Tyson Foerster zipped in the shot that finally got the Flyers on the board and tied the game.
Then, not even a minute later on a 5-on-3 advantage that stockpiled from successive Pittsburgh Penguins penalties, he tried to tee up on a one-timer for the go-ahead. But when his stick blade met the ice, something went wrong.
Foerster got the shot off, but it sailed straight into the chest of Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry, while the winger fell to the ice clutching his right arm in visible pain.
Foerster went straight down the tunnel and to the locker room as a scrum ensued by the net after the whistle. He didn’t return and was later officially ruled out for the remainder of Monday night with an upper-body injury.
The night unraveled for the Flyers from there in a 5-1 loss in their return home to Xfinity Mobile Arena, and up against a renewing Penguins rival.
They couldn’t score again on the remaining second-period power play. Then they were put on the penalty kill from a Rodrigo Ābols trip, and Sidney Crosby – ever-beloved by the Philly faithful – turned that into his second goal of the night on a Bryan Rust feed by the goal line and a pinpoint shot straight from the hashmarks.
Rust rifled in his own power play tally later in the period, as play and talk grew chippier, and the Flyers just didn’t have the means to produce another comeback this time coming back for the third – when Tommy Novak scored another power-play goal and Kevin Hayes tucked away a breakaway late.
The three-game win streak the Flyers put together on the road against the Panthers, Islanders, and Devils snapped. The penalty kill letting up three goals on four Pittsburgh power plays will do that.
They’ll have the last-place Sabres at home Wednesday night as the chance to bounce back, but now with the real concern of having to skate without Foerster, though with the “if” and “for how long” not yet clear.”
“I hope it’s not long,” said head coach Rick Tocchet, who was still waiting on a Foerster update himself postgame. “He’s obviously a big part of our team.”
Before he exited Monday night, Foerster had just netted his 10th goal of the season and his fifth in the last six games.
Always praised for his two-way skating and willingness to check and defend, Foerster hit the ground running to start this season and tapped into his goal-scoring touch.
Skating with Noah Cates as his center and Bobby Brink as his opposite wing, and then with Travis Konecny taking up the other wing more recently, Foerster’s line has been a dependable source of offense for Tocchet in his first-year behind the Philadelphia bench, all while the 23-year-old winger has looked set to take a jump from the 20-25 goal range he’s set for himself in the past two seasons into the 30s and maybe even 40s.
“That’s tough,” said Konecny of seeing his current linemate go down. “He’s such a big part of the team, the locker room, everything, so yeah, it’s definitely difficult. We’ll see where that’s at.”
Foerster has dealt with injuries already, first with the elbow infection from over the summer from IIHF Worlds, and then with the blocked shot off his foot that cost him a few games.
But with the former, he managed to be ready in time for Game 1, and with the latter, he was back quickly while the Flyers were able to manage.
He’s been a breakout star for a young Flyers core, though, and it’ll hurt to go any prolonged stretch of time without him.
In Drysdale’s defense…
When Emil Andrae got bumped up to the second defensive pairing with Jamie Drysdale just before the Thanksgiving road trip, the fact that he had taken a clear step in his play to warrant that promotion drew the immediate attention.
Drysdale, as his new partner, though, has been just as big a factor for why that pairing works, and after last Saturday’s 6-3 outburst over the Devils at home, Tocchet was sure to highlight that.
“I thought Drysdale was our best player tonight,” Tocchet said after that game. “For defending? He was our best defender by far.”
And he’s kept with it.
Drysdale, ever since he arrived to Philadelphia in the Cutter Gauthier trade just shy of two years ago, has always been advertised for his puck-moving and offensive prowess. But toward the end of last season, the actual defensive part of his game showed signs of getting cleaned up, and this season, it’s taken a pretty significant leap.
The 23-year-old’s skating is as fluid as ever, but this year he’s been making better use of it when he doesn’t have the puck, or when it’s headed downhill toward him.
He’s been stronger on the boards and smarter with his gap control, which doesn’t translate directly into stats for him, but does keep them from piling up on the other side, while giving Tocchet the faith to roll him out there for the 21:36 of ice time he’s averaged through 24 games heading into Monday night.
Drysdale has still managed 10 points on the season (2 goals, 8 assists), collected two assists in last Wednesday’s win at Florida, and then posted a plus-3 night in Saturday’s surge against the Devils up in Newark.
But the defenseman’s greatest benefit to the Flyers so far this season lies more in what he’s prevented rather than the numbers he’s produced, and surprisingly, on a pairing most wouldn’t have originally expected to click.
“It’s just read the game,” Andrae said of skating with Drysdale last weekend. “I think we don’t really complicate it that much. We’re both offensive-minded, and we both want to join the play and get up in the rushes, so just whenever the other guy goes up, the other guy stays back.”
Drysdale skated 17:39 in Monday night’s loss, and the Flyers didn’t surrender a goal while he was on the ice for as much as the game got away from them.
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