Flyers Falter Late, Fall to Golden Knights

The Flyers fell to the defending Stanley Cup champs after playing strong team hockey for much of the evening. The Golden Knights entered the night undefeated along with Colorado and Boston, and for most of the night, it looked like the Flyers would discard the Knights unblemished record.

As the puck dropped the Knights were buzzing, controlling the neutral zone and moving the puck with quick and accurate passes. The Flyers fell behind early as Cam Atkinson was pursued by Ivan Barbashev on the forecheck and forced the puck off the glass behind the Flyers’ net. The clearing attempt was knocked down by Jonathan Marchessault on what looked like a high stick. There was no call, and the Knights’ winger found Jack Eichel alone in front of the net.  Eichel was denied by Hart, but Barbashev was able to pick up the rebound and slide it past Hart. It was a bad turnover, and a great play by Marchessault, even if it may not have been legal.

The Flyers would do their best to stop the bleeding by staying sound defensively in the face of the Knights’ crisp passing. They responded when Sanheim sent a brilliant outlet pass to the stick of Farabee just beyond the redline. Farabee was able to deflect the pass to an accelerating Cates along the right boards. Cates swung to the net below the faceoff dot as Farabee drove to the crease. Cates lifted a waist high pass just in front of the crease where Farabee knocked it out of mid air and back to Cates at the right goal post. Cates tucked it behind Golden Knights’ keeper Logan Thompson and tied the game.

The Knights looked dangerous as they had earlier in the set, pinning the PHD line in the defensive zone for an extended period that generated several near misses. The Flyers were able to survive the pressure and by period’s end found themselves with the lead courtesy of a soft backhand from Atkinson that was misplayed by Logan Thompson and found its way into the net.

After closing out the first period on the man advantage, the Flyers went a man down early in the second period on a Cam York hold, though Atkinson was the actual perpetrator. The Knights moved the puck around the offensive end for a solid seventy seconds, fanning on several dangerous attempts before the Flyers could clear the puck and kill the penalty. Even though the Knights’ failed to score, they did grab the momentum. They eventually regained their footing after a strong shift from Laughton, Konecny and Foerster.

The Flyers would control play for several minutes, hemming Vegas deep in their end and generating several chances, but failing to bag a goal. They may have gotten too aggressive, creating chances by sending defensemen forward on the rush, and allowing Vegas to counter through an empty neutral zone and disrupting the Flyers ability to change.  These extended shifts allowed the Knights to exert a great deal of pressure that manifested many shot attempts just high or wide. The momentum was shifting away from the Flyers, culminating with a Tyson Foerster penalty to end the period.

The Flyers started the third period a goal up, and a man down. The penalty kill was again able to survive the Vegas pressure, killing Foerster’s penalty. But Vegas would continue to press during an abbreviated powerplay and 4-on-4 play.  The Flyers started to loss some of their offensive vigor and reverted in a defensive shell, content to run out the clock, but Paul Cotter undressed Yegor Zamula with a between the legs dangle and beat Hart to tie the game at two with just under eight minutes left in regulation.

The Knights were not done, they finished the Flyers off with a Shea Theodore seeing eye wrister that beat Hart through heavy traffic with thirty seconds remaining.

In the end, it was a spirited effort by the Flyers, with some positives to build on. The team may feel they left a lot of meat on the bone in this game, surely thinking they would get at least a point for what was a largely solid effort. In the end the Flyers failed to finish the task, and failed to grab any points.

The Flyers return home from Vegas to face the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.