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Hey, at Least the Flyers Fought Back for a Loser Point?
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Baby steps here.
The Flyers lost again on Tuesday night, their 8th in a row to begin the season, but at least they battled back for a loser point after facing a 2-0 deficit with less than 10 minutes in the third period. They could have rolled over and died a sad death but clawed a couple of goals back through Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras before going down in the shootout.
“I thought the energy was outstanding at (parts of the 2nd and 3rd) period,” said Rick Tocchet after the game. “You gotta do it 60 (minutes) in every game, so it’s something to build on. I know it’s the moral victory thing, but it’s something to build on.”
The Flyers put up 26 shots in this game. Dan Vladar saved 29 of the 31 he faced. They did give the puck away 14 times and the first goal was maybe a bit lucky. Nobody on either team looked like they were expecting that Oliver Bonk cross-ice pass. But the Zegras 4-on-4 goal was good, with Travis Sanheim showing the composure to collect himself in the offensive zone, pause, and pick out the right pass:
“Honestly throughout the whole game I thought we had better energy,” Sanheim said. “Just seemed like we had more jump playing more of the style that we need to play to win in this league. It was nice to get rewarded in the third. It would have been nice to finish it off in the shootout… It’s kind of a stepping stone for the rest of the year in how we need to play. Hopefully guys can see that it works. When you play that way you get rewarded and saw that with the offense and the goals in the third. Hopefully we can build off that.”
Maybe it’s not a coincidence that both goals were started by defensemen. Sanheim told reporters after the game that offense has to come from the back end in the NHL. Teams are too good defensively. And with the Flyers struggling to score, getting the 4th and 5th man up feels like a necessity for a team that’s really struggling to generate any kind of offense at all.
Grasping at straws, perhaps, but Tocchet agreed that this game was more positive than the others.
“Definitely, it’s a little like (the Ottawa loss),” he said. “We’re still upset at the last two weeks. But I will say the energy was there. I saw a lot of guys digging a little bit harder. But it’s gotta come naturally to this team. It has to be part of your DNA. It can’t be once in a while.”
The Flyers now have 3 points and a -21 goal differential. But the good news it that it can’t get worse! They play in Detroit on Thursday night and the Red Wings are last place in the Atlantic. A basement battle on deck.
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