The Flyers end their seven game homestand 1-6 with a 5-0 drumming at Wells Fargo Center Saturday night. Philly’s now owns a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) against Carolina as well. Let’s wrap:
All Can Pass
At the 8:21 mark of the first period, Sebastian Aho snapped home a shot after some nifty maneuvering with the puck by Jackson Blake. Carolina spent much of the night getting to the Flyers net with impunity and while the goaltending could’ve been better on the whole, Philly’s defensive coverage was nowhere near up to snuff.
“That’s a good team we played tonight,” John Tortorella said. “They do a lot of rimming of pucks and then they battle. They won more battles, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.”
The Hurricanes are a quality team and among the most disciplined team’s in the NHL. They put pressure on opposing defenses with their aggressive puck pursuit. They can punish teams if the opposition is not making quick, decisive plays with and without the puck.
The Flyers clearly can not play at that pace given their limitations at the moment.
Regardless of one’s view of players like Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost or Joel Farabee, these players are legitimate NHL players. Replacing them with players with little NHL experience puts the club at severe talent disadvantage. Undoubtedly, some of that is by design, as the club is in evaluation mode for the remainder of the season.
The Not So Special Teams
The Flyers went 0-for-17 on the powerplay during this season-long seven game homestand. The Philadelphia man advantage has been lowly all year, as evident by the club’s 14.7% success rate. Likewise, the Flyers penalty kill give up six powerplay goals on 16 attempts.
Obviously, the Flyers faced a handful of team’s on this homestand that are competitive and one common theme was efficient and opportunistic those teams were with their opportunities.
“It is frustrating,” Owen Tipett said. ” We had a line of teams coming in. We need to find a way to generate.”
They Said It
John Tortorella on Getting Travis Konecny Out of his Slump: “Keep putting him on the ice because it’s never effort with him. Hopefully something happens for him the right way because he’s trying.”
Owen Tippett on the Disappointing Homestand: “It’s frustrating with the way it turned out. Obviously, we wanted to give more to the fans and it is tough. I think we have to take advantage of the homestand’s like this. It can boost or it can kill.”
Nick Seeler on How the Flyers Will Win: “Our game needs to be compete. In order to be competitive in this league, we’re not going to out-skill teams, we need to out-compete teams. That’s something that needs to be a staple in our game.”
Noah Cates on Heading Out on the Road: “I feel like we’re always pretty good on the road when we’re playing these top team’s so if we have a big road stand here, who knows where we’ll put ourselves.”
Did You Know?
According to NHL stats, former Flyers defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere picked up two assists on Hurricanes goals to reach the 300-assist milestone (104-300—404 in 678 GP). He became the fourth player from the 2012 NHL Draft to record 300 career assists following Morgan Rielly (418), Filip Forsberg (352) and Teuvo Teravainen (340).
On Deck
The Flyers will begin a five game road trip beginning on St. Patrick’s Day in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. Puck drop and will be broadcast locally on NBCSP.
