This was a golden opportunity for the Flyers to put some much needed breathing space between themselves and the Columbus Blue Jackets. While the Buffalo Sabres were making easy work of the Jackets the Flyers were falling apart in Detroit losing a very important game by the score of 6-3.
1) The Wings played well
The Red Wings played a good hockey game. They were patient, took advantage of the Flyers mistakes, and several of their key players had a banner night.
Detroit Captain Dylan Larkin had a hattrick and an assist for a four point night.
Defenseman Moritz Seider had a goal and four assists for a five point night.
Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists.
Alex DeBrincat scored his 40th goal of the season.
2) Special Teams
In the first two match-ups between these two teams the squad that made the best use of their power-play time won the game. This game was no exception. Detroit scored 3 power-play goals in this contest going 75% with the man advantage. They also scored a short-handed goal.
The Flyers went 1-for-6 with the man advantage. At one point they had 28 seconds of 5-on-3 and failed to get a shot on net. As soon as the 5-on-3 expired Dylan Larking broke into the Flyers zone and scored a shortie on a breakaway. The Flyers had 5 forwards on the ice at the time. Tyson Foerster gave good chase but could not close the gap.
The Flyers penalty kill was giving Detroit way too much access to the net front real estate all night. On the Red Wings 1st goal the Flyers allowed Alex DeBrincat to set up camp alone in front looking for his 40th goal. The Red Wings got him the puck he went forehand and Dan Vladar made the glove save. On the next play they allowed DeBrincat the very same access. This time he put a backhander over Vladar’s shoulder.
Cam York had a particularly rough night, he was right there with a clear view for the first 3 Detroit goals.
3) Goaltending
This was not Dan Vladar’s best outing. His defense did not do him many favors but he had an off night just the same. Head coach Rick Tocchet may have pulled him to snap his team out of their funk. But at the same time he did give up 4 goals on 8 shots and for whatever reason you have to own that. He wasn’t sharp.
Samuel Ersson took over just under 5 minutes into the 2nd period and stopped 12 of 14 shots on goal. Oddly enough John Gibson didn’t finish the game either. He left after the Flyers 2nd goal but it seemed to be due to an earlier incident. Former Flyer Cam Talbot finished the night in the Detroit net stopping 11 of 12 shots.
Fifteen seconds into the 2nd period Owen Tippett was skating backwards building up a head of steam in the Detroit zone when he just rolled over Gibson. It’s hard to say what Tippett was working on at the time. But that could have had somethin to do with the netminder’s early exit.
4) Ill-advised shots
You know when the Flyers are playing a home game and they are set up in the zone and they just keep passing until the majority of the crowd is yelling “shoooot”?
Lots of times what they are trying to avoid is a shot, especially from the point or the top of the slot that does not have a lane to the net. When you are just inside the blue line and you fire a shot directly into an opposing team member’s shin pads it can lead to an odd man rush in the other direction. That happened frequently in this game.
5) Lack of discipline
And this is the big one. To be honest when I started this article it was going to be a standard recap. When I was reading it back it just sounded like a bunch of disjointed chaos. I was just accurately describing what had happened on the ice during the coarse of the game. I shelved it and started over.
Recently Travis Konecny said that as the Flyers were chasing the pack the pressure was on the other teams. If that was the case, now that the Flyers are sitting in the playoff qualifying spot all the pressure is on them. The games leading up to this panic in Detroit were patient, cautious, sometimes meticulous playoff style hockey. The best example being the Easter Sunday game against Boston. Every movement had a purpose.
Tonight was just the opposite of that. The Flyers were scrambling and disconnected. They were all over the place. At one point when you were hoping things would stabilize Zegras was attempting a Michigan while Owen Tippett was getting thrown around in the corner like a rag doll. The entire thing was everything all at once all over the place with no direction or intent all of the time.
It was a ball of confusion when the situation called for just the opposite. Detroit laid in wait and pounced every time the opportunity arose.
Next Up: Flyers in Winnipeg to faceoff against the Jets Saturday night 7:00 PM.
About Author
