On a night where the Flyers dominated the majority of the pace of play, they ended up losing another one. However, they might have lost much more after Carter Hart was pulled with an apparent injury.
The Flyers seemingly could not have had worst luck after outplaying the Sabres in almost every facet of the game, except for the one that mattered. The Flyers ended up falling to the Sabres 5-2. While there is still a lot of good to take out of this game, a new worry has surfaced above the ice.
Everything seemed great with Joel Farabee getting on the board for the Flyers first.
But that wouldn’t last long as Casey Mittelstadt would tie it up. Jeff Skinner would then give the Sabres the lead, but upon further review, it was called back after John Tortorella challenged it for offsides. The Flyers are now 3/3 on coach’s challenges. Moments later, the Sabres end up scoring to take the lead, this time for real. It was Brandon Biro’s first NHL goal.
Carter Hart would end up leaving the game with an apparent injury. Many are speculating that Hart got injured after Kyle Okposo fell on top of him. As of right now, the Flyers have stated it is a mid-body injury.
The Flyers would get the game tied up before the end of the period as Cam Atkinson would get his sixth goal of the season, trailing to the net to slam the puck home.
The Flyers and Sabres would remain level at two going through the second period. It was the third period where Buffalo took over. Just three minutes into the third, Owen Power beat Sam Ersson as the shot went off the post and in. The Flyers would have chances to capitalize and score but just did not have luck on their side to find the equalizer. The Flyers would miss on a high danger chance and give up a rush going the other way for Tage Thompson to rip one past Ersson.
Ersson will most likely want both goals back. His body language told the entire story of where his confidence currently is. While it could be rust, Ersson most likely will have a chance to shake it off and find himself in the lead spot while Hart is out with an injury.
Cal Petterson could be Hart’s replacement though Felix Sandstrom is going through his conditioning stint in Lehigh Valley. Conditioning stints typically last two weeks. While goaltending was part of the issue, the fact that Flyers could not score another goal after countless chances burned them. Outshooting their opponent 40-15 doesn’t help when you can only score twice.
The powerplay is still an abomination without any sort of cohesion or structure in sight. The Flyers need more than Travis Konecny and Atkinson to score goals because they’re not going to be able to score every night. The Morgan Frost question is still up in the air. He has continued to show flashes of the player he can be but it just hasn’t benefited the Flyers yet. We know this season is going to have its up and downs and no one better than Tortorella knows that.
"“What we need to do is stay with it. That’s the most important thing. Don’t over think and just keep trying to play the right way.”"
Flyers ended their four game homestand with a 1-3-0 record. They head up to Buffalo with hopes of revenge tomorrow.