Kings 5, Flyers 2: No more fitting way to end the decade

The Metrics

5v5 Corsi: 42 CF, 54.55 CF%, 49.56 CF% SVA

The final stat tells the true tale of this one. The Flyers seemed to have performed well in the territorial battle, but it helped that they were trailing by a large margin for most of the game. Even when trailing, it’s not as if the Flyers blew the Kings out of the arena or anything. Overall this was just a really poor performance no matter how you look at it.

They looked bad via the eye test for most of the game, and while the metrics don’t 100 percent line up with that, they don’t tell us the Flyers played all that well either.

5v5 shot quality: 19 SCF, 13 HDCF, 67.62 xGF%, 65.29 xGF% SVA

Yeah I gotta say, I’m not sure how the hell this happened. I mean there were moments where the Flyers had some high quality chances, but this many? Hell, according to Natural Stat Trick (where all of this data comes from) the Flyers had SEVEN high danger chances in the first period. To me, that’s preposterous.

To be fair, Jonathan Quick turned in one of his really stupid games where he channels that small part of himself that carried the Kings to two cups, but still. It just really didn’t appear as though the Flyers were getting the greatest chances in this game. Obviously, once it was 4-0, it probably didn’t matter what they were doing for a lot of us, as we were all focused on how blackout drunk we’d all get because of this game, and the new decade (but mostly because of this game).

Three Observations

1. Guys it’s Kyle Clifford, what the hell?

I mean, come on with this garbage. Even when the Kings were good — like mid-dynasty in the mid 2010’s — it’s not like Kyle freakin Clifford was leading the charge. Hell, his highest point total in a season is 21 and that happened LAST SEASON. I just ... how are you going to get outworked by Kyle Clifford?

2. Guys, it’s the LA Kings, what the actual hell??

Looking back on this decade, there’s actually no more fitting way for the Flyers to end it than getting the brakes beat off them by the LA Kings. Think about it, the decade is defined by the Carter and Richards trades, who both ended up on the Kings, who won two cups while the Flyers went into mediocrity. And just to throw salt in the wound, it’s not even like the Kings are a good hockey team anymore. They’re one of the worst in the entire league and are on their way to another top five draft pick.

But would the Flyers simply take care of business and dominate the lowly Kings? Noooope, why do that?

3. Brian, it’s not your fault

Well, the first goal is mostly your fault, but whatever. Outside of the Clifford goal which — although Clifford had way too much time and space to operate — he absolutely should have stopped, he was left hung out to dry. The Flyers clearly weren’t ready from the jump in this game, and although they found their footing later on, the damage was done. This kind of effort for the second time on the road trip, against another bad team, is just unacceptable.