When Jamie Drysdale went down following a blindside cheap shot from regular member of the prestigious “goal per season” club, Anaheim Ducks’ Ross Johnston, it was immediately met with anger from both Flyers fans in the building, and the players on the bench.
But in the aftermath, all that really mattered was the status of Drysdale, who after a tough start to life in Philadelphia, has looked like a much more effective player in his third season as a Flyer. He was on pace to break his career high in points, and was healthy and effective for the first time since 2022.
Unfortunately, what seemed inevitable came to pass, and Drysdale was placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 6, with the Flyers forced to bring up Adam Ginning to fill the void.
Flyers’ search for power play success is even harder without Drysdale
While that is unfortunate on multiple levels, it is extra disappointing for the unit with which Drysdale played his most important role, the power play. Drysdale has played 80 minutes on the power play this season, which ranks him fifth on the team total, and first among defenseman. And while his time as the power play quarterback has not exactly resulted in the Flyers man advantage being any better, his absence will just take another piece off the board for coach Tocchet, as he searches for anything to revive a unit that sits 31st out of 32 teams.
The Drysdale absence led to Rasmus Ristolainen getting some more power play time, at least against the Maple Leafs, and while he does possess a heavy shot, he really just doesn’t have the same ability to distribute or enter the offensive zone the way Drysdale does. There has been an issue with the Flyers moving the puck around once they get into the offensive, and while it was persistent even with Drysdale, it certainly is not going to get better by adding in Ristolainen to take his place.
However you look at it, a team with an anemic power play losing the defenseman they play the most at 5-on-4 cannot be a positive. It’ll put even more pressure on players like Cam York and Travis Sanheim to carry more of the load on the man advantage, which will just add to their already high time on ice. Perhaps Emil Andrae could shoulder some of the load, but it remains to be seen if Tocchet really trusts the young defender to that degree, given that he has only seen 30 minutes of power play time this year, and much of that was in a two defenseman setup.
For as long as Drysdale remains sidelined, the Flyers power play will feel the most strain. Whereas they may be confident in replacing his minutes at five-on-five, the Flyers coaching staff will be left scratching their heads trying to figure out how to replace Drysdale’s presence as the most prominent power play puck mover.
