Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stopped 30 of 32 shots Sunday afternoon which could be good enough to win most NHL games in this era but the Flyers have not scored a goal since Monday night at home against the Devils. For the first time in franchise history the Flyers have been shutout three games in a row.
Depleted Roster
All things considered the Flyers creative roster put up a pretty good fight in the 2-0 loss to the Avalanche. It is not just that the Flyers just traded away two key pieces in Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost but the return has not come state-side yet. Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier will hopefully be available Tuesday night when the Flyers play the Utah Hockey Club. Pelletier seems to be on the Flyers roster already but Kuzmenko is dealing with a visa situation.
Aside from the trade fallout injuries are currently taking their toll on the squad. Ryan Poehling, Owen Tippett, Nick Deslauriers, and Egor Zamula are all currently unavailable due to injury. Rasmus Ristolainen was not on the bench for the 3rd period.
After the events of this past Thursday Ristolainen’s absence on the bench sparked immediate trade rumors which proved to be pure speculation. After the game it was confirmed the defenseman left the game with an undisclosed injury.
The Flyers started 11 forwards and 7 defensemen for the Avalanche game. The roster included Rodrigo Abols, Emil Andrae, Jocob Gaucher, and Anthony Richard. As I said this group played a pretty solid game in Colorado. The Avalanche did not register a shot on goal until just under 13 minutes into the 1st period.
Danny Briere
The Flyers general manager held a virtual meeting with the press on Saturday morning where he confirmed much of what was speculated about the trade with the Calgary Flames. In so many words, everyone is hoping for the best with Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier but the trade was about cap space and draft picks. Briere seemed to downplay expectations concerning the time frame of the rebuild. That being said the Flyers are stockpiled with picks in the upcoming 2025 draft and those picks do not rollover. You need to use them or move them and the draft will be here before you know it.
By Sunday the tone seemed more clear that there is a real need for a 1C but that is no surprise to anyone who follows the team. The team, especially right now, really needs help up the middle.
It would not be a stretch at all to imagine Jett Luchenko filling a spot next season but the Flyers also need a solid pro center to build around. That will not come cheap but the organization has been making moves to cut cap and bank picks so that they can afford the high price tag. Another helpful factor is the NHL raising the upper limit of the cap for the 2025 season from 88M to 95.5M.
Extra Credit: This week in Flyers-World has been enough to put anybody in a bad mood. That being said, the Colorado Avalanche uniforms are just plain homely. The logo is nice but the jersey looks like a cluttered mess of unfinished ideas. By the time it gets to the neck-hole all the asymmetrical lines just give up and go nowhere. It looks like somebody fell asleep meeting a deadline and turned the design in anyway. The wavy blue line at the bottom of the jersey looks like it’s part of the pants. What were they thinking? The matching gloves at the end of the long arms? Start over.
Next up, The Flyers are in Utah on Tuesday night to face their hockey club at 9:00 PM
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
At this point why not bring up Luchenko now?????