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If a week ago, you had written off the Philadelphia Flyers’ chances for a playoff berth, you would find plenty of people in agreement with you. They had just come off a 6-3 loss to the reeling New York Rangers to close out a January homestand. It was one of their worst performances of the season.
Entering the week, the Flyers faced a daunting challenge as they began a three game Western road trip. If they were to break their season long six-game losing skid (0-5-1), they would have to find success against the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth on Monday and Wednesday.
Finally to cap the trip on Friday, they faced the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL’s best team. The Avalanche had only lost one regulation game at home all season.
While I’d hesitate to call the past week a “do or die” set of games, the Flyers were on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, trailing the Buffalo Sabres by three points.
After The Slump, The Surprise…
With that kind of gauntlet, it wouldn’t have been surprising to have seen the skid turn into a complete standings free-fall. Especially in a tightly packed Eastern Conference.
Accordingly, it proved to be a roller-coaster of a week. But the Flyers ended up with a pair of unlikely victories against Vegas and Colorado. However, it was sandwiched with one of their most devastating losses of the season in Utah.
So with the nose-dive stabilized heading into Monday’s match-up with the New York Islanders, let’s take stock of where the Flyers stand.
Flyers’ Net Positives
Owen Tippett
For as much criticism as Owen Tippett gets as a streaky player, it’s moments like Friday night when everything clicks. You see the player that the Flyers image he could be when they signed him to an eight year, $49.6 million contract two season ago. He is unquestionably one of the fastest skaters in the NHL.
When he is fully engaged, he helps Philadelphia to match pace with high level opponents like Vegas and Colorado. On Friday night, he exploded for his second career hat trick and a four point game in helping the Flyers trounce the Avalanche 7-3.
But even more importantly, it’s been his play away the puck, his defensive engagement in staying connected to his linemates. As a result, he’s been one of the Flyers best players this month.
“I think the last month he’s been one of our best forwards,” Tocchet said to reporters in Denver. “His ability to transport the puck, it’s something we need. You can put him with some guys where he’s going to have the puck alot. He can transport it and he looked really good tonight.”
Matvei Michkov
At the same time, there’s been no more volatile topic in Flyerdom than the usage and ice time of Matvei Michkov. His sophomore season struggles are well-documented to this point.
In addition, Tocchet’s decision to play him on the left wing rather than his natural right side has been a source of consternation for fans. However, the reasoning has been logical: it’s been to cover for his current shortcomings defensively while he works himself back to the form he had in his rookie season.
Throughout the road trip, Michkov has been inching towards that form and last night he was rewarded offensively with two goals and an assist. One of his markers was a sublime deflection goal in the third period that gave the Flyers a two goal lead. It came as the result of an extended shift when his linemates came off.
As the season marches towards the Olympic break, the Flyers are hopeful that Michkov enters the break in a good rhythm that he can carry over to their playoff push.
Bobby Brink
During the Colorado game, Michkov played on a line with Bobby Brink and Noah Cates. There aren’t a pair of harder working Flyers forwards who can coax a higher level of effort on the roster.
But it’s especially noteworthy how Brink returned from his upper body injury and had an immediate impact. He’s a relentless player who is willing to play in the dirty areas of the ice. And that’s exactly how he was able to score his 13th goal of the season on Saturday, a new career high.
There’s been a little bit of humor to say that “as Bobby Brink goes, the Flyers go” as the team made their turnaround following his return.
But there’s more than just a little bit of “unsung hero” status that he carried with him this season.
Concerning Negatives
Closing Out Games
The Flyers 5-4 overtime loss to Utah is the main blemish on a pretty successful week.
But make no mistake, it was a festering boil type of blemish, in which they blew 3-0, and 4-2 leads in a game that they had under control.
An embarrassing late game effort that undermined a game in which they played a dominant first period and staved off a Mammoth second period flurry. In a season where every single point down the stretch matters, it was a point of the season where it could be the difference in making the Stanley Cup playoffs or not.
That said, Tocchet’s barely contained post-game fury in which he implied his veteran group “sunk” under pressure might’ve been the catalyst for their dominant third period on Friday night.
Penalty Taking A Problem
As good a performance as the Flyers had on Friday night, they have struggled with getting stick penalties and it has been a pattern that they’ve struggled in overcoming. It’s put unnecessary strain on their penalty killing units, which have fallen to 20th in the NHL this season.
Sam Ersson had a remarkable first period performance in net, but he had to as Travis Konecny and Noah Cates each sat in the box during the opening seven minutes of the game. At that point, giving a team with the Avalanche’s firepower early power play chances is playing with fire.
While the Flyers weren’t burned on Friday, they really took their chances against Vegas with seven (?!) minor penalties to the Golden Knights two. Again, a strong performance by Ersson, along with Konecny’s two goal game, was the difference in their 2-1 win.
Against the Mammoth, defenseman Nick Juulsen had an third period fight with Jack McBain that stemmed from an unnecessary rough call. That led to a Dylan Guenther power-play goal that cut the Flyers lead to 4-3.
One of the most important things the Flyers have to develop is playing disciplined, structured hockey. While this week saw them pull out critical wins, it’s incumbent on them to close out January with positive momentum before the Olympic break.
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