After some hard fought losses to the Maple Leafs, the Flyers didn’t look nearly as sharp in their fourth straight loss. Let’s wrap on all the sights and sounds of the contest:
Pregame: Forever a Flyer
Thursday’s game was the Ed Snider legacy game. The team prepared a short video narrated by Bill Clement pre-game about the indelible mark that Flyers founder left on the city of Philadelphia at large with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education. Then, Paul Holmgren, Kimmo Timonen and Wayne Simmonds participated in a ceremonial puck-drop with captains’ Jamie Benn and Sean Couturier. It was a very well done ceremony by the organization.
Snider’s desire to win and passion is dearly missed. Sometimes that passion led to short-sighted decisions, sure, but their was always an urgency to correct course and to get back to winning. His leadership is without peer.
Unfortunately, the Flyers didn’t turn in the kind of performance that Mr. Snider would’ve found acceptable in this one.
So-So Coverage
Both goals against the Flyers looked eerily similar. On each play, the Stars were able to muscle their way to the front of the Flyers net while Philly had difficulty tying up sticks to eliminate a potential scoring threat. As a matter of fact, the Flyers have had teams creating a lot of their offense down low in their zone and finishing plays in their crease area in the last few games.
“I think they are a very good on the rush team,” Sam Ersson said of the Stars. I know they create a lot on the rush, and I think you could kind of see that tonight. It’s kind of hard in a game like this when we’re chasing and have to push forward. They can take advantage of
that and get some odd man rushes the other way.”
Ersson returned to the crease after missing the last three games after suffering an injury on December 31st. There’s been a lot made of the Flyers goaltending this year and justifiably so. With that said, Philly’s net front coverage can leave a lot to be desired too on some nights. It’s hard to fault goaltending in this game with the team is giving up such prime real estate in front of them.
Tonight was one of those nights for Philadelphia.
Key Draws
As a club, the Flyers won 54.4% of their faceoffs, but did have trouble on reentries on the powerplay after a lost draw. Philly went 0-for-2 on the man advantage, but tend to a better job once the initial face-off is won and they can quickly set up their powerplay formation.
“It’s something we talk about extensively,” Morgan Frost said. “The first faceoff, I’m trying to bear down and win it, just going to keep working at it.”
The Flyers own a 50.7 faceoff percentage this season, good for 15th in the league this season.
They Said It
John Tortorella on the Flyers falling behind early: “Getting scored on right away, it’s not a great way to start a game. I’m not going to break down the goals. We don’t play many bad games, even though our record is what it is, we have not played many bad games. We played bad tonight.”
Sam Ersson on his return to the crease: “I think I played pretty good this game. I don’t think this is a bad game, obviously we lose. We got to be better, but I got to be honest with myself, I don’t think it was a bad game.”
Jamie Drysdale on the schedule catching up with the Flyers: “I don’t think there’s any excuses to be honest. Everyone has tough schedules. We got to find a way to get two points, one way or another.”
Morgan Frost on the Flyers getting booed: “You never want to get booed in your own arena. We didn’t give them much to cheer about.”
Did You Know?
Morgan Frost’s lone goal in tonight’s contest is his 8th of the year. The 25 year-old now owns nine points (5g-4a) in his last 14
games.
On Deck
The Flyers return to action on Saturday when they play host to Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks. The game will be broadcast locally on NBCSP.
