Flyers look flat, fall to Canadiens in Aleksei Kolosov’s debut

On a night that featured the debut of Aleksei Kolosov, the Flyers put in a rather flat performance against the Canadiens.

Aside from the final few minutes of the game, it never seemed like Philadelphia was able to get much going. It’s hard to blame the back to back as Montreal was playing under the same circumstances. They also had a later game and needed to travel as well. But they came to play from the jump.

After a wild affair on Saturday afternoon, it was anything but that on Sunday night. There were a few lucky bounces that ended up going in the net for the Canadiens. But it was also evident that they were carrying play and had the puck in the offensive zone far more often. 

If you have the puck most of the time, good things tend to happen for you.

For Kolosov, he ended up making 20 saves on 24 shots. It wasn’t the best debut in terms of the numbers. He had almost no chance in stopping the first two goals. He made a tough save before Nick Suzuki was left uncovered on the first goal. The second went off the shin pad of Brendan Gallagher.

The third goal is one you’d like to see Kolosov stop as he didn’t seal off the post as Cole Caufield’s shot hit the blocker and went into the net. You can argue he probably should’ve stopped the fourth as well. Gallagher’s stick broke on a pass, causing the puck to move slower than expected. Every Flyer on the ice, including Kolosov, seemed to freeze. Jake Evans took advantage and one-timed to puck in.

It was still nice to see Kolosov in a Flyers’ uniform after what happened over the summer. That seems to be water under the bridge now as the goal for Philadelphia will now be about getting Kolosov adjusted to being in North America. Having players like Matvei Michkov, Ivan Fedotov, and Egor Zamula around should help. But it’s going to be more about having him learn the language and be able to communicate properly with his teammates.

The Flyers battled back to make it look like a closer game than it was. They scored twice in 25 seconds to cut the deficit to 4-3 with 1:43 remaining. They weren’t able to get the equalizer despite spending the majority of that time in the offensive zone.

Travis Sanheim had two goals, a nice sign for him after some of the struggles he had earlier in the season. Konecny registered the other goal. After his line combined for 12 points yesterday, his goal was the only point for that trio.

It was also nice to see the Flyers battle back toward the end of the game. But you’d rather see that effort from puck drop and not when it’s too late. If they had played like they did at the end for the entire game, there’s a good chance they would’ve come out with a win.

Instead, they failed to sweep the back to back and still have not been able to win consecutive games this season. They will head to Boston to take on the Bruins on Tuesday. The Bruins have had their number, winning 14 of the last 20 matchups since 2020.