The Philadelphia Flyers’ offense was too little, too late on Thursday, as they could not beat a very beatable Ottawa Senators team in overtime at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Philadelphia’s offense was nowhere to be found for a solid 50+ minutes of the game. They were unable to generate much offense, as their own mistakes were costly. Turnovers, poor passing, weak control, and a lack of puck support led to the Flyers’ inability to get any real chances.
Illness forced the Senators to roll with backup netminder James Reimer, who entered Thursday’s game with a .862 SV% and a 3.22 GAA. Sounds like goals, right? Unfortunately, you need to shoot the puck to score those.
The Flyers registered just two shots on goal in the first period, six in the second, and seven in the third. It took until they pulled Dan Vladar and had the 6-on-5 advantage with the empty net for the Flyers to have crisp offense. They tightened up and supported the puck, eventually finding a way for Jamie Drysdale to tie the game at one, forcing overtime.
Then, the overtime woes continued for the Flyers. Travis Konecny’s shot, while it looked wide, deflected off Reimer’s pad, going around the boards, and giving Ottawa the easy rush chance for the win. Tim Stutzle was able to blow by Travis Sanheim, who had to cover both him and Brady Tkachuk, before Stutzle called game.
The fact of the matter is that if the offense had shown up any earlier, the game would have been very winnable for the Flyers. But that wasn’t the case on Thursday.
Read More: Flyers Can’t Complete the OT-Comeback, Lose 2-1 vs Senators
The Flyers looked drained
There is a lot you can say about how the Flyers ended up playing the way that they did. The one big observation was that the Flyers just looked drained. You simply cannot win games given the way the team played to start the game.
The Flyers were making careless mistakes all game. Trevor Zegras made a ton of passing mistakes early on. Travis Konecny had his share of questionable passes, as did Matvei Michkov. It seemed like they could not make a 6-foot pass. Philly had 21 giveaways on Thursday. That is two shy of the season high (or low), 23.
When they could get the puck to the defensive zone, it was a lot of one-and-dones. They’d get the shot off, but could not retrieve the puck. The shot selection was pretty iffy, too. It seemed like a more than average amount of pucks were going well wide, and even getting nowhere close.
Let’s look at some of the good.
Dan Vladar, once again, tried to will this team to a win. He is by far the team MVP this season, and it’s not even close. Vladar stopped 25 of 27 shots on Thursday and, once again, was the team’s rock in goal.
Another thing that seemed consistent lately: Owen Tippett was a standout. No, he did not end up on the scoresheet, though he made a couple of plays that were certainly deserving. Tippett has been really good lately, and I’ll be looking for him to continue that into the second half.
But it’s a team game. Two players cannot carry the team to a win (though Ersson and Konecny did earlier this season vs. Vegas). The Flyers looked tired, so the break comes at a good time for them.
After a loss like that, the Flyers need to come out of the break red hot if they want to keep their postseason hopes alive. Can they?
Read More: Has Emil Andrae Fallen Out of the Flyers Defensive Rotation?