Flyers vs. Senators: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (25-20-11) crept into the NHL’s Olympic break with a 2-1 home overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. It was a downright dreadful hockey game. Played with all the energy and urgency of a late September exhibition game, both teams lacked execution.

The Flyers enter the break nine points out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot, factoring the regulation wins tiebreaker. Meanwhile, Philly has lost each of their last seven games decided after regulation.

There’s not much to say by way of game synopsis. Prolonged stretches went by with little action. Neither team impressed. Except for a few shifts, the Flyers generated little attack. Ottawa generated more but didn’t sustain it. Finally, Tim Stutzle ended the game in the opening minute of overtime. For the second time in three games, the Flyers had an overtime odd-man rush. They didn’t score. Play swung the other way and the opposing team collected the victory.

The good

Dan Vladar continued to look sharp. He gave his team every chance to win.
For the second straight game, Jamie Drysdale scored a clutch goal late in the third period.
Ottawa entered the game as the NHL’s No. 2 team on faceoffs. The Flyers held even in that department through regulation despite Trevor Zegras going 1-for-6.
The Flyers took just one penalty all night. They killed it successfully.

The bad

The Flyers generated a mere eight shots on goal through two periods. They had none for the first 14-plus minutes of the game, then two in succession. That represented their entire first period total.
Through the game’s first 55 minutes, Philly had just six high-danger scoring chances.
The team juggled three of its four forward line combinations by the third period. The bump was minimal.

The ugly

Turnovers. The Flyers were charged with 21 giveaways. They lost another five pucks via takeaways from Ottawa.
Missed opportunities. Philly missed the net 21 times. Ottawa also blocked 18 other attempts. Vladar had just six blocks in front of him and Ottawa missed 12.
The coverage on Stutzle’s OT game-winning sequence was atrocious.