Photo Credit: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Philadelphia Flyers (29-34-13) were in St. Louis tonight to face off against the Blues (35-35-7). Everything about the Flyers right now is all about the future. These final games are a chance for players to prove their value to the team as things move forward. They are a chance to develop and build on the assets that will be part of John Tortorella’s plans for what is to come. The Flyers came into tonight with six games remaining before they start their early off-season. Hopefully it will be a busy summer for the front office. We will have plenty of time to hash that out all too soon.
Hope for the future
The Flyers starting line tonight was Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Morgan Frost. All three of these young players have taken turns stealing the spotlight this season. When you look at the Flyers line-up there is some really solid talent there. Joel Farabee is looking more like his old self. Sam Ersson got the nod in net tonight for the injured Carter Hart. Noah Cates and Cam York should be mentioned here, as well.
There are also players who are currently with the Phantoms, where they needed, that could very easily be pushing for regular spots in the line-up right now. The Flyers are not in as bad a shape as their record suggests. They are not starting from scratch. They obviously have a lot of room for improvement however they do have some solid building blocks already in the organization.
Flyers vs Blues
The Blues were allowed to spend too much time in the Philadelphia zone throughout the first period. The Flyers were too busy reacting and defending to mount much in the way of offense. Ersson started off solid enough between the pipes making some big stops most notably a huge point blank glove save during a penalty kill. An unfortunate turnover in the Flyers end lead to Jordan Kyrou with the puck alone in the slot and he buried it. The Blues outshot the Flyers in the first and carried most the play but the Flyers kept themselves within a goal.
Second period slump
Second periods have not been kind to the Flyers as of late and tonight was no exception. Former Flyer Tyler Pitlick sniped one at 5:04. Justin Faulk put one in high glove side at 8:26. A few minutes later the puck was once again in the net. It was looking like a total meltdown. Fortunately for the Flyers video review showed the play to be offsides and the goal was called back. Down 3-0 the Flyers got a power play late in the period. They failed to register a shot. It was their third power play of the the game during which they had a combined total of two shots on goal with the man advantage.
The comeback
The Flyers have been a very resilient team all season long. Even with so many losses very few of them have been occasions where the team seemed resigned to the fact that a loss was eminent. At 15:54 of the third it looked like Noah Cates had finally gotten the Flyers on the board. The goal was contested because it appeared as if Cates may have directed the puck into the net with his glove. After a prolonged review it was ruled “no goal”. It looked fine to me. He tried to punch the puck into the net but he missed and it went in anyway.
Seconds later Nick Seeler unleashed a blast from the point that James van Riemsdyk redirected past Jordan Binnington and there was no doubt about this one. The Flyers kept the pressure up immediately following the goal. They had a number of great chances but Binnington went above and beyond to keep them at bay. Eventually red hot Morgan Frost put the rebound of a Cam York shot past the Blues goaltender and the Flyers had clawed their way back to within one goal with 8:17 left in regulation.
The Power Kill
The Flyers had a really offensively aggressive penalty kill late in the game. They had two huge chances in one series during which Binnington sealed his spot on the highlight reel. He made a diving paddle save after a wrap around attempt by Scott Laughton with traffic in front. The rebound went right to Travis Sanheim in the slot. Sanheim had Binnington face down out of position. He fired a slap shot that looked like a sure bet and Binnington somehow grabbed it out of the air.
Alexey Toropchenko sealed the deal for St. Louis with an empty net goal with less than a minute left and this one was in the books. Once again in keeping with the theme of this season the Flyers played hard and made a contest out of it but came up short. If they had played the second period the way they did the third it may well have been a different story.
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Extra Credit: The Flyers set the franchise record tonight for most blocked shots in a single season with 1,321. If you are a big fan of blocked shots this surely has been a season you will never forget.
