Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 47: PHI 2, DET 4 – The Dark Seid

Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 47: PHI 2, DET 4 – The Dark Seid

Different place, same result. The Philadelphia Flyers lose, 4-2, to the Detroit Red Wings, falling in consecutive games to Detroit post-All-Star break. After a rusty, flat return to the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday, the Flyers improved nearly every facet of their game; only to spend nearly the entire contest trailing and fail to push their late comeback effort over the hump.

While the scoreboard Saturday wasn’t much different than on Wednesday, everything about the game felt different. After posting their fourth-worst single-game expected goals percentage (31.92%) in their last game, the Flyers recorded their third-best mark of the season (60.66%). The Flyers outshot the Red Wings 34-23, a plus-eleven margin that comes out as their second-best of the season. One game after Mike Yeo criticized not just his team’s execution, but their competitiveness, the Flyers’ deservedly changed his tune. “I think that they responded really well today. The effort, attitude was there all game.”

“(But) the next thing you know, we were down 1-0,” Yeo followed up with. Tyler Bertuzzi worked away from Kevin Connauton and buried a backdoor feed from Robby Fabbri just 5:36 in. The Flyers didn’t let that goal deter them, though. “We continue to play, still doing a lot of good things,” Yeo said. Then just seconds after a flurry of dangerous chances from Travis Sanehim and Connor Bunnaman stayed out of the net, a laser of a wrist shot from the slot by Filip Zadina did not. “All of a sudden, we’re down 2-0.” It was the last shot on goal of a brief 5-0 run in that category by Detroit. Between that and the first goal, the Flyers outshot the Red Wings 16-6. They had nothing to show for it.

Even after scoring a potentially deflating last-minute goal in the second period to pull within one, the Flyers were never able to draw even. All one of their most dominant periods of the season (93.13% expected goals for) was good for was a minus-one goal differential. Mortiz Seider and Scott Laughton traded tallies within 44 seconds of each other. In his first start since Jan. 9, Thomas Greiss was largely solid; the Laughton goal was a bad one, but he more than made up for it with a couple of jaw-dropping stops. The Flyers pressed but couldn’t beat him a third time, and Micahel Rasmussen put the home-and-home away with an empty-netter.

Even though it was fast-paced and dominated by the Flyers, it wasn’t exactly a fun watch for fans of the Orange and Black. ” We’re never satisfied losing games,” Yeo reminded. Yet this is the type of game we’ve seen countless times for the Flyers over the last month or so. Their process somewhat stabilized in the back-half of their thirteen-game losing streak. Their record, of course, has not.

On Friday, the Flyers learned that the latter trend is almost destined to continue for the rest of the season. Chuck Fletcher confirmed what we were long expecting. Sean Couturier is done for the year, having undergone successful back surgery. A decision on Ryan Ellis is coming in the next three weeks, but Ellis probably has a better chance of winning the lottery than playing another game this season. Fletcher said Kevin Hayes has a “50-50” chance of returning this year; a fourth surgery in the last six months isn’t out of the question.

And it’s not like things are getting better. For the third time this season, Derick Brassard returned from injury for one game, only to be immediately sidelined. “He was sore,” said Yeo. “Just trying to prevent going through more of this. We’ll see how he is on Monday.” Rasmus Ristolainen didn’t play either due to a day-to-day injury. Gerry Mayhew, one of the few feel-good stories of 2022, suffered a scary collision with the boards after being tripped up by Greiss cutting to the net. “He’s getting stitched up,” said Yeo. “We don’t think it’ll be anything else.” The Flyers kept Cam York and Morgan Frost with the Phantoms only for the former to be injured and the latter to be out with a non-COVID illness.

Four years after Jason Kelce memorably belted out, “IT’S THE WHOLE TEAM!” in the Eagles Super Bowl LII parade, the same applies to the Flyers; only instead of about being underdogs, it’s about being injured.

The lineup the Flyers trotted out Saturday, and the ones they’ll wind up icing in the final 35 games, will be less talented than almost all of their opponents. Of their eighteen skaters, only nine (Oskar Lindblom, Claude Giroux, Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton, Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov, Justin Braun, and Travis Sanheim) can comfortably say they’ll be playing in the NHL next season. In other words, fifty percent of the Flyers’ roster aren’t definitively NHL-caliber players. Compare what a fully healthy Flyers lineup would look like compared to what the Flyers threw out Saturday. The difference is night and day.

Full Health Optimal Lineup

Saturday’s Lineup

The difference between those two lineups is staggering. Even the most pessimistic fans could probably admit the former lineup if largely intact over an 82-game season, would at least likely be in the playoff picture until the end of the regular season. The latter features a bottom-six with a combined total of 226 games played and 17 goals (Zack MacEwen has about half of both). Yes, the Flyers had problems even when their team was closer to full health than it currently is. Maybe the former roster still would’ve quit on Alain Vigneault. But it’s a painful what-if that will never be answered as the Flyers move one game closer to putting this nightmare season behind them.

Lindies

The Flyers fall to a staggeringly awful 1-21-3 when trailing after forty minutes with today’s loss.

Mayhew wasn’t the only Flyer to take a nasty blow Saturday; Travis Konecny briefly left the bench in the first period after a shot deflected off Jordan Oesterle’s skate right into his face. Konecny returned and finished the rest of the game seemingly without any problems.

Zack MacEwen and Travis Sanheim both hit big milestones today; the former played in his 100th NHL game, the latter in his 300th.

The Flyers’ first goal of the game was full of firsts. Of course, it was Keith Yandle’s first goal in Philadelphia; unsurprisingly, 47 games is the longest it’s taken Yandle to score a goal in any of his fourteen full NHL seasons. Isaac Ratcliffe was all around the play, though; not only did his screen make the goal possible, but he also picked up his first NHL assist as well.

Yandle’s goal also snapped an 0-13 rut for the Flyers’ power-play. They are still just 6 for their last 50 (12%).

The latest Flyers prospect getting some buzz is Russian goaltender Ivan Fedotov. The 2015 7th round pick (that’s right, he’s been in the Flyers system longer than Carter Hart) has recorded shutouts in each of the Russian Olympic Committee’s first two preliminary round games, stopping 49 of 49 shots in two tight games; a 1-0 victory over Switzerland and a 2-0 win against Denmark. At 6’8”, Fedotov certainly fits the build of the traditional modern goaltender. He’s also tied for 11th in the KHL with a .919 save percentage.

In trying to end this with some semblance of positivity for the current Flyers, there’s really one obvious place to look: Oskar Lindblom. Lindblom finally is starting to look like the player he was before his cancer diagnosis, making smart, subtle plays near and away from the puck to create and limit chances. “Oskar’s been doing this for 2, 3 weeks now,” said Yeo. “One of the stories I’m very pleased about right now. The way he plays without the puck; he’s a guy people wanna play with because they can trust him.” The numbers back up those assertions; Lindblom led the Flyers today with a 75.19% expected goals and was second behind Scott Laughton with five shots on goal.

3 Stars

3rd: Keith Yandle (PHI) – Goal (1)

2nd: Thomas Greiss (DET) – .941 SV% (32 Saves/34 Shots), 2 GA on 3.8 Expected GA (All Situations)

1st: Moritz Seider (DET) – Goal (5), 24:53 TOI

Next

PHI: 2/15, 7 PM @ PIT (29-11-8, W2)

DET: 2/14, 8 PM @ MIN (28-11-3, L1)

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All Advanced Stats are 5-on-5 unless otherwise stated and via Natural Stat Trick