The Philadelphia Flyers, having suffered a season-worst six straight losses, are in a nightmare scenario regarding their playoff chances. By some miracle, they have a 53.2 percent chance to make the playoffs, per MoneyPuck’s playoff model. Still, it’s soul-searching time for the Orange and Black following their 4-2 defeat to the Buffalo Sabres—is it really the best thing for them to make the postseason?
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Now sitting at 83 points in 77 games, the Flyers have five contests left to make up for lost ground if they’re serious about playoff hockey. What were some takeaways from their latest setback?
Flyers Need More Offensive Contributions
Other than Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Noah Cates, no player has consistently shown up for the Flyers on the score sheet in clutch situations recently. In the team’s last four contests, those three players have accounted for 71.4 percent (five out of seven) of the Flyers’ goals. Philadelphia has a collective .816 save percentage (SV%) from its goaltenders in that same span.
Right now, the Flyers are being carried by three players. Some of the team’s other players have made great defensive contributions, but when saves have been almost impossible to come by, that excellence gets erased a little bit. Goals are the way, and they just haven’t come.
It’s definitely a positive that someone like Cates has finally found his scoring touch after mainly being vacant in the goals department all season, with five goals in 54 games so far. It’s even a massive step in the right direction for Tippett to be, arguably, the Flyers’ best forward during their four-game stretch. With so much on the line, seeing those two flourish is great.
As for everyone else? It’s now or never. Even if the Flyers plan to take another step in the right direction in 2024-25, some offseason moves must occur. If a player can perform in the clutch, it makes them much harder to deal away, and vice-versa. The offenders could be on another team if no one else can perform at this stage.
The Flyers Can No Longer Afford to Take Penalties
Even though the Flyers had no power-play goals against them in this one, a penalty helped break a 1-1 tie that Philadelphia never recovered from. On a rather innocent trade of stick infractions between forwards Travis Konecny and Jeff Skinner, both players were sent to the box for two minutes. Setting up a 4-on-4 situation, the Sabres took advantage and took the lead.
The Flyers did a good job of staying disciplined overall in this game, but one mess-up is all it takes to do some damage. When talented Buffalo stars like Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson have more ice to strike, they will. The Flyers are simply not equipped to deal with players like that based on their current roster, so naturally, those two hooked up for a goal.
Now, in their last five games, the Flyers can’t be making things harder on themselves. 5-on-5 has been a struggle as is, so staying out of the box has to be one of their biggest priorities to see improvement. Their penalty kill has remained one of the best units in the NHL in 2023-24, but testing it would be unwise. The Flyers need to have five skaters on the ice as often as possible—everything shifts when there isn’t.
Flyers’ Finishing Touch is Now a Must
Despite being a near-playoff team for almost this entire season, one thing that has remained consistent throughout is that the Flyers can’t finish on their chances as a team. With 14.4 goals scored below expected, Philadelphia is one of the bottom teams in the NHL at capitalizing on their best looks.
There are many reasons for this, but some of the key ones to recognize are the lack of top-end talent on the team, the coaching on the power play has been a bit suspect, and some of the Flyers’ best shooters (Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink) haven’t shot the puck nearly enough. Thus, an awful finishing rate results.
The good news is that finishing ability is a season-long stat that can vary significantly from game to game. It was excusable when the Flyers generated good chances but failed to score goals here and there, but now shots need to start going in. As mentioned before, Philadelphia’s play-in goal is at absolute rock bottom, so making up for this lack of production hasn’t been possible. Whatever it takes, the Flyers have to get over their demons.
Next, the Flyers will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 6 to try to avenge this game’s loss. If it wasn’t the case before, it is now—that is a true must-win game. If Philadelphia falters, they might as well kiss their playoff hopes goodbye. Inevitably, the teams behind the Flyers caught up to them. There just isn’t enough time to put a run together to make up for a loss on Friday unless a perfect set of scenarios ensues.