Most of Sunday was a good day to be a Philadelphia sports fan. The Eagles authored arguably their most convincing win of the season over the Cincinnati Bengals. Then, the 76ers notched their first win in an overtime thriller over the Indiana Pacers. The possibility of a Philadelphia victory three-peat was very much on the table.
But the Montreal Canadiens wiped it right off in a battle between the two Eastern Conference teams who entered Sunday at the bottom of their division. The Canadiens, who beat the St. Louis Blues on Saturday up in Montreal, traveled to Philadelphia and didn’t skip a beat for most of Sunday night’s contest.
The Flyers also played on Saturday but didn’t have to travel after winning a 7-5 track meet against the Minnesota Wild. Yet the Canadiens still got the better of them on Sunday, handing Philadelphia its seventh loss (and sixth in regulation) in nine games to start the season by a 4-3 final score.
Uneven NHL Debut for Aleksei Kolosov
The game’s main storyline became evident a few hours after Saturday’s contest concluded. The Flyers not only recalled Emil Andrae with Cam York going on injured reserve but promoted 22-year-old Aleksei Kolosov to make his NHL debut between the pipes. Kolosov’s numbers through three games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms were hardly spectacular (.875 save percentage). But with Ivan Fedotov struggling mightily and Kolosov’s potential remaining high, the Flyers gave him a chance to play with the big club.
Kolosov got off to a shaky start, juggling a couple of pucks and seeing a Lane Hutson shot zip past him and catch the post. However, he improved as the first period progressed, stopping 10 of 11 shots as only a rebound chance at point-blank range from Nick Suzuki got by him. He then showcased his athleticism with an impressive post-to-post save on a 2-on-0 chance from Cole Caufield at the start of the second period. Though the shot was kept out not by Kolosov but by the post, just being in position was impressive after a failed pinch by Jamie Drysdale sent Caufield and Suzuki off to the races.
However, the Canadiens would put three shots past him before the end of the period. Goal two was impossible to save thanks to a crazy carom off of Brendan Gallagher and the fourth goal was a defensive breakdown that left Jake Evans wide-open backdoor. But in between them, Caufield scored a backbreaker that snuck under Kolosov’s blocker and went through him for a goal that was so shocking it took several seconds for the Wells Fargo Center crowd to register.
Caufield has a great shot — the goal tied him with Nikita Kucherov for second most in the NHL (eight), trailing only Nico Hischier. But no goaltender wants to let a shot go right through them, especially with their team within a goal. Kolosov earned a small semblance of redemption with a nice stop on Caufield in the opening seconds of the third period. While he picked up the loss, those around Kolosov spoke positively about his performance.
“I thought our goalie played good. I thought he made some really good saves,” said John Tortorella.
“I thought [he] was great for us tonight,” said Scott Laughton. “I thought he stood in there for us and did a great job.”
Kolosov finished with a .833 SV%, which only slightly tops Fedotov’s .822 mark. He allowed 1.38 goals above expected according to Moneypuck, which feels about right — the Caufield goal should have been stopped but the others weren’t on him. Fedotov is still on the NHL roster so there are a lot of possible ways for things to play out, with everything from a rotation for the backup spot to an American Hockey League conditioning stint for Fedotov (which he would have to consent to if asked) a plausible outcome. Even for the Flyers, this is an abnormal amount of goaltending uncertainty just a few weeks into the season.
Late Comeback Can’t Overcome “Disconnected” Play
The 4-3 final both flatters the Flyers and shows their resolve. Down three goals entering the third period, they came out of the gates sluggish, testing Cayden Primeau three times in the first half of the frame. Their play started to pick up a little but the deficit stood with less than three minutes to play. It didn’t look like Tortorella would bother pulling Kolosov for an extra attacker.
But the two Travis’ on the Flyers put the team in a position to pull off the impossible. Travis Sanheim scored his second goal of the night on a nifty cut to the middle of the ice and a perfectly placed wrist shot. Just 29 seconds later, Owen Tippett emerged from an otherwise quiet night to set up Travis Konecny with a gorgeous feed to bring the Flyers within one. The Flyers pressured in the final 90 seconds with Kolosov on the bench but couldn’t find one last breakthrough to obtain a point.
However, even if they had completed the comeback, it wouldn’t have fully masked the issues surrounding the team. While the Flyers did score seven goals on Saturday, Scott Laughton noted after the game that it wasn’t exactly a banner offensive performance given the team had just six shots through two periods. When asked about his thoughts on the team’s play, Laughton called the Flyers “disconnected,” a sentiment that Tortorella, Sanheim and Garnet Hathaway all agreed upon.
“I think we gotta support our defensemen better. They’re going back for pucks, we’re waiting for it on the wall, we’re too high for them. They got no play, we’re standing still, we can’t get on the forecheck,” added Laughton.
Identifying the reason for the disjointedness is a difficult task. The Flyers had very little offseason turnover personnel-wise and retained their entire coaching staff. This should be a time to move forward, not be stuck in quicksand.
“There’s just so many guys that are fighting it out there. [Tippett is] fighting it. Tyson [Foerster], 14 minutes tonight, not a shot on goal. Those are the things, like I said, this year is the year that the players that got better last year need to get better even more this year… We just need to calm ourselves down and the biggest thing is to be together up the ice, be together coming back into our endzone. The part of it for me is I’d like to see us play faster. It just doesn’t seem like we’re playing fast. I think that hurts us there.”
Tortorella and Hathaway also noted that the Flyers don’t have the luxury of sneaking up on teams like they did in the first half of last season. The Flyers have also struggled mightily in the second period, although Tortorella discounted the long change as a reason for the team’s struggles.
There were a couple of standouts, though. The third line of Laughton, Ryan Poehling and Joel Farabee made a lot of good plays, including on Philadelphia’s first goal when Poehling set up Sanheim for a seeing eye wrister that went through a Farabee screen. Both their line (54.41% expected goals) and the Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates and Tippett trio (70% xGF) generated more than they allowed, although the latter didn’t pop as much to my eyes and were on the ice for a goal against.
Meanwhile, Emil Andrae replaced the struggling Egor Zamula, who looked much different than the overwhelmed youngster he was in a four-game NHL audition at the start of last season. His 17:28 of ice time was a career-high as he looked engaged physically and confident with the puck. He also took over Zamula’s spot on the second power-play unit, although his work there was less positive. Like Kolosov, Andrae is 22 years old, so there’s still time for growth. But Sunday showed Andrae can hang in the NHL, something that was too advanced for him last season.
What’s Next
The Flyers will be underdogs when they head to TD Garden to take on the Boston Bruins. Like the Flyers, the Bruins haven’t been playing great hockey to start the season, sitting just one point out of the Atlantic Division basement at 4-4-1. They’ve been a surprisingly poor play-driving team (25th in xGF%). Three of their top four scorers are Cole Koepke, Mark Kastelic and John Beecher, just as everyone predicted.
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Still, the Bruins are a more talented team on paper and are coming off an emotional overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, with Brad Marchand getting his first goal of the season in OT. They’ll look to ride that boost in the final game of a three-game homestand that starts on Tuesday at 7 pm.
Advanced Statistics via Natural Stat Trick