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Quick Hits: March 25, 2024
1) The Flyers held the Florida Panthers to a mere 15 shots on goal on Sunday night but dropped a 4-1 decision at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday evening. With the Washington Capitals skating to a 3-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday afternoon, the Flyers' lead in the race for third place in the Metropolitan Division is down to two points. The Caps hold a game in hand but the Flyers currently have a very slim tiebreaker advantage.
Bobby Brink's third period power play goal (10th) was the lone tally for the Flyers on Sunday. Sam Reinhart scored twice for the Panthers, reaching the 50-goal mark on the season. The latter goal was an empty net tally. Vladimir Tarasenko (PPG, 20th) and Carter Verhaeghe (32nd) also scored for the Panthers.
The Flyers had a territorial edge for most of the game. The biggest difference on the night was that former Flyers netminder Anthony Stolarz (32 saves on 33 shots) was outstanding in net for the Panthers and all three goals allowed by Felix Sandström (11 saves on 14 shots) were stoppable, clear-sighted shots from 25 to 30 feet.
A second key factor: The Flyers first power play unit was way out of synch all night. PP1 had recently at least been establishing decent pressure and good puck movement of late. On Sunday, the power play was a momentum killer except for the PP2 goal by Brink that cut a 3-0 deficit to two goals. Ryan Poehling made a very nice pass to Brink to set up the goal.
Lastly, unlike recent wins over Toronto and Boston, the Flyers couldn't buy a favorable bounce in the offensive end. Sean Couturier backhanded a shot that beat Stolarz upstairs but went off the crossbar and stayed out. Neither Travis Konecny nor Poehling were able to score when they had wide-open net looks. Stolarz denied Olle Lycksell on a low-slot backhand shot (1st period), Tyson Foerster on a 2-on-1 rush (second period), and also stopped Morgan Frost one-on-one (second period, penalty called on Florida's Evan Rodrigues), Scott Laughton (ensuing power play) and made three straight saves (one on Ronnie Attard, two on Laughton) in a third period scramble near the net.
The Flyers themselves escaped damage in a couple scrambles in their own end. A Sandström skate save was the best of his 11 saves on the night. In five games for the Flyers this season -- three starts and two relief appearances, 263-plus minutes played -- Sandström has a frightful .823 save percentage. He hasn't played THAT horribly, Sunday night's game aside, but the bottom line is that an NHL goalie has to make nearly all the routine saves, the majority of the medium-difficulty ones and a healthy share of the tough but not completely unstoppable chances.
At the abrupt end of a 38-second postgame press conference, NBC Sports Philadelphia's Jordan Hall asked Flyers head coach John Tortorella about Sandström's play on Sunday. Tortorella did not utter a word. He shrugged, paused, shrugged again, tapped the podium and then left. That spoke louder than words. Sandström, to his credit as a professional, stood in front of reporters minutes earlier, and took the blame on himself.
Again, though, while Sandström certainly was not good in this game and Stolarz was excellent at the other end, the bottom line was that the Flyers had the aforementioned array of scoring chances -- plus several more from close range that either hopped away or weren't placed where the shooter wanted them to go (the previously red-hot Owen Tippett, for one, couldn't get pucks to settle on this night). It was a winnable hockey game that wasn't won, and with a final score that was not reflective of the actual game play. All that matters, though, was that it was a loss.
For an in-depth look at Sunday's game, with period-by-period synopses, analysis, stats and more, see the Postgame 5 on Philadelphiaflyers.com: Click here.
2) Minutes after I returned to the house from the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday night, Jason Myrtetetus and I recorded the Mondays with Meltzer edition of Flyers Daily. Topics covered, apart from the weekend games against Boston and Florida, included expectations for Couturier for the rest of this season, the development path of Stolarz and other huge-frame goaltenders, the way that Garnet Hathaway seems to crank out nearly identical performances off an assembly line, the process the Flyers followed in holding the Bruins and Panthers to a combined 35 shots in two games, and more.
3)While this weekend was a mixed outcome for the Flyers, it was a rough two days for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Phantoms entered the weekend in great shape to put a near stranglehold on the final Calder Cup playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. They exited with back-to-back regulation losses.
On Saturday, the Phantoms dropped a very disappointing 2-1 decision at home against the lowly Bridgeport Islanders. Not only is Bridgeport in last place, but the team was also coming off a hellish bus ride and very late arrival following a game in Utica the previous night. The Phantoms were at home, resting. Saturday's game was a little bit like what happened on Sunday to the Flyers -- Bridgeport goalie Ken Appleby made some really nice saves, while Cal Petersen allowed a pair of short-side goals that weren't unstoppable -- except the Phantoms spent far too much of the game confined to the perimeter. At least the Flyers generated 17 high-danger chances against a very good (albeit tired and temporarily depleted) Florida club.
The Phantoms had a chance for fast redemption on Sunday afternoon at home against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. It wasn't to be. The Phantoms lost, 3-1, as the Baby Pens scored just 44 seconds into the third period and followed it up with a mid-period power play goal for insurance. Parker Gahagen stopped 25 of 28 shots in a losing cause. Joel Blomqvist denied 34 of 35 Lehigh Valley shots.
Of late, nearly all of the Phantoms' offensive output has been coming from the combination of Adam Brooks and/or Tanner Laczynski. That was the case again on Sunday, as they combined to give Lehigh Valley a short-lived lead at 17:40 of the first period. At 18:56, Penguins' veteran defenseman Taylor Fedun tied the score. The game remained 1-1 until the third period.
Rookie defenseman Hunter McDonald, who made his professional debut for the Phantoms on Saturday before leaving the game in the first period with an apparent upper-body injury, was not in the lineup on Sunday. Fellow rookie J.R. Avon, who has scuffled down the stretch, was a healthy scratch on Sunday.
Over the weekend, the Phantoms (27-26-8) saw their lead over the Springfield Thunderbirds (28-29-5) for the final playoff spot reduced from four to two points. Meanwhile, the Phantoms also squandered one of the two games in hand they brought into the weekend. Lehigh Valley is at a tiebreaker disadvantage (20-17 gap in regulation wins), so they will have to beat out Springfield on points.
The Phantoms return to action this coming weekend for road games against the Syracuse Crunch (North Division leaders, 36-20-6) on Friday and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (32-22-9) on Saturday.
4) Yesterday, I got a reminder that some things are much more important than hockey. Scott Hartnell hosted a young cancer patient and her family in a private suite at the Flyers vs. Panthers game, while the Flyers Alumni Association hosted a nine-year-old Flyers fan who has been in and out of the Ronald McDonald House in the same suite. Both met Danny Briere after the first period and Joe Watson before the game.
The nine-year-old girl also did a pregame FaceTime chat with Bernie Parent, was visited by Brad Marsh and other alumni, met Lou Nolan after the second period and then met her favorite current NHL player, former Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz (her favorite player since age four), after the game.
Whatever the result of the hockey game, last night was a big win for two young people and two families that could use some joy and special times in their lives. The Alumni never seek any publicity for these sorts of things, but nevertheless, Flyers fans should know that such things are done by individual Alumni and the Alumni Association as a whole throughout the year, year-in and year-out.
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