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“Who Converts Wins” – Some Thoughts on a Frenetic Overtime Loss, and the Flyers’ Power Play Once Again Being Abysmal
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The Flyers lost 2-1 to the Leafs in overtime on Thursday night after Scott Laughton (who else?) scored a short-handed goal late in the third period to pull level. What ensued was a frenetic and outrageously entertaining OT period in which Trevor Zegras missed a breakaway before Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov failed to slam the door shut in a 2v1 situation:
“Who converts wins,” said Rick Tocchet after the game.” We had what, 3-4 chances and didn’t convert? They had the one and they score. That’s it.”
‘Who converts wins,’ not to be confused with ‘who dares wins,’ famously attributed to the British Special Air Service during World War 2.
It was so much different from the conservative OT hockey the Flyers have played most of the year. This was up and down, back and forth, guys falling over and getting spun around, just absolute chaos on the ice. It was exciting, if nothing else.
Philosophically speaking, you have to decide if you’d like to play it safe in OT and limit chances while trusting your guys in the shootout, vs. going balls to the wall. If Zegras hits that breakaway or Coots and Michkov end it on the 2v1, then we’re all complimenting the Flyers’ aggressiveness on home ice. And, to be fair to Tocchet, he didn’t bemoan the lack of overtime structure or say that he was unhappy with the stylistic way in which the period unfolded.
What’s interesting is to take the temperature of fans and media in the immediate aftermath of a game like that. There were a lot of tweets about Michkov coasting on the Leafs’ winner, and fair enough. It looks like he stopped skating once he got to the blue line. There was also criticism for Coots’ decision to wait until the last second to make that pass, but less criticism for the Zegras miss, no doubt because he was electric against Anaheim in the previous game and has built more equity this season than the other two guys.
Personally, I’d rather lose while going for it in OT vs. playing it safe and then trying your luck in the shootout. The Flyers have been better in shootouts this year but they went 0-3 in December, so we’re still at a point in the rebuild where it makes sense to mix up the strategic approach beyond the third period until you settle into something tenable.
Abysmal power play
The Flyers were 0-3 on the power play in this game and even had a feckless 5-on-3 in the third period that preceded the Laughton goal.
The power play is now down to 15%, which is 31st out of 32 teams and just as bad as it was under Rocky Thompson in 2024-25.
Tocc on that:
“It was good the last game, in the sense of (trails off)… We’re just missing, there’s read there that we – the best way to describe it, the 5 on 3, they had two guys on one side, and if we make one pass, somebody would have been wide open, but we’re looking for plays instead of organically playing. I don’t know if that makes sense to you guys. Yeah you want to roll and all of that stuff, but sometimes a team will be all in. They had a guy with no stick. We had the puck on the other side. That’s a hard one for me to swallow because you want the puck on the side of the guy with no stick, right? You want to pick on him, but we had the puck on the other side. I don’t know if it’s the pressure, I think sometimes guys are squeezing it so much, but we need some guys to understand the pressure and convert…”
He went to to essentially say that the Flyers need to take what they’re given on the power play, which makes sense. The thing about organically playing makes sense. It’s almost like they’re over-thinking it, waiting for the perfect opportunity, and getting inside their own heads a little bit.
Michkov didn’t play well on Thursday night, but there was one sequence where he basically just said “screw it” and attacked the middle of the ice and carved a half-chance out of nothing:
Rarely do the Flyers do anything on the power play that makes defenders uncomfortable, or moves them out of position, or puts stress on them to read and react. It’s passive and lumbering and slow. At the very least let’s see Zegras and Michkov out there together, mix and match some players, find out what works. This is still a rebuild even though you’re in a position to make the playoffs for the first time forever. Do all of the experimenting now and learn as much as you can about this group and answer the questions you can answer. The early success of the 2025-2026 season shouldn’t preclude you from the continuation of a fact-finding mission.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com