Flyers Lose Fourth Straight Game In Loss To Panthers

These three Philadelphia Flyers players had excellent performances in the team’s win over the Florida Panthers.

Following a loss to the New York Islanders in their last game, the Philadelphia Flyers kicked off a brief, two-game road trip by taking on the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center. The Flyers were hoping to avoid a four-game losing skid coming into the night while also looking for their first win against Florida since October of 2018. Carter Hart received the start in-net and opposed former Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers.

Florida put Hart to the test early as they sent five his way less in less than six minutes of action, including two in the first 60 seconds. The 21-year-old goaltender stood his ground, though, which eventually allowed the Flyers to take an early lead. Travis Sanheim beat Bobrovsky with a blast from the left side of the point for his second goal of the year, breaking a seven-game pointless drought in the process. The Panthers were able to respond, getting two pucks passed Hart in the frame thanks to Colton Sceviour and Brett Connolly to take a 2-1 advantage after 20 minutes of work.

Aleksander Barkov added to Florida’s lead early in the second, pouncing on a juicy rebound from Hart and going top-shelf on the Flyers netminder for his seventh goal of 2019-20. Joel Farabee made a pretty poor decision with the puck in the neutral zone, which resulted in a turnover and led to Barkov’s tally.

The Panthers weren’t done there, either, as Jonathan Huberdeau sniped a shot from the circle for his team’s fourth straight goal. Hart was pulled in favor of Brian Elliott after the fact, allowing four goals on 18 shots. It wasn’t all bad for Philadelphia in this period because MORGAN FROST DID THE THING, netting his first NHL goal on a tremendous backhand shot to put the Flyers within two heading into the third. Let’s watch it in all of its’ glory, shall we?

What an absolute beauty of a goal, my goodness. This marked the first time since 2013 a Flyers rookie scored in their first NHL game, and I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say that Frost’s was better than Jason Akeson’s. Risky, I know.

Anyways, the Flyers played their best period of the night in the third, putting shot after shot on Bobrovsky in the opposing zone, but couldn’t find the back of the net for a third and fourth time as they fell to Florida 5-2 due to an empty-netter. Philadelphia completely fell apart defensively in the second period and failed to come back from it, thus resulting in their fourth straight loss.

Yeah, I don’t have much to say about this one other than that the Flyers look like a completely different team than they did to begin the campaign. They haven’t been creating as many dangerous chances, are settling for more points shots, and the defensive effort doesn’t seem to be at the same level as it was in the first week or two of October. Even during their six-game point-streak, the Flyers were relying on Hart and Elliott to bail them out time and time again, which isn’t always going to happen no matter how good your goaltenders are.

I realize opposing clubs will always get their set of chances because that just how hockey works, but there have been occasions where Flyers players just stare at the puck in their own zone like they’re waiting for somebody else to make a play. That simply can’t happen and it’s up to the veterans on the team to start leading by example on both ends of the ice if they want their best shot at reaching the playoffs.

The Flyers are now 10-7-4 on the season. Next game is Thursday against the Carolina Hurricanes.