Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 51: STL 4, PHI 1 – The Schennd Times
Well, that Tarastunk. The Philadelphia Flyers lose, 4-1, to the St. Louis Blues, putting them firmly on the road to the third ten-game losing streak of the season. That’s not hyperbole or fatalism. The Flyers have now lost six straight, and their next three games are against the Capitals, Oilers, and Wild. All three are far superior teams to the Flyers, and you could argue their opponent in the potential third tenth straight loss Chicago is too, at least based on the sheer amount of high-end are healthy for them and hurt for the Flyers.
Regardless of who they’re playing, the Flyers probably won’t win many games that they play like Tuesday’s. This game was more or less a schedule loss; the Flyers were on the second half of a back-to-back, while the Blues had two days off. Ironically, this game played out in the reverse form as most back-to-backs. It was St. Louis who came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, racking up a gaudy 71.07% expected goals rate at 5-on-5 through the first forty minutes. The Blues nabbed a 1-0 lead on a goal that simply had to be scored by Brayden Schenn, even if it came after a series of highlight-reel stops by Martin Jones and needed to be confirmed it actually crossed the line by video review.
But against all odds, the Flyers kept the Blues to just that one goal heading into the third period, where the supposedly tired Flyers looked anything but. The Flyers took the first five shots of the frame, the fifth of which was an Oskar Lindblom slap shot through traffic from the left circle that beat Jordan Binnington to tie the game. Yet as it has so often in 2022, any semblance of momentum for the Orange and Black was instantly stripped, as the Blues torched the Flyers’ top-line on the very next shift, which ended in Vladimir Tarasenko firing a bullet past Jones just 42 seconds after the Lindblom goal.
Tack on a couple of empty netters to end it, and that’s how you get the Flyers’ fourteenth lost in their last sixteen games. Thirteen of those defeats coming in games where the Flyers were no worse than down one goal in the third.
Maybe these games will stop being so commonplace soon. The Flyers have already announced that Joel Farabee and Carter Hart will return for the team’s next game. Derick Brassard should be back in the lineup Saturday as well. A Kevin Hayes return is looking more and more likely. As Mike Yeo said, the Flyers haven’t had the “luxury of competition” for a while; that competition should push everyone to be at least a little bit better. And given how close every Flyers game post-All-Star break has been, just a little bit better might make a fairly big difference, at least in the short term.
But most Flyers fans will probably be skeptical of that, and with good reasoning. After all, nearly every good thing that’s supposed to have happened since the start of 2021 for this team hasn’t. They didn’t return to the playoffs last year, never finding their consistency and yielding goals at will. They certainly haven’t returned to 2019-20 vintage this season; saying they’re nowhere close to that level would be an understatement. Logic says the Flyers should start finding some ways to win close games like Tuesday’s. Experience says they rarely if ever will, at least for the rest of this season. You could make a legitimate argument that the team’s future will be better off if either path plays out. We’ll find out which way the early trends are for the slightly healthier than ever in 2022 Flyers on Saturday.
Lindies
It was pretty fitting for Jordan Binnington to return to the building where he made his first NHL start just as his grip on the Blues’ starter role is starting to slip away. It’s been a tough year for Binnington, while Ville Husso has quietly been one of the league’s best goalies. Tonight, Binnington looked a lot like the goaltender who brought the 2018-19 Blues from misery to magical in their infamously improbable Cup run. Fun fact: Schenn also scored the first goal in that game as well.
Friendly reminder the Flyers could’ve had Vladimir Tarasenko in the offseason for what didn’t sound like an incredibly exorbitant price. Yes, there were legitimate concerns about Tarasenko’s shoulder after undergoing three surgeries. But players with his talent don’t go on the block very often. And considering all of the Flyers’ management’s comments about needing more high-end talent, it’s safe to say they’d like a do-over on Tarasenko.
Meanwhile, it’s gone a bit under the radar just how poor the Flyers’ $7 million winger is playing (as opposed to Tarasenko, who makes $7.5 million). James van Riemsdyk has just two goals in his last sixteen games and is easily scoring at the worst pace of his career. He’s been driving play a bit better in February; his 58.91% expected goals share leads the Flyers this month. But he’s at a poor 47.27% mark in that department over the whole season. After being one of Philadelphia’s best forwards last season, van Riemsdyk has looked invisible far too often in 2021-22.
Mike Yeo gave Isaac Ratcliffe a test drive on the Flyers’ top-line Tuesday, an experiment that didn’t pan out too well. Philadelphia’s top-line was gashed for a team-worst 20.83% expected goals rate and was on for the aforementioned game-winner by Tarasenko. Nothing wrong with trying something in what is almost certainly a lost season, but maybe baby steps are best for Ratcliffe’s progression rather than a large jump from the fourth to the first line.
Just as quickly as he was sent down to the Phantoms, the Flyers re-called Connor Bunnaman before Tuesday’s game. He didn’t play, however.
The Flyers actually have even more positive injured-related news; well, at least for the Phantoms, but it could affect the Flyers soon. Cam York returned after a brief absence from an injury suffered from a hit two weekends ago. But the bigger story was Tanner Laczynski, who had been on season-opening IR all season recovering from hip surgery, returning to game action for the first time since last spring. Laczynski got a brief five-game NHL test drive last season, and if he returns to form quickly in the AHL (he scored a goal in two games last weekend), he might return to the big club before long.
3 Stars
3rd: Oskar Lindblom (PHI) – Goal (8)
2nd: Jordan Binnington (STL) – .962 SV% (25 Saves/26 Shots), 1 GA on 2.04 Expected Goals Against (All Situations)
1st: Vladimir Tarasenko (STL) – Goal (19)
Next
STL: 2/25, 8 PM @ BUF (16-28-8, L4)
PHI: 2/26, 12:30 vs. WSH (28-16-9, L1)
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All Advanced Stats are 5-on-5 unless otherwise stated and via Natural Stat Trick
