The Flyers closed out their four-game slate of exhibition games with a rematch against the Capitals on home ice last night, looking to even the score after being delivered a tough loss by those same Capitals to open up the preseason earlier in the week. The Flyers had a good opportunity in front of them, bringing just about their closest approximation of their opening night lineup in terms of skaters to face off against the Capitals’ b-squad, but this matchup still ended up a far cry from what the Flyers might have otherwise hoped to deliver.
On the one hand, the Flyers did well to tilt the ice through long stretches, sustaining some good offensive zone time and piling up the chances, but goaltending ended up being the difference maker in that matchup, as the Capitals got some pretty stellar performances out of their tandem of Charlie Lindgren and Cal Peterson, while Aleksei Kolosov struggled in a big way for the Flyers. And it was this weaker showing — combined with a couple of breakdowns in front, and a few missed opportunities on the opposite end for the Flyers — that made this final score so lopsided, and informed the overall tone coming away from it.
“Yeah, I mean, ugly. That’s the only way to, you know, talk about the game,” defenseman Jamie Drysdale said after it was all said and done. “It was bad, but that’s not how we’re going to play hockey. That’s just not a winning brand, how, whichever way you chop it up. So, yeah, we’ll be better.”
There were certainly moments in this game when the play from the skaters left some things to be desired — some carelessness with the puck, a bit of inefficiency elsewhere — but it shouldn’t be overlooked that the Flyers were well able to generate more than their fair share of chances in this one (certainly more than we were accustomed to seeing them generate through much of last season), and that feels like, if nothing else, a bit of promise that can be taken away from this one.
“Well, it’s getting some looks,” head coach Rick Tocchet said of the power play’s progression postgame. “I mean, we just, the same old you got we need to finish, you know? I mean, I don’t know what else to say, there’s some good looks out there, but you got to finish, you know. You can’t just “oh well,” and we need some guys to finish for us. So, but I do like the looks, got to give them credit. We’ve just got to now, we just got to execute scoring.”
The Flyers were certainly able to create some of their biggest bits of flash in their opportunities on the man-advantage last night, but the work to put together quality chances did extend nicely into their 5-on-5 play, as well.
In the larger sample at 5-on-5, the Flyers were quite dramatically able to tilt the ice in their favor, putting up a whopping 69 shot attempts and 3.31 Expected Goals (good for 65.09 percent and 60.93 percent of the shares of those, respectively) and were really able to keep the pressure on through their cycling game, and that was impressive to watch unfold. The sentiment about needing to find a way to bury some of these chances can ultimately extend to the whole of their play across this game, it’s true, but there certainly wasn’t a lack of trying in this one.
At the end of the day, while the goaltending performance to put them in a hole and the lack of puck luck tapped into to pull them out of it will ultimately take some of the shine away from this performance, it remains one that the Flyers can pull some positive bits from. After all, with having such a short camp this season, and even less time to get reps in between the NHL regulars heading into this season, the understanding must be that gearing up to get into their best and most productive game is, in all, a process. The team understands this, and they’re prepared to just keep chipping away at it. But, critically, if what we saw last night is the type of foundation for the creation of scoring chances that they’ve set and will continue to build on, there’s a lot of reason for optimism that the more tangible production will come to them before too long at all.
The Flyers will have a few more good days of practice at their disposal with a trimmed down roster, and with a healthier lineup for them seemingly on the horizon, they’re suddenly not looking to be in too bad of shape as they head towards Wednesday’s home opener. It’s going to be a challenge for them, still, to shake off any disappointment from that loss and to bear down and keep pulling in the right direction, but there’s a blueprint in front of them to bring more sustainable success, if they can just stick with it.
All stats via Natural Stat Trick.
