Flyers Overpowered by Ottawa, 5-2
The Philadelphia Flyers fell to 1-1-0 on the young 2023-24 season as they suffered
a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday afternoon. The final score could have been even worse. The Flyers were outshot by a 25-9 margin through two periods and 31-21 for the game.
Philly trailed by a manageable 3-2 margin entering the waning seconds of the second period. That is until longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux pressured Travis Sanheim into a turnover and set up Brady Tkachuk for a backbreaking goal at 19:54. Ninety-two seconds into the third period, Giroux fed Tkachuk for a power play goal that put an exclamation point on the game.
Special teams were also a major factor in the outcome. Ottawa went 3-for-6 on the power play while Philly went 1-for-6 (the one goal being a five-on-three tally by Travis Konecny for his third goal in the season's first two games).
Meanwhile, Ottawa generated three goals from their blueline goal. Jakob Chychrun had even strength and power play markers plus a power play assist on a goal from fellow Sens defenseman Jake Sanderson.
The Flyers made two lineup changes in Saturday's game from Thursday's opening game lineup. Tyson Foerster, who assisted on Konecny's power play goal, slotted in for Bobby Brink. Emil Andrae made his NHL debut, replacing Egor Zamula in the lineup. It was seemingly pre-planned ahead of the road trip for Brink/Foerster and Zamula/Andrae to split the two games. (Flyers head coach John Tortorella declined to confirm this after Saturday's game, but it would stand to reason that it was planned ahead of the trip).
Saturday's game was one where it really didn't matter who was in goal for the Flyers. It was going to be a loss regardless. The only question was what the final count would be. There was nothing wrong with the way Carter Hart played in Ottawa, and the five goals allowed on 31 shots was a "team in front of the goalie" issue first and foremost.
One bright spot for the Flyers -- in both games of the season-opening road trip -- was the play of young defenseman Cam York. The Flyers' 2019 first-round pick scored a nice goal on Saturday after jumping up into the play. He fared well in general despite the Flyers getting swarmed by the Senators.
Also notable: Nick Seeler took exception to a rough hit on Foerster by Ottawa's Mark Kastelik, dropping the gloves on his teammate's behalf.
The Flyers, who juggled line combinations several times in the second and third periods, made no headway in terms of generating shots and chances until the game was out of reach. Only then did Philly start to test Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg. Even then, Forsberg was equal to the test. Most notably, Forsberg made a nifty glove save on Morgan Frost at 14:21 of the third period on a play that resulted in Philadelphia's sixth and final power play of the game.
The Flyers made enough of a too-little-and-too-late push that the game's final underlying stats per
Natural Stat Trick's calculations had a 29-26 scoring chance edge for Philly across all game situations and an 11-9 high-danger scoring chance edge to Philly.
Don't be fooled or take solace in those numbers, however. The Flyers had a dozen of their scoring chances and seven of their high-danger chances in the third period. The game outcome was a foregone conclusion by that point, and none of the chances resulted in a goal, anyway.
None among Owen Tippett, Frost or Noah Cates -- three players whom the Flyers need to build their offensive progress of last season -- made an impact offensively in either the Columbus or Ottawa games.
Tippett and Frost combined to get shot attempts blocked (seven times) or miss the net (seven times) a total of 14 times in the first two games including misses apiece with significant scoring chances. They've combined for five shots that got on net: three for Tippet (including a play in Columbus where he rushed the puck down the ice and to the net off a defensive zone faceoff) and two for Frost (including the aforementioned chance against Forsberg after making a nice move to go past Anton Zub). Tippett in particular struggled mightily in the Ottawa game in terms of the underlying metrics when he was on the ice. It was one of his worst games since coming to the Flyers from the Panthers.
Cates had one shot on goal -- and only one attempted shot -- in the season's first two games. Considering that he's now a power play regular and has played on a line with Konecny at 5-on-5 for much of the first two games -- and the return of Sean Couturier has relieved some of the heavy defensive burden -- the Flyers need more offense from him, too.
