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Oh, the Shark Bites… Thoughts after Sharks 3, Flyers 2 (OT)

Anthony SanFilippo

By Anthony SanFilippo

Published:

Photo Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

Hey, they got another point.

It’s the one thing I always hated about hockey ever since they got rid of tie games – it’s a sport that celebrates losing.

And that’s what the Flyers did in the final game of a forgettable 2021 calendar year – they lost 3-2 in overtime to the San Jose Sharks.

BUT, let’s celebrate that loser point, shall we? Because thanks to its existence, the Flyers have now extended their points streak to seven games (5-0-2) and have clawed to within one point of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

And because of the loser point, I can tell you that the Flyers now have the second-longest point streak in NHL history for a team coming off a winless streak of 10 games or longer.

The record is eight games, which was accomplished by the 1992-93 Calgary Flames who went 0-8-2 (those two at the end were ties, not losses, which is why this was a winless streak and not a losing streak, like the Flyers had) and then proceeded to go 6-0-2 in their next eight games. All that streakiness took place between Jan. 5 and Feb. 16, 1993, as the Flames actually went 43-30-11 (yes, they played 84-game seasons back then) finishing with 97 points and in second place in the Smythe Division.

They made the playoffs, only to lose in the first round to the third place Los Angeles Kings, who, you might remember, made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals led by some guy named Wayne Gretzky with forever mullet Barry Melrose coaching the squad.

So the Flyers have a chance at mediocrity again! Nice!

Never mind that in the past calendar year, not only have we had to endure games without fans, games with limited fans, and a team with a constant parade of players going to and from the COVID-19 Protocol list, but the Flyers actually lost 49 of the 87 games played in 2021. That’s a winning percentage of .437. Pretty terrible, eh?

But not for this sport. No! Because hockey rewards losing, the Flyers record in 2021 was 38-35-14, meaning they had a points percentage of .517. Doesn’t sound as bad, does it?

And that’s what the Flyers are hoping you will believe. That they actually are trending back in the right direction. That the fact that they are the only team in the NHL not to lose a one-goal game in regulation (7-0-6), speaks of their resilience as a team, not the they are simply an around .500 team in close games.

And as I mentioned – hey, they’re only one point out of a playoff spot, which, considering the turmoil earlier in December, is honestly astonishing.

It’s not that I am surprised. If you listen to the Snow the Goalie podcast or have read what I wrote on this site within the past six weeks, you know I’ve been preaching patience. You know I defended them for having a brutal schedule against some of the best teams in the NHL all at once and that they caught that schedule at a time when the team was decimated by injuries and a couple COVID-19 infections.

I told you that we needed to see what the team looked like following a stretch of games against weaker competition, and the results, thus far, have proven what I was saying correct. Going 5-0-2 is pretty good in seven games. But here’s the thing… they really haven’t looked good in doing it.

Instead, they seem like they been a bit lucky, to be honest.

They played a nice game in Vegas to break the streak back on Dec. 10 and they had a dominant win over New Jersey on Dec. 14.

But the other five games?

  • Struggled to beat a terrible Arizona team 5-3
  • Lost in shootout to a pathetic Montreal team 3-2
  • Barely squeaked by a scuffling Ottawa squad 4-3
  • Won a game in which they were completely outplayed and dominated by Seattle 3-2
  • Had a point stolen for them by a rookie goalie making his NHL debut in an otherwise troubling outing, losing to San Jose 3-2.

None of this should inspire confidence.

Now, as Jim Jackson pointed out on the post game show following the loss in San Jose, you do have to give the Flyers credit for finding a way, especially when they are playing without the No.1 goalie (Carter Hart – COVID-19), their No. 1 center (Sean Couturier – COVID-19 and now more – I’ll have more on him in a bit) and a top pair defenseman (Ryan Ellis – lower body injury, and COVID-19 – more on him too), as well as without center depth as two more key players in Scott Laughton and Derick Brassard, are both on the Covid-19 protocol list.

