from behind victory 4-3.
During the pre-game warm ups, the Flyers Forwards and Defense fired about 10 shots to the glove side of Stolarz. Practicing with his glove hand paid off in a big way, as “Stolie” made about seven saves with his glove hand throughout the course of the game. Unfortunately, he got beat over the glove hand on the first Senators goal.
The steady netminder in Stolarz entered the game with a 2.50 GAA, and a .943 Save Percentage in one relief appearance of Cal Pickard. Stolarz had to be a factor in today’s contest in order for the Flyers to start a good streak. Unfortunately, the third period collapse did him in, otherwise he performed quite well, “It felt pretty good,” Stolarz said making his first start since the 2016-17 season. “I mean especially early on, there weren’t too many shots, but in the second period we thought we kind of settled in there. Obviously not the result that we want, but for me I’m just gonna continue to build off this and keep moving forward.It felt pretty good. I mean especially early on, there weren’t too many shots, but in the second period we thought we kind of settled in there. Obviously not the result that we want, but for me I’m just gonna continue to build off this and keep moving forward.”
Let’s hope the Flyers can build off this defeat, as they face their division rivals for the first time this season in the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday in a 7pm tilt.
Flyers Notes:
Michael Raffl who injured his left leg over a month ago returned to action against the Senators on the fourth line. He had 14 shifts for a total of 6:49 of ice time, was a +2, registered 1 shot, and finally registered 2 hits on the night. Tyrell Goulbourne was scratched for this contest.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
