The Flyers were back in action tonight on home ice, facing off against the Islanders and looking to build on the momentum from a largely successful road trip. The Flyers certainly came into this one with some momentum, but failed to keep that rolling, and found themselves struggling to get their offense going on the way to a 4-0 shutout at the hands of a tough divisional opponent.
The Basics
First period: 14:29- Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Cizikas, Pelech)SHG
Second period: 5:41- Mathew Barzal (George, Duclair), 12:50- Tony DeAngelo (Barzal, Duclair)PPG
Third period: 13:38- Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Tsyplakov, Lee)
SOG: 23 (NYI) – 21 (PHI)
Some takeaways
The power play is still visually better (at least in some ways)
Despite what the lopsided score this one would end with might suggest, this game really did have a chance to slant in the Flyers’ favor early on. The Flyers got their first opportunity on the power play just over three minutes into the first period, and there was some notable pop delivered therein — there wasn’t much to speak of created by their top unit, but the second until was able to put together a very dangerous bit of cycling, and while they weren’t able to convert on any of the chances they created, they looked threatening.
This seemed a bit of a positive, but, of course, the Flyers can only hang their hat on that for so long — improving the look of their power play is good in some ways, but a continued failure to turn the pressure they’re generating into goals on the board (as they did across their three attempts tonight) is going to come back to bite them before long.
There was also a bit of curious game management which came into play on the Flyers’ second power play of the evening — which led up to the shorthanded goal allowed — in that, despite the very dangerous bit of cycling that the Flyers’ second unit was able to put together on their first attempt, on the other side of a tv timeout, the top unit was deployed, and it was the top unit who broke down and allowed the breakout of the zone and ultimately committed the breakdown which led to the shorthanded goal. Now, no one could have predicted that things would go so sideways for that unit on that shift, but there is an argument to be made that moving away from the hot hand to start that attempt did cost them.
Ersson gets the nod again
As the Flyers still await Dan Vladar’s readiness to return to action — which should be sometime this week, but wasn’t to be tonight — Sam Ersson was again called upon to start this game, and just like everybody else on the ice for the Flyers tonight, his play left a bit to be desired, in this, his appearance in the sixth game in a row.
This wasn’t a terrible game for Ersson, all things considered — the miscue on the first goal was tough, as was the third goal when he was beaten pretty cleanly by the shot from DeAngelo, but Ersson also got hung out to dry a couple of times, and still came up with a couple more big saves to keep this score from looking even more lopsided. That said, this is one where the margin for error was just so thin, and with Ersson not looking his absolute sharpest tonight after a good road trip on the whole, the return of Vladar and a subsequent night off for Ersson is looking greatly needed.
Penalty kill check
In keeping with that theme, tonight also did not see the Flyers’ penalty killers delivering their very best stuff. They were able to keep things reasonably disciplined across the whole of the night, limiting the Islanders to just three attempts on the night as well, but their attempts to kill those penalties were somewhat less aggressive than we’ve seem from them of late. The Flyers in their defensive zone situations didn’t do much attacking, looking for an active play to create an exit, but rather more time getting collapsed, bending, which did not end up burning them this time around, but had the real chance.
The Flyers did get one good look shorthanded, with Owen Tippett breaking out and heading off on the rush, but that once promising look was quickly squandered when Tippett passed up on a shooting lane and overhanded the puck, was pressured into passing it off along the boards and up to the point, where Andrae lost it and sprung the Islanders on their own rush, where they were able to capitalize on the defenders getting crossed up for an easy looking goal. So, in the end, a lack of precision was something of the name of the game in this one, and the penalty kill was not immune.
Ristolainen’s return
After nearly a two-week absence for Rasmus Ristolainen as he dealt with an upper-body injury, he was finally able to get back into the lineup tonight. Ristolainen was eased back into action in this one, playing in a more limited role on the third pair with Emil Andrae, and the results that he was able to deliver here were a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Ristolainen did make some quite positive defensive plays, a couple of noteworthy ones along the boards to either tie up an opponent or apply pressure for a takeaway, and that was nice to see.
On the other hand, though, it was also that pairing of Ristolainen and Andrae that was exposed on that third Islanders goal, and it was Ristolainen being pulled out of position attempting to engage along the wall that opened up the space for their fourth goal. So this was, all in all, not quite Ristolainen at his sharpest in this one, but we’ll see how he’s able to build on this going forward, now that he has this first game back under his belt.
Struggles in momentum
Panning back into the big picture, we’re left with this sense: this game was not good. It wasn’t an overly sloppy showing from the Flyers, even if they did have a couple of ugly breakdowns, but it was just one where they simply didn’t have it. Their special teams weren’t clicking well enough to really hold them above water, while their energy level at 5-on-5 was lacking and their offense — just 11 shots and four high danger chances — was again showing up as anemic, not nearly involved enough to pressure any goalie, much less one who has given them as much trouble over the years as Ilya Sorokin has.
The Flyers just did not have a whole lot of juice in this one, and it was troubling to see. After all, this is a team coming off of a massive win over the best team in the West, and with a couple of good days of rest under their belts as well. This game wasn’t going to be an easy one for them, but it’s one they should have been up for.