Aleksei Kolosov struggles in Flyers' loss to Vegas

It was always going to be hard against a Vegas team toward the top of the league, far and away a much more talented group than the Flyers.

But when Philadelphia scored 21 seconds into the game, it seemed there could be a chance. The line of Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Tyson Foerster has continued to find success together. Hence, they are one of the only trios that have struck together for over a handful of games.

And it was a lead they held for the entire first period. But Vegas being Vegas, wasn't going to let that stand. 51 seconds into the second period, Mark Stone put the Knights on the board with a redirection in front. There wasn't much Aleksei Kolosov could do, something we can't say for the rest of Vegas' goals.

Travis Konecny's power-play goal in the third period stopped the onslaught, but it was too little, too late for the Flyers. Tanner Pearson added the late empty netter to come away with the 5-2 win

For this, we’re just going to look at the main reason that the Flyers weren’t able to find success in Vegas.

Kolosov shows inexperience against Vegas

In fairness to Kolosov, his last two games have come against the Kings and now Vegas. With 15 games now under his belt, it's tough to face some of the best the league offers in back-to-back games. But the Flyers needed much more than he provided.

The Flyers had a chance in this game. Even after Vegas tied the game in the second period, Philadelphia had still shown an ability to hang tough with one of the best. But when you seemingly can't rely on your goaltender to keep you in a game, things become much tougher.

While you can absolve Kolosov of blame for the first goal, the second goal sees the blame fall squarely on him. With Nic Hague at the side of the net, Kolosov gets caught overcommitting to one side. Hague skates around the net and gets the wraparound to get past the too-late outstretched pad of Kolosov.

There was no sense of aggression in how Kolosov attempted to cover ground to stop Hague's attempt. For a goaltender who has tended to make some acrobatic and athletic saves, there was plenty to be desired in that attempt.

Vegas would not relinquish the lead after Hague's goal and Kolosov's night would not get any better. Their third and fourth goals were also ones that Kolosov could've and probably should've stopped. The third was a powerful wrist shot from Pavel Dorofeyev from the right circle. It's possible Kolosov was screened, but he saw a large majority of the shot.

Alexander Holtz's goal was an innocent shot that Kolosov should have stopped. Instead, it goes off his glove and flutters in. It may have hit Jamie Drysdale on the way in, but it's hard to give Kolosov the benefit of the doubt at that point.

If Sam Ersson is to miss an extended period of time, the Flyers will have to stick it out with Kolosov. But his performance in recent games should have Philadelphia getting Ivan Fedotov back into the mix.

The Flyers have a few days off before they finish the road trip in Toronto on Sunday. We'll see who is in net for that one.