Joel Farabee scored the season's first goal for the Flyers in Thursday's game in Columbus amid three shots on goal and five shot attempts (two were blocked). However, he had a tough game in Ottawa, right along with most everyone in the white uniforms.
It's a two-game sample size for everyone: two games of an 82-game season, no more or less meaningful than a two-game stretch in January would be. The difference is that two mid-season games would be less scrutinized with a half-season body of work preceding it. Even so, these are all players the Flyers will need to step up to be competitive in games such as Saturday's.
In the bigger picture, though, these four forwards are NOT the ones I'm worried about. First and foremost, I'm still very concerned about the Flyers' blueline. I'm worried about them collectively generating defensive zone exits and handling aggressive forechecking. I'm also concerned about coverages getting scrambled when a recovery is needed.
Phantoms Open Season with a 5-2 Loss to Cleveland
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms got off to an inauspicious start to their 2023-24 regular season as they fell to the Cleveland Monsters, 5-2, on opening night at the PPL Center on Friday evening. The Phantoms trailed 2-0 in the game's first 3:17 and 3-0 by the end of the first period.
Not much went right for Ian Laperriere's club on Friday night. The Phantoms, who didn't take a single penalty that left them shorthanded, were 1-for-5 on the power play. However, the goal didn't come until the game was out of reach. More meaningfully, the Phantoms had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:07 and a chance to make a push but saw the opportunity go by the wayside.
The Phantoms also had an important call go against them: a would-be goal by Rhett Gardner that would have brought them back within 3-2 in the season period but which was waved off for goaltender interference despite Gardner unquestionably being pushed by a Cleveland defender right into goalie Jet Greaves.
This did not cost the Phantoms the game, however. Their awful start, Jeckyl-and-Hyde goaltending from starter Cal Petersen, and a poor overall game from the top line trio Olle Lycksell, Tanner Laczynski and Wade Allison were bigger factors than the disallowed goal.
Petersen made 27 saves on 32 shots. He stopped a breakaway, a 2-on-1 and several other high-danger chances. He was solid in the third period in particular. Now the bad news: Petersen gave up three outright bad goals, including a backbreaking goal from a flat angle on the very next shift after the disallowed Gardner goal. He also gave up one from the left side boards that may have deflected but didn't change trajectory significantly, and another goal where he turned over the puck behind the Phantoms net and the Monsters scored into the vacant net. In total, eight pucks got past Petersen but he got help from the posts on three that stayed out.
A few bright spots: Samu Tuomaala put on a burst of speed for a breakaway opportunity that narrowly missed being a goal. Later, he sniped a power play goal for his first regular season goal in North America. Additionally, the Phantoms' fourth line had an effective, energetic game. Lastly, Cooper Marody got the Phantoms on the board for their first goal of the game as he intercepted a failed clearing attempt and fired a nice shot home to reduce the deficit to 3-1.
Third period play turned rather chippy. Finally, Elliot Desnoyers had enough and dropped the gloves on his own behalf with Cleveland defenseman Billy Sweezey. It was the first regular season fight of Desnoyers' pro career to date. Shortly before that, Helge Grans reluctantly tussled with Dmitri Voronkov but it didn't escalate into a full-blown fight (it was brief and Grans didn't drop his gloves). Coincidental roughing minors were called.
That's about it. On Sunday, the Phantoms have a 1:00 p.m. EDT game against the Belleville Senators. The game will be streamed on AHL TV. With an afternoon game on the heels of a night game, former Army and ECHL goaltender Parker Gahagen might get the start for the Phantoms.
Friday's starting lineup was as follows:
28 Olle Lycksell - 9 Tanner Laczynski -19 Wade Allison
13 Brendan Furry - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 27 Samu Tuomaala
17 Garret Wilson - 22 Alexis Gendron - 20 Cooper Marody
46 Matt Brown - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 14 Zayde Wisdom
98 Victor Mete - 7 Louie Belpedio
37 Adam Ginning - 12 Ronnie Attard
5 Ethan Samson - 2 Helge Grans
40 Cal Petersen
[31 Parker Gahagen]
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