The Philadelphia Flyers are one more loss away from being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. While the team looked strong against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they have been no match for the Carolina Hurricanes. After a promising Game 2, the Flyers reverted back to their Game 1 form, but this time, playing sloppy hockey, resulting in them being penalized 15 times, giving the Hurricanes nine power play opportunities.
There were plenty of scrums in Game 3, which did play a role in the Flyers picking up penalties and losing 4-1. Some of those penalties took place during scrums, where they tried to rile up the Hurricanes with the result a foregone conclusion.
After the game, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet talked about the penalties, and was asked if the officiating in the game emotionally affected them. Tocchet would not blame the officiating, citing the numerous penalties they had in the game. Tocchet then focused on his players' role in the scrums, stressing that they need to learn how to accept power plays.
"We had nine penalties. So that's a lot of penalties. We just gotta understand too, like, you're in a scrum, you take a punch in the mouth and just don't do anything, just take the power play," said Tocchet. "If you're gonna go in, like I told you guys, you're gonna go in fighting. If you're not gonna fight, then get out of there. A little inexperience from us in a couple of the scrums."
Rick Tocchet urges Flyers players to learn from Game 3 scrums which led to penalties
The Flyers entered these playoffs without much experience. After all, the roster is mostly filled with their young prospects, or players who had been around since after the 2020 postseason run. They did manage to pick up a huge series win over the Penguins, who had the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, who had plenty of playoff experience. But facing off against, probably, the favored team to make it out of the Eastern Conference into the Stanley Cup Final, has exposed their inexperience.
Near the end of Game 3, the scrums were aplenty. The most notable was when Travis Koncecny tried to start a fight with Hurricanes defenseman K'Andre Miller, who didn't take the bait and laughed it off. That resulted in Konecny receiving 14 penalty minutes, 10 of which arrived on a game misconduct, while two each for roughing and slashing.
Again, having the players on the roster log playoff games to their resumes will only help them in the future. This season was a step out of their rebuild, which will allow them to build off of it and eentually be legitimate contenders for a Stanley Cup title in the coming years.
If this series has taught them anything, it's that they need to clean up their game if they want to get a legitimate shot at hoisting the cup at year's end.
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