That being said, they aren’t close to any of the top seven teams in the Eastern Conference.

Let’s look at the point totals of these teams for just a moment, shall we?

  1. Tampa Bay 46 points
  2. Carolina 45
  3. Washington 45
  4. Florida 44
  5. Toronto 42
  6. N.Y. Rangers 42
  7. Pittsburgh 39
  8. Detroit 33
  9. FLYERS 32

That means the Flyers are seven points behind the Penguins for the first wild card spot (and Pittsburgh has a game in hand), and they are 10 points behind the Rangers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Playing shaky hockey, even while shorthanded against bad teams, is only indicative of the Flyers likely being in the proper spot in the standings at this point. They’re good enough to outlast bad teams, and not good enough to compete with good teams.

In fact, the Flyers are 5-8-3 this season against teams currently sitting in a playoff spot and are 8-4-3 against teams currently not in a playoff spot.

When Chuck Fletcher said, “We are what we are, right now” at his quarter pole of the season press conference, he was talking about the team in the moment – with injuries and protocols and the like.

But that was before Alain Vigneault was fired. The Flyers have played 11 games since and are 5-4-2. Again, mediocrity.

There’s still time to change that – the trade deadline is still a ways off and if the Flyers are able to stay in contention for this final wild card spot, they aren’t going to bail out on the season, even if they would be an incredible long shot to make a Stanley Cup run.

But, there are games coming up that will be more challenging. Anaheim has been surprisingly good and Pittsburgh, Carolina, Boston, and the Rangers are just around the corner.

The 2021-22 Flyers are fast approaching their Waterloo.

Now, some thoughts on some individual players as it pertained to the Sharks game or the announcements surrounding them:

Felix Sandstrom

The 24-year-old, 2015 third round pick made his NHL debut in San Jose last night, and in the process got himself in the record books.

Sandstrom was excellent. He made 43 saves, setting a franchise record for most saves by a goalie in his NHL debut. He looked calm, cool, collected and positionally he was pretty sound all night.

He stayed square to the shooter and made himself big in net all night. If you watched the game, you may have noticed him make saves he made with his shoulders. That’s indicative of keeping himself big, making the shooter shoot before he reacts, and effectively taking away the top corners of the net that goal scorers love to target.

Being 6-foot-2 also helps, in that regard.

Additionally, he was very quick post-to-post. He made a number of sliding pad saves to thwart the Sharks. He also had decent rebound control.

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1476787458402627594

It was an excellent debut for the Sandstrom, who almost didn’t re-sign with the Flyers last summer, with the team indicating that he would return to Sweden. Then, less than 24 hours later, he signed a new deal to keep him in North America.

It’s not like he was playing great at the AHL level. In fact, in parts of four seasons with the Phantoms, Sandstrom has a 3.08 goals against average and a .902 save percentage. Neither of which are impressive.

But, he sure impressed Thursday, and while that might be the only NHL action he sees this season, it’s at least good to know that he can join the roster in a pinch, whether it be goalie injury or COVID-19, and be able to play at this level and not embarrass himself.

Keith Yandle

Man, Yandle has been a turnover machine and has looked terrible this season. He’s definitely at the end of a long career, and at this point one has to think it’s all about the consecutive games streak, a record he is set to break in a few weeks on Jan. 20.

I mean plays like this are just atrocious, and seem to happen too frequently:

https://twitter.com/AlexMicheletti/status/1476778684279365633

They can’t happen. Really, they can’t.

But for all the terrible plays he makes, he does come up with some gems from time to time too. Like, he makes a great play here to set up the tying goal by Joel Farabee late in the third period:

That’s a good active stick in the neutral zone by Yandle that creates the rush. It’s a savvy, veteran play. He also made a really nice play to get the Flyers going on Morgan Frost’s goal in the first period.

