The Philadelphia Flyers are in a major slump right now. They are currently riding a six-game losing streak, with a string of games against top teams in the league coming up. Through 47 games played, the orange and black hold a record of 22-17-8 and 52 total points. This puts them in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division with the Columbus Blue Jackets (51), New Jersey Devils (50), and New York Rangers (48) not too far behind.
Nothing is going right for this Flyers team right now. I, myself, came into this season expecting the team to be a middle-of-the-pack or just a tad lower kind of team. While the team played decently for the first few months and found themselves holding on to a playoff spot for a good chunk of time, they are now completely falling apart. In fact, they sit five points out of the last wildcard spot and would have to leapfrog four teams to get there.
What exactly is hurting this team? While many of you are saying everything, let’s get specific. Injuries have been piling up recently, bad goaltending, special teams, and defensive breakdowns have been the main causes.
In this piece, I want to break down each of these aspects. Hold on to your hats, Flyers fans. This is going to get ugly.
Injuries
No team is going to stay 100% healthy through 82 games and then some. However, injuries to players that have been keeping you afloat can kill the momentum in an instant. Just this month of January alone, the Flyers have lost defensemen Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen, forwards Bobby Brink and Rodrigo Abols, and goaltender Dan Vladar to injuries. At the time of writing this article, Drysdale is the only one to return.
Both Drysdale and Brink took heavy and dirty hits in the game against the Anaheim Ducks back on January 6th. What came as a surprise to fans is that there were no fines or suspensions given out to forwards Ross Johnston or Janson Harkins. Both hits looked to be complete blindsides, and in my opinion, the league should have given both players some sort of consequence.
Out of all the injured players listed above, I think the most significant and the one that’s hurting the team the most is the injury to Vladar. He sustained a lower-body injury in the game against the Buffalo Sabres back on January 14th. While it was a disclosed injury, the play where it looked like he sustained the injury was on the play right before the Rasmus Dahlin goal. He made a pad save and then may have overextended his right leg on another one. This injury has seriously hurt the Flyers goaltending. We’ll get into that in a few.
Finally, the injury to Abols. Trust me when I say this. Do not go and watch the video of this injury. It looks nasty, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out long-term. He sustained an ankle injury in the Flyers last game against the Rangers yesterday. His right skate got stuck in the ice and got completely twisted. That’s all I’ll say about it.
Goaltending
With the injury to Vladar, the Flyers have been depending on Sam Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov. Let’s just say that things have been going horribly for both guys. That’s just putting it nicely.
Ersson got the start against the Pittsburgh Penguins back on January 15th. He’d get pulled in the second period after allowing three goals on 14 shots. Maybe they felt like they had a chance after Abols scored? Who knows. Kolosov came into the game as a replacement and allowed three goals on 16 shots. The Flyers lost this game six-to-three.
The same thing would happen again, but just the other way around. Kolosov got the start in net against the Rangers yesterday and allowed three goals on three shots. While defensive breakdowns were the root cause of the goals, Kolosov was lifted for Ersson. Ersson allowed three goals on 25 shots in replacement. The Flyers also lost this game by a final score of six-to-three.
The Flyers aren’t sure if Vladar will join the team on their upcoming three-game roadtrip. If therapy goes well, there’s a chance. If not, he’ll stay in Philadelphia and continue rehabbing.
Through 19 games played (17 started), Ersson holds a 6-8-4 record, a 3.43 goals against average (GAA), and a .855 save percentage. Through 4 games played (2 started), Kolosov holds a 0-2-0 record, a 4.00 GAA, and a .830 save percentage.
Special teams
The Flyers special teams have been atrocious within this losing streak. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone because the power play has been awful for years now. What started out strong in the beginning of the year (penalty kill) has completely took a turn for the worst.
Let’s bring in some statisitics. Within this six-game losing streak, the Flyers have had 17 power play opportunites and have only scored two goals. That’s an 11.7% success rate. On the overall season, they hold a 14.9% rate which ranks league-lowest 32nd. The Flyers made changes to the coaching staff in the offseason, and so far, it doesn’t look like anything is getting better on the special teams side of things.
The penalty kill, on the other hand, came out of the gate very strong. In fact, they had the third best ranked penalty kill at one point and contined that strong play for a while. This losing streak has done quite a lot of damage to their season numbers.
The Flyers have allowed eight goals on 21 total power play chances for the oppenents during this skid. That comes out to about 38%. On the season, they have a 77.6% penalty kill percentage which ranks 22nd in the league. After being one of the league’s best in the beginning of the season, the Flyers penalty kill is breaking down big time.
Defensive breakdowns
Defensive breakdowns have led to plenty of goals against the Flyers. It just hasn’t been during this losing streak either. It’s been a common theme this entire season. They might not have happened every game, but you know what I’m saying.
If the Flyers want to get out of this losing streak, the defense is definitley going to need to tighten up. The orange and black have allowed the opponent to blow the game wide open early and that just can’t happen. Don’t dig yourself a hole. Keep your passes clean to your guys, enter and exit zones cleanly, and stay on your man.
Flyers Next Game
Flyers next game is Monday, Jan. 19, in Vegas against the Golden Knights.
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