The Flyers concluded their post-holiday break with a 4-1 win over the Ducks in Anaheim on Monday night. That in of itself isn’t the news, however; it’s the fact that the Flyers, for the first time in franchise history, swept their California road trip in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim.
Moreover, we’re talking about the encouraging play of Philadelphia’s younger players. Joel Farabee got the scoring started in the first period, followed by a Morgan Frost tally. The four-goal performance marked the seventh straight game in which the Flyers scored at least three goals.
They also received their scoring by committee, as the club got the markers from four different players and three different lines. If the Flyers are to maintain their quality play of late, they’ll need that balanced scoring attack to continue.
Goaltender Sam Ersson picked up his third consecutive win and was sound in goal making 28 saves. Since Carter Hart has been sidelined with a suspected concussion, Ersson has legitimately played well in his absence on this trip. It wasn’t until late in the third period that the 23-year-old’s shutout bid was broken up by Ducks’ forward Ryan Strome.
The “bad for Bedard” crowd can’t be too satisfied with this outcome, as the Flyers currently own the 7th pick if the season were to end today. However, there’s a crop of young players playing for the team now who appear to be finding their stride and that’s important to overall well-being of the franchise. Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Cam York and Sam Ersson all had moments over this trip that suggested that they can be fixtures on the club in the future. The confidence these players have shown has been encouraging. For example, check out this zone entry from Frost from Flyers Clips.
If that means their contributing to a few more wins than the team was expected to have at the beginning of the year, then so be it. It should be a good considered a good thing.
The Flyers will look to make it four in a row when they return to action on home-ice on Thursday, when they host the Coyotes.
