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Philadelphia Flyers’ Struggles Continue in Strange Loss to Coyotes

By Marc Naples

Oct 27, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Steve Mason (35) digs the puck out the net after allowing a goal against Arizona Coyotes during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Coyotes defeated the Flyers, 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 27, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Steve Mason (35) digs the puck out the net after allowing a goal against Arizona Coyotes during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Coyotes defeated the Flyers, 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /
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Another bad start, followed up by a sloppy third period, cost the Philadelphia Flyers another game, this time to the struggling Arizona Coyotes

New lines, but it’s still the same story. The Philadelphia Flyers trudged through another sleepy first period. The Flyers trailed 2-0 after one, bring their season first period goal difference count to 8-1 against.

True to form, the Flyers came back to tie the game in the second period. Nick Cousins celebrated his return to the center spot by banging in a rebound. Later, the Flyers benefited from a few close goals, when Arizona had a called taken away for goaltending interference. Instead, the Flyers got a power play and tied the game.

The third period is where things got really interesting. In a crazy sequence, Brayden Schenn drilled Coyotes defenseman Michael Stone. Jakob Chychrun jumped to his defense, starting a fight. The officials, however, were slow to blow the play dead, and the Coyotes scored on a rush. This broke the tie game. Things got even worse 2 minutes later as the Flyers conceded a weird shorthanded goal.

After a few more goals, the teams settled into a 5-4 final. This is very disappointing for the Flyers. They’ve just completed 2 home games against 2 of the weaker teams in the NHL, and have been outplayed in 4 of those 6 periods.

Forwards

  • Loaded Top Line Underwhelms. May as well start at the top, where the Flyers loaded up offensive talent. The line finished -1, ‘scoring’ by being a part of Andrew MacDonald’s goal. Quite honestly, this probably isn’t good enough, despite Voracek and Giroux combining for 16 shot attempts. When you put so many eggs in one basket, you can ill afford this line to have quiet games. It’s just one game, but Konecny and Voracek looked much more dangerous in previous games when centered by Sean Couturier.

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  • Couturier Does his Thing. Speaking of Couturier, the linemate “downgrade” didn’t slow him down. He played another strong game, albeit pointless and -1. His possession numbers and ice time didn’t miss a beat, however.
  • Better 3rd Line. The Flyers tried another new 3rd line, and got some better results. Cousins seems to do better at center, and his goal gave Schenn his first even strength point of the season.
  • Lyubimov Separating. It’s interesting to see Roman Lyubimov’s Corsi numbers separating from his linemates this game, while being strongly positive for the 2nd game in a row. He also got some penalty kill time. All of this bodes very well for his chances of keeping a lineup spot. On the other hand, it’s a disappointing start for Pierre-Edouard Bellemare after playing well for Team Europe in their run through the World Cup.

Defense

  • Down with MacDonald. All the anti-MacDonald people definitely had a field day with this one. MacDonald finished -2, while Ghost finished -3, turning their poor possession show above into goals against. MacDonald snuck in a point shot for a goal, but this was completely overshadowed by other mistakes. Mason bailed him out on an early turnover, but his mistake at the blue line led to the pivotal goal of the evening during the Schenn-fight sequence. The twitter lynch mob was definitely out in full force for MacDonald after this game.
  • So Gudas. Radko Gudas is picking up where he left off last season, putting up outstanding possession numbers. He’s also playing physical without crossing the line, thus far. Gudas, defense partner Mark Streit, and Dale Weise were the only Flyers to finish with a positive plus/minus in this one.
  • Mostly Good, Some Bad with Young Pair. Brandon Manning and Ivan Provorov didn’t play many minutes tonight, but they held positive possession numbers while playing significant minutes against the Coyotes top line. We saw the bad, however, on the Coyotes shorthanded goal. It was another play where Provorov has been a step too late to prevent a goal against while he adjusts to playing in the NHL.

Goaltending and Special Teams

The good news is that the Flyers scored 2 more power play goals. Both were the type of plays you want to see: Simmonds finishing from the doorstep, and Schenn lurking around the net. That’s 4 power play points from Schenn in the last 2 games, and the Flyers power play is top-5 in the NHL.

This power play success was undermined by conceding the odd shorthanded goal mentioned above.

As for goaltending, Steve Mason will not be happy conceding 5 goals on 25 shots. I suppose no one goal was especially egregious (though the Ryan White goal comes close), but it’s more the sum of all the goals against.

Next: Flyers' 'Slow Starts' Cause for Serious Concern

Up Next

Despite the struggles, things get harder from here. The Philadelphia Flyers have back-to-back games coming up this weekend, the first of which against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins currently lead the Metropolitan division, and Crosby has recently rejoined the lineup from injury. The second one is a rematch against the Hurricanes.

It’s anyone’s guess what Hakstol will do with the lines and pairings after another disappointing game, but it’s probably a safe bet that Mason and Neuvirth will split the starts in net.

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