In last night’s contest, the Flyers fell to the Ottawa Senators 5-2. This was the annual Claude Giroux visit to his former team, where he played 1,000 career games as a Philadelphia Flyer. The home team have yet to find a win during the recent stand at the Wells Fargo Center.
Flyers fall to Senators
The positive for Philadelphia was the two goal scorers, Jamie Drysdale and Rodrigo Ābols really stood out. Ivan Fedotov, who got the start on the net, also had a good game. Despite a few of the goals being savable, he kept the team in the game longer than they should have due to the defense not having the most vigorous play.
The Flyers also have yet to score a power-play goal during the homestand and are 0-13. The power play percentage fell again for Philadelphia, now standing at 15% and ranks 30th in the NHL. The penalty kill is at 78.1% and ranks 18th in the NHL. While the penalty kill is significantly better, it’s still not as good as last season.
However, the team itself remains positive following the loss. Jamie Drysdale spoke after the loss, “We’re turning in the right direction. We’ll get a win here soon.” Drysdale continued, it still sucks being on the other sides of these games. We had to stick together and pick each other up as a group. One another is the only people who can get us out of this.”
Another player who spoke about the team’s direction following the trade deadline was Cam York. York stated, “It’s coming for us. It’s a different group for us. There’s going to be an adjustment period. Once our group gets more confident and we see a few wins, it’ll be a different game for us.”
John Tortorella stated he needs more scoring from Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny. While it’s obvious Konecny has been frustrated over not scoring since early February, he will find his way eventually. Rough stretches happen. The team is also now adapting to losing a player who was the glue to the team within Laughton. Tortorella didn’t seem too concerned; he just stated that those players needed to get it going.
The Flyers have an off day (Wednesday) and get back to work on Thursday as they host the Tampa Bay Lightning. While it looks like the Flyers won’t make the playoffs, this isn’t the worst-case scenario due to the younger players getting reps and a higher draft pick.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
