Predators 4, Flyers 2, : Falling off a cliff doesn’t work out

The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Nashville Predators on Thursday night and before the puck dropped, earned at least one point in every game in December. Did that continue?

The basics

First period: 1:31 -- Morgan Frost (Bobby Brink, Owen Tippett)

Second period: 1:05 -- Craig Smith (Colton Sissons), 4:45 -- Sean Couturier (unassisted), 5:24 -- Philip Tomasino (Tomas Novak, Filip Forsberg)

Third period: 15:59 -- Philip Tomasino (Colton Sissons), 19:59 -- Gustav Nyquist (Filip Forsberg)

SOG: 32 (PHI) – 32 (NSH)

Some takeaways

Started with a weird bounce There isn\'t a whole lot of history between these two hockey clubs, so we don\'t have innate feeling when we suddenly see these two jerseys on the ice together, but the entire game felt little janky from the start. And, well, the first goal scored of the game happened almost immediately and it was perhaps the weirdest goal you will ever see in a very long time.

https://twitter.com/BroadStHockey/status/1737990217913512331?s=20

To have the puck just deflect of Morgan Frost\'s skate, with no intention to even be directed towards the goal, to just bounce up, twirl around in the air, and then plop itself up and over the goal line is something else. We\'ve seen some weird bounces happen off opposing goaltenders before, but nothing like this. From behind the net, unintentional as anything, and then to just deflect and go in to start the Flyers\' scoring. We feel like we\'re watching the Zapruder film trying to get a sense of the journey the puck took within a couple seconds.

Mixed results on the man advantage In typical 2023-24 Flyers fashion, the power play was just a mixed bag that featured mostly terrible-looking hockey and a couple pieces of execution. To start the stretch of man advantage opportunities, the Flyers had a dud -- just two shots on goal and even allowed a shorthanded shot against. It was full of missed passes, dropped possession, and just hanging out on the perimeter.

On the second power play, the Flyers allowed a shorthanded goal that tied the game at one goal each early in the second period. That was just the second time Philadelphia allowed a shorthanded goal so far this season, to just edge even further the point that this was a weird one. At that point of the game, the only goals happened by total accident or because of a disastrous mistake made by the Flyers\' power play. To balance the scales, Sean Couturier ended up actually scoring a nifty goal that seemed like a miracle .

The goal on the power play just felt like it was out of spite at this point. The main conversation around the Flyers lately has been how just about everything is going well and they are a good team...except they are brutal on the power play. We saw that take place to start the game, but the made it a net-zero goal differential, thank goodness.

And even later, they had a five-minute man advantage because of Yakov Trenin driving Frost\'s face into the boards and getting kicked out of the game. And, just of course , it ended early because of some weird penalty the Flyers had to take.

The game-winning goal was coming During the second intermission, Couturier gave a quick interview and mentioned how