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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (17-10-6) played roughly 35 strong minutes on Thursday in Buffalo. It wasn’t good enough. The team saw a 2-1 lead slip away late in the second period. Trailing 3-2 entering the third period, Philadelphia slogged through a poor final frame. The outcome: a frustrating 5-3 loss.
In a losing cause, the Flyers got one apiece from Noah Cates (8th), Cam York (2nd) and Travis Konecny (10th). Samuel Ersson stopped 23 of 27 shots. Buffalo received goals from Jack Quinn (6th), Tage Thompson (17th), Josh Norris (PPG, 3rd) and Ryan McLeod (ENG, 7th).
Game Highlights and Stat Card
The good
- It was long forgotten by the end of the night but the Flyers dominated the first period.
- Trevor Zegras’ setup pass to Cam York in the 2nd period was a thing of beauty.
- Travis Konecny gave the Flyers a chance at a late comeback with a goal from distance.
The bad
- Travis Sanheim seemed to show the effects of playing 26 to 31 minutes in several recent games. He had several glaring errors on Thursday, especially a second period turnover that changed the complexion of the game.
- The Flyers never recovered from Buffalo’s go-ahead goal in the final minute of the second period. The third period saw the Sabres dominate.
- Bobby Brink took a careless third period high-sticking penalty that proved costly.
The ugly
- This has become a regular occurrence: the Flyers lost the special teams’ battle. It hadn’t cost them many points recently but it bit then on Thursday.
- The entire third period (minus Konecny’s goal) was most certainly ugly.
- Philadelphia had the change to tie the game on a late power play — first at 5-on-4 then 6-on-4 after they pulled Ersson for an extra attacker. “Ugly” is almost too mild of description for how disorganized the Flyers looked during this do-or-die opportunity.
The site is acting yippee on an android. The keyboard disappears randomly and if you’re typing an “a” or “s” it posts.
Anyway, Sanheim looked completely wiped on the Thompson goal. He was slow to the puck, not contested and just gave it away along the boards. The whole team lost its jump after that. Slow, bad puck routes and poor decisions when the play was in front of them. Also, the linesman blew that Flyers icing with Hathaway complaining, yet, a minute later corrected the Sabres icing when Thompson complained.
Good thing the Flyers killed those penalties in OT today. Really nice standing still, particularly on the first one.