On Feb. 17, the Philadelphia Flyers dropped their highly anticipated Stadium Series matchup with the New Jersey Devils at MetLife Stadium, falling 6-3. The score might not indicate it, but this was one of the worst showings for the Flyers all season, and they never really had a chance of winning. Dropping a huge game against a divisional rival but still sitting in a playoff spot with a 29-20-7 record, the Flyers are still above water. What were some takeaways from their fifth outdoor loss of all time?
Flyers Had the Shots But Not the Chances
The Flyers have a lot of games where they have outshot opponents, but that was misleading, and this was another one of those. They haven’t done that as frequently as they did it early on in the season, but the main takeaway is that they had empty-calorie looks, while the Devils did not. Despite outshooting New Jersey 48-40, they were never in the game from the moment the puck dropped — the Devils scored 32 seconds in and never surrendered that lead.
The Flyers were not great defensively in this one, and that’s just a recipe for disaster against a team with much more talent than them. They will score more if they get breakaways, odd-man rushes, or any other type of big chance. While Sam Ersson wasn’t fantastic in this one, he’s expected to stand on his head every game, especially in those where the Flyers don’t generate high-danger opportunities. Since he didn’t, the Flyers had absolutely no shot of winning from the get-go.
Even though Philadelphia has a good record, they still aren’t in a position to be anything more than one that heavily relies on their netminder to be lights out, thanks to their lack of superstars. A loss is the result when he’s not.
To quantify the “Flyers didn’t get high-danger chances” claim, they set the record for the most shots on goal in a single period during an outdoor game in the second with 27 shots on net. However, the Devils had more high-danger scoring chances than them. So, essentially, they were throwing as many pucks that had little chance of going in as they could against a netminder as hot as Nico Daws has been for New Jersey, and that’s just not going to fly.
Massive Talent Gaps Continue to Haunt the Flyers
As pointed out in the Flyers’ last game against a team with comparable talent to the Devils, they won’t win these games often, if at all. They might have gotten a few wins against talented teams like the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche early on, but that has come to a screeching halt. Countless teams with immense offensive skills are left on the schedule, yet the Flyers haven’t been beating them recently. That’s an issue, and it could be what holds them back from making the playoffs.
Now, this outcome could have been seen coming from a mile away. They do not play well against the best pure offensive superstars in the NHL, and Jack Hughes is certainly in that conversation. He didn’t even have to be the best player in this one, as both Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt were terrific, but he’s the one that you need to look out for. Against players of his caliber, the Flyers just aren’t good enough.
If the Flyers are truly a playoff team, these types of games cannot happen. One way or another, they will have to figure out how to compete against these teams with stars. It’s a nice story that they’ve changed the expectations this season and have a postseason spot within their grasp, but that’s not the goal. If the end goal was just to make the playoffs, they would’ve been better off not competing at all. They are trying to compete for a Stanley Cup, no matter how unlikely that is. For that to even be a possibility, they have to figure out how to counter these stars. If they don’t, there’s really no point in making the playoffs at this time.
Flyers at Least Showed Compete
That’s a lot of negativity for a non-blowout loss, so let’s change that a bit. The Flyers weren’t totally awful, having a decent second period and a solid third as well. They do this a lot, and sometimes, all a team needs is one period to get back into a game. Maybe it’s due to the way teams with big leads play, but the Flyers play a lot better when they’re down by a lot in these situations. It was good to see them not lay down and let in another few goals to make this one ugly. They’ve had some like that in an outdoor setting in the past, where a competitive game turned sour.
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The Flyers are competitive in games where the result is all but finalized this season, which is a big step in the right direction for them. They won’t get any brownie points for losing by three (including an empty-netter) instead of five or six, but it makes them more respectable. Teams can never take their foot off the gas pedal, making them much harder to play.
Next up, the Flyers will have to wait a bit before they can make up for this loss. They’ll take on the team with the worst record in the NHL as they visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 21. It’s a big chance for them to make up for this loss and boost their confidence. On a two-game losing streak, that could easily build up and take the Flyers out of playoff contention.