The Philadelphia Flyers became the 13th team in the NHL this season to reach 30 wins in 2023-24, doing so on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-1 victory. With the Flyers moving to 30-20-7 against a rebuilding Blackhawks team, they now have a pretty tough road ahead and almost all against Eastern Conference foes. Regarding this game specifically, though, what were some takeaways?
Konecny Flashes His Scoring Prowess
He does it every once in a while, but a brilliant play by Travis Konecny was displayed in the second period on a one-man effort from the Flyers’ zone all the way to Chicago’s zone where he deked past a few Blackhawk players, and placed one over the shoulder of goaltender Arvid Soderblom for the game-winning goal.
Once in a while, Konecny will show that he is a star player. He has it in him to have one of those brilliant plays to hand the Flyers a goal when it’s really only him doing the work, and that’s what stars do. He’s a special player when he’s feeling it like he was there, creating goals out of seemingly nothing. Not many players in the NHL can do this.
Konecny now has 27 goals and 27 assists on the season, putting him at 54 points in 57 games. It’s a little worse than where he was in 2022-23 when he had 31 goals and 30 assists for 61 points in 60 games, but he’s essentially remained stagnant over the past two seasons — that’s not a bad thing. He’s a phenomenal player even with a slight regression in terms of points.
Hathaway Is Red Hot
In a pleasant surprise for the Flyers, Garnet Hathaway has really started to come into his own recently. In fact, he’s been one of the Flyers’ best players during the recent stretch. He has two goals in his last three games, scoring a huge one late in the second period to give Philadelphia a 3-1 lead. Despite being on the fourth line almost the entire season and sort of struggling in that role, he’s finally becoming what the Flyers hoped he would become when they signed him in their most recent offseason.
Hathaway has only been good for his penalty-killing abilities so far this season, more or less. While he has been exceptional in that role, he ranked among some of the worst forwards in terms of expected and actual even strength goal share leaders. Now that he’s actually producing at even strength, that makes him a fantastic all-around player, not just defensively. When a primarily defensive forward finds their offense, that’s when they become the most dangerous.
Related: Flyers’ Penalty Kill Among the Best in NHL History
An injury to Tyson Foerster that’s kept him out of the lineup for the past few games has allowed Hathaway to move up the lineup. Instead of being stapled to the fourth line like he has all season and having underwhelming results, he has emerged when given the chance. That much will make it very difficult to make him return there. He has a good case to get the same minutes even when Foerster returns.
Ersson Shuts the Door
After allowing five goals in the Stadium Series, albeit on 39 shots, goaltender Sam Ersson needed to have a solid game in this one. He got off to a slow start with a complete breakdown by the Flyers allowing a wide-open curl-and-drag goal from Colin Blackwell in the first period, but after that point he was rock-solid. They depend heavily on whether or not he has good performances, so it was vital for him to have one here.
It gets said too much, but it’s worth mentioning again; Ersson has to deal with more high-quality chances than pretty much any goalie in the NHL. The Flyers never do a very good job of defending for him, although their games as a collective are fairly solid. At least a few times a game, Ersson has to come up huge and bail them out of certain doom. That happened very early in the game with a sensational glove save to rob Taylor Raddysh of the Blackhawks, a player with just five goals in 52 games. There was some extra motivation on that one, but the Flyer netminder shut the door nonetheless.
In essence, Ersson is the perfect goalie for the Flyers. They will always have a breakdown or two each game, but what’s important is that he keeps them in it with big saves. He never has it easy, even against a team like the Blackhawks who have already surpassed the Flyers’ regulation loss total from last season — they finished with the first-overall pick in the draft. But this is okay, as it enables the offense to get going a little bit and sacrifice some chances. It’s been a while since this was last referenced, but head coach John Tortorella’s “safe is death” memo still reigns true several months after it was stated back in training camp.
Up next on the schedule, the Flyers return to their home ice after three games away from it to face the 37-16-3 New York Rangers, a team they lost to 3-1 the last — and only — time they faced them this season. It’ll be a really tough one for the Orange and Black, but one they’ll really want. Against a Stanley Cup contender in the Eastern Conference, they’ll need to be at their absolute best to have any chance of winning.