I couldn’t find video of the play that went back far enough, but know that he was being pressured and made a nifty pass to Travis Konecny in open space to jump start this 3-on-2 rush:

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1476766102642384896

And because of things like that, as well as how he moves the puck quickly in the offensive zone when the team has possession is why he remains in the lineup:

I disagree with Charlie here. First of all, York isn’t an extra. The NHL re-instituted taxi squads on an interim basis to account for potential COVID-19 related roster juggling.

York has been added along with Jackson Cates, Nick Seeler, and Kirill Ustimenko. Cates and Seeler drew into the lineup against the Sharks, and Gerry Mayhew and Kevin Connaughton were taken out of the lineup. Mayhew was sent to the Taxi Squad. Connaughton was a healthy scratch.

But that move alone should be an indicator of what the Flyers feel about York at the moment – they really don’t think he’s NHL ready yet, or else he’d be in the lineup ahead of the Connaughton/Seeler yo-yo first before he would be ahead of Yandle.

And the fact that the Flyers would rather play Seeler or Connaughton, never mind Yandle, ahead of York, tells you all you need to know about where he is with his development.

He’s not ready for prime time, yet. He’s there as a break glass in case of emergency only. Just like Ustimenko, who is, in essence, the No. 4 goalie at this point.

Yandle does need to be replaced, eventually, I don’t disagree. But, he is still giving you enough to justify keeping him in the lineup while you figure out who is going to be the No. 6 guy, and then maybe in a month, you have more defensive depth with the return of Ryan Ellis, that maybe that’s when you can finally move on. Just not yet.

Speaking of Ellis…

Ryan Ellis

Anyone else starting to wonder if Nashville sold the Flyers a bill of goods?

Ellis missed significant time for the Predators in three of his final four seasons in Nashville with a variety of injuries, but the last one, is the one that seems to have flared up again since his arrival in Philadelphia.

Ellis has played in parts of just four games this season for the Flyers, and was rapidly approaching his timetable to return when he suddenly was added to the COVID-19 protocol list earlier this week.

That limits him from continuing to skate or rehab at the Flyers training facility, and likely pushes his timeline back even further, maybe another week.

At this point, I would speculate about another two weeks for Ellis.

And speaking of weeks…

Sean Couturier

Coots was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list, retroactive to Dec. 21, earlier this week. Then, Cap Friendly came out with this interesting tweet nugget prior to Wednesday night’s game in Seattle:

Since COVID-19 stints can count as a reason to be put on IR, if it’s guaranteed you will miss at least seven days, a team can make such a transaction.

I told fans on Twitter not to make much of it since his COVID-19 stint was retroactive to Dec. 21, this was likely a way to save a few bucks on the salary cap as illness is a valid reason to go on to IR.

The Flyers didn’t put anything out Wednesday either before or after the game, and spent most of Thursday mum as well.

Then, out of the blue, before the San Jose game Thursday night, the Flyers announced he’d be out week-to-week with an upper body injury.

Interim coach Mike Yeo confirmed that Coots has been playing through multiple injuries to this point, but to be week-to-week, especially after having not played for the past 12 days, is a little more concerning.

Coots hasn’t been himself. He looks hockey tired on the ice, and now we find he’s playing through injuries, which would make sense in comparison to what we had been seeing out of him.

But, if the Flyers really want to keep making a push towards the playoffs, they need him back soon, and they need him healthy.

If he misses the next handful of games to recover, OK. Anything more than that, and the Flyers are going to be hard-pressed to do much positive without their best player.

Anthony SanFilippo
Anthony SanFilippo

Anthony SanFilippo writes about the Phillies and Flyers for Crossing Broad and hosts a pair of related podcasts (Crossed Up and Snow the Goalie). A part of the Philadelphia sports media for a quarter century, Anthony also dabbles in acting, directing, teaching, and strategic marketing, which is why he has no time to do anything, but does it anyway. Follow him on Twitter @AntSanPhilly.

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