The Philadelphia Flyers dropped their sixth game of their last seven following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. On a four-game losing streak, the team is officially on its biggest skid of the season. What were some takeaways from the defeat?
Flyers’ First Line Still Only One Producing
Until Joel Farabee was put on the Flyers’ first line entering their Jan. 2 game against the Edmonton Oilers, they weren’t getting enough offense from their top line for a multitude of games. Now that he’s there, it’s the only one that’s doing anything.
Related: 4 Takeaways From Flyers’ 5-2 Loss to Oilers
Since the Flyers’ new-look first line of Farabee, Sean Couturier, and Travis Konecny was formed, the team as a whole has four goals. Of the 12 points scored off those goals, 11 of them belonged to those three, with the lone other belonging to Marc Staal. Relying on one line to do everything offensively isn’t a recipe for success, but rather, one that could sink the Flyers to the bottom of the standings unless things change drastically.
Before the game, it was announced that head coach John Tortorella would be scratching forwards Cam Atkinson and Morgan Frost. In the coach’s defense, neither two had earned a spot to play in the game. It had been a long time coming for both of them to be scratched, and it wasn’t undeserved for either. With that being said, that decision was one of the reasons why they lost.
The Flyers desperately needed offense entering this game. Their replacements for their two healthy scratches were forwards Rhett Gardner and Nicolas Deslauriers, who aren’t built to provide offense consistently. Unsurprisingly, the Flyers’ depth was unable to muster anything offensively and the two goals the top line scored weren’t enough to make up for that. While neither Atkinson nor Frost have done much in the offensive zone recently, the upside is higher with them than their replacements. Just off of that alone, they’ll likely be back in the lineup soon.
Part of the rationale for Farabee playing on the third line essentially all season for Philadelphia is becoming apparent despite him having 29 points in just 38 games. He has four points including three primary assists in his last two games since being promoted, which is tremendous, but he was the main driver of the third line.
Now that Farabee is absent from that line, there is nobody else who can replace that production because of how well he played in that position. He made up for the Flyers’ lack of star power on offense. There shouldn’t necessarily be changes to the top line, but it’ll have to be considered.
Konecny Backed Up His All-Star Nomination
Looking to the positives, Konecny is on another one of his heaters. He was on a five-game point streak entering this game, yet had arguably his best game of that stretch in this one to extend it to six. He scored the Flyers’ lone two goals in this game, and he completely justified his NHL All-Star selection that was announced just a bit before puck drop.
If it wasn’t apparent before, it should be now that Konecny is the Flyers’ best player. Reaching the 20-goal mark in this contest, he is now just one of 13 players in the NHL to hit that total this season. That puts him in an elite tier of scorers in the NHL, and that’s coupled with the fact that the Flyers aren’t the best offensive team, either.
On top of being a great scorer, Konecny has been a good defensive player this season. Playing primary minutes on the penalty kill, it wouldn’t be the unit it is without his presence. Now that the NHL’s All-Star Weekend has a player representing each team, some candidates might not be the best player available because every team needs one, leaving elite athletes on the outside. That’s not the case with the Flyers’ forward — he has earned every right to participate.
Lack of Dominance Catching Up to Philadelphia
Over the last month of games, the Flyers haven’t been the same as they were to start the season. Their identity was a great defense with solid goaltending, but an offense that was generating but not finishing. Since then, not much has changed other than the offense. Instead of their issue being their ability to finish on opportunities, they are not creating any at all. If the Flyers can’t create offense, they can’t score — it’s that simple.
The fall-off from the Flyers has been hard to ignore. They got away with it at first, but it’s becoming apparent that they won’t win games unless they find their old play again. What made the wins sustainable was their sneaky habit of outplaying good teams. Unfortunately, now the Orange and Black aren’t even really outplaying teams with some of the worst records in the league like the Blue Jackets themselves, who sit at 13-19-8 even following their hard-earned victory.
Power Play Again Lackluster
It’s been the story of the entire season so it’s almost not even worth mentioning at this point, but the Flyers’ power play disappointed in this contest. They got a two-man advantage that lasted a tick under two minutes thanks to a penalty right off the draw from Columbus after they had just taken a penalty. Not only did the Flyers not score, but they didn’t threaten to do so, either. A 5-on-3 power play simply has to generate regardless of where a team is in the standings, but the Flyers have had consistent struggles with man-up situations.
In both the Flyers’ 2021-22 campaign and last season, the bottom power play in the league belonged just to them. They are on track to be at the bottom for a third consecutive season, which seems unprecedented as they were one of the most lethal teams on the man advantage through most of the 2010s with forwards like Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, and Wayne Simmonds.
The Flyers no longer have the pure offensive talent to be able to score at the rate that they did through the 2010s, but they shouldn’t be on pace to have the worst power play over the last three seasons, either. There are teams with less talent than Philadelphia, yet all of them are more effective at scoring on the power play. Adopting a completely new scheme in the middle of the season seems a bit counter-intuitive, so it’s likely things just remain the way they are on the coaching front.
Following the Flyers’ loss, they could still maintain their playoff spot by the time they next take the ice on Jan. 6 with an afternoon matchup with the Calgary Flames, unless both the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals get wins on Jan. 5. Philadelphia dropped their last game to Calgary 4-3 on New Year’s Eve, so this one will serve as some revenge in the Flyers’ barn. The Orange and Black seem to be spiraling, so a bounce-back win would be ideal.
