The Philadelphia Flyers have been winning more lately, but how they’ve lost has erased much of the positives from the victories they have managed. The team is 6-2-1 in its last nine games, but one of those regulation defeats was an embarrassing home blowout loss to the New York Rangers. While Saturday’s 2-1 shootout defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t carry the same stench, it was arguably more consequential.
The Flyers entered the night four points behind the Blue Jackets, who are currently the best team not in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with a chance to make up ground on home ice. But despite a first-period goal from Alex Bump and a 30-save showing from Dan Vladař, Philadelphia fell flat when they needed a boost, allowing Columbus to pull a point further ahead and cement themselves as a team almost certain to end up back in the draft lottery.
Power Play Plummet Continues
There are several reasons the Flyers are staring at a franchise-record sixth straight playoff absence. But few, if any, have been as consistently problematic as their power play. Over the last five seasons, the Flyers rank 32nd, 32nd, 32nd, 30th (woo hoo!) and, once again, 32nd.
There were two obvious spots in this game for the power play to make a difference. The first came early, when Kirill Marchenko threw Denver Barkey into the boards in the opening period, sidelining Barkey until the beginning of the second. Though it was downgraded from a major to a minor penalty after review, a goal would have sent the message to the Blue Jackets that they could not get away with taking liberties on Philadelphia, especially one of the team’s youngest members.
But the real tipping point came late in the second period. Already on a power play thanks to a Cole Sillinger cross-checking call, Barkey goated Damon Severson into taking not one but two consecutive penalties, sending the veteran defenseman to the sin bin for the final 25 seconds of the period and the first 3:35 of the third.
It would be one thing if Jet Greaves, one of the NHL’s most underrated netminders, robbed the Flyers on a bevy of high-danger chances. Yet it was the familiar sight of perimeter wristers backing away from penalty killers who are dictating the pace better than the team with an extra player, with retrievals in the defensive zone. The four-minute power play did a slightly better job of threatening than on Columbus’s first two penalties, but it still wasn’t nearly good enough.
To be clear, the Flyers didn’t have their fastball at 5-on-5, either. In fact, their putrid 27.36% expected goals share (per Natural Stat Trick) is easily a season-low. Delivering that performance in a must-win game (really must win in regulation) is worthy of plenty of scorn itself, but the goose egg in the power-play column stands out just as starkly.
Intensity Ratchets Up
It’s been 2,885 days since the last playoff game in the City of Brotherly Love. That number is skewed by about 700-800 days because COVID-19 prevented the excellent 2019-20 team from hosting games in late April, but it’s still a sobering figure. There haven’t been many nights in that span, save for maybe season openers, games against the Anaheim Ducks the last two seasons, and the last two games of 2023-24, that the newly named Xfinity Mobile Arena has even had a playoff-like feel to it.
That’s a bit of a stretch to describe the setting on Saturday night, but it was clear that the Blue Jackets are within striking distance of a playoff spot and that the Flyers feel in the same boat (even if the math disagrees). The big hit on Barkey set the tone for that, but there were some big scrums in the second period, with the fans trying to make an impact.
That wasn’t easy, given they had to sit through a second-period slog that saw the Flyers stuck on two shots on goal for over 17 minutes. There were also a couple of instances of contact with the otherwise unflappable Vladař (although he did benefit from three Columbus shots catching the iron).
The Flyers spent a lot of time in the offensive zone on their first two shifts, creating some hope that they would meet the moment with an inspired effort to inch their playoff odds in a positive direction. Alas, the Blue Jackets gained a 1-0 lead just moments later on a defensive zone fire drill, and it never really felt like the Flyers had a stronger grip on the game than in those first few minutes (which is another indictment of the power play).
What’s Next
For the first time in over half a decade, the California road trip is back to being a mostly unforgiving gauntlet. The Ducks could easily win the Pacific Division, while the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are both in the wild-card mix. The Flyers play the trio in that order.
Related: Why the Flyers Didn’t Move Rasmus Ristolainen at the Trade Deadline
The good news is that it’s actually a fairly manageable schedule setup. The Ducks and Sharks games are on back-to-back days, but the Flyers have three days off to prepare. The Sharks game is in the afternoon, so they avoid a late-night start time, and the Flyers have two days off after it to prepare for their next game, which is also at home against the Blue Jackets.
