The Philadelphia Flyers were victimized by the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 14, losing by a score of 5-2 in their second game of the season. The goal differential might not be entirely lopsided, but the effort level certainly was. What are some takeaways from the Flyers’ first loss of the 2023-24 season?
Abysmal Effort Costs the Flyers
There was nothing positive about the Flyers’ effort in this game, as they were thoroughly dominated at every single turn. They lost essentially every puck battle, they were committing awful turnovers, they were missing the net on the few chances they got, and were bad in defensive coverage. To put it bluntly, the Flyers were incredibly soft on the puck and in no way deserved to win. The only reason why this game was not a true blowout was because of Carter Hart in goal.
Every goal was a bad highlight for the Flyers, but Brady Tkachuk’s at the end of the second period was by far the worst. After being fantastic in training camp and preseason, Travis Sanheim was completely outworked by Claude Giroux and paid for it dearly, putting the game out of reach.
It was disappointing to see one of the Flyers’ better defenders make such an egregious error. This is one of many issues for the Flyers, where they do not have the talent that they need to compete with a team like the Senators. Working hard usually makes up for that, but the Flyers did the complete opposite. This game was one of the worst displays from the team in terms of how they battled for pucks in quite some time.
The score implies the match wasn’t a true blowout, but the effort level in the game was a major concern. There were very few players who were on their game for Philadelphia. If they want to be successful in a rebuild, this cannot be “the standard.”
Flyers Lack Elite Offensive Touch
When the Flyers were able to muster scoring chances, most of the time the play didn’t even result in a threat, either by missing the net or players waiting too long to make a decision. This highlights another potential issue with the Flyers, which is that they do not have the talent on the team to be able to finish on scoring opportunities.
Wide open shot attempts and 2-on-1 breakouts should not result in a player missing the net badly on multiple occasions, nor should it not result in a shot attempt at all. That’s exactly what happened to Philadelphia, and it crippled them. It gave them no real chance to be a threat to Ottawa in this match.
The closest the Flyers have to an elite forward is Travis Konecny, but even he might not be good enough. He scored a goal in this game, giving him three in his first two games, but there is not enough of this type of talent on the roster.
Above-average forwards in the NHL finish on their quality opportunities, but the Flyers absolutely did not in this game. One or two players do not fix this issue, as it is something that plagued nearly the entire lineup in this game. This season is not supposed to be smooth with the team rebuilding, but even superstar additions would not have changed the result.
Flyers’ Power Play Still An Issue
The Flyers actually scored on a 5-on-3 power play, but that only masked their poor power play in this game, failing to score on five of their other opportunities. Philadelphia failed to generate anything significant on most of their chances, which is a major sign of a struggling power play. This was an issue that has hurt them for the past few seasons now.
The Flyers’ zone entries on the man advantage were poor, and they did not manage a single shot on goal on their 4-on-3 opportunity that lasted for nearly two full minutes. For a team that ranked last on the power play over the last two seasons, what was shown in this game seems to suggest they might have a three-peat.
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Generally, the Flyers do not seem like a threat to score on the power play. On the power play, the Flyers’ veterans have struggled, which hurts their trade value at the deadline and beyond. Both Cam Atkinson and Sean Couturier were not much of a threat, which might be a problem moving forward.
Marc Staal Needs Some Rest
It’s always tough to single out a player, but Marc Staal was arguably the Flyers’ worst performer in not just their opener, but this matchup as well. He was not covering opponents well defensively, and he has never been known to generate anything offensively with just 52 goals in his career thus far. With Egor Zamula being scratched entering this game, perhaps it should be the veteran’s turn to take his place.
If the Flyers are serious about preaching performance to earn playing time, sitting Staal for the time being is an absolute must. He can be a valuable player in terms of mentoring young players given his experience in the league, but his on-ice play has not been great. His bad positioning has cost the Flyers not just one goal, but multiple, and the team has only played two games.
Staal cannot simply have a lineup spot guaranteed to him because he is a veteran player. This promotes bad habits, and he has not been up to par thus far. Hopefully he can be better, but that has not necessarily been suggested to this point.
The Flyers will need a fantastic effort against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 17 in their home opener to forget this one. This game was ugly, but they will need to have a short-term memory when returning to Wells Fargo Center for the first time in the regular season.
