Date Published: 10-20-2022
Photo Credit: NHL.com
Well it was bound to happen, the Flyers suffered their first loss of the season last night to the Florida Panthers by the score of 4 to 3. The final score of the game does not fairly sum up the events that took place on the ice. The Panthers are a very talented team, they are very familiar with each other and the system they are playing. They came at the Flyers relentlessly breaking into the zone with multiple odd man rushes and turning every Flyer mistake into a dangerous situation. Felix Sandstrom made a few unbelievable saves that kept the score from running away. The Flyers went down 2-0 in the 1st and, as has become the new normal, erased the deficit and went into the 3rd period tied at 2. As the final seconds ticked off the clock the Flyers were again down by 2 and playing in front of an empty net. Travis Konecny scored with 1.5 seconds left in regulation leaving the Flyers missing the mark by just a goal.
The opening week of this season has been surprisingly exciting for Flyers fans. The team opened up with 3 straight wins after being trash talked incessantly and even becoming the punch line of numerous memes about the Flyers being the only Philadelphia sports team without a chance for a bright future. And then they come out of the gate flying. It is like the team has been ticking off a checklist of bad habits that needed to be broken. They are coming from behind to win games, scoring power play goals, hunkering down and hanging onto leads. Even though it was too little too late, it was good to see the Flyers score with their goalie pulled last night, that move almost never worked out last year. Things are definitely going in the right direction. They are battling through and putting up wins while still missing some really key players due to injury. They are off to a promising start. So what was different about last night?
In my humble opinion what we saw last night is just part of the process. It is going to take time and a lot of hard work to get the new systems and habits totally ingrained. It doesn’t just happen overnight. Last night the Flyers often looked tentative and caught off guard. There were bright spots for sure but they spent much of the game going into the play with their arms fully extended, trying to get themselves into the pace of the action. As if the speed of the contest was often just out of reach. The Flyers have much more talent on this team than they have recently been given credit for. John Tortorella seems to have a real knack for bringing that out in both the young guys and the veterans. They are not yet totally familiar with each other or the new systems put in place by the new head coach and his staff. They looked really sharp in the first 3 games but against a team like the Panthers you do not get a second to remember your new system. A second in professional ice hockey is an eternity, especially against a team like Florida. Decisions have to be 2nd nature, made without the slightest hint of hesitation, and that only comes with time and hard work. It is all part of the process. It’s been a week… and so far it’s been pretty fun.
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Flyers did a good job of getting the Panthers to fall into the 0-2 Deficit trap. But the Panthers were just too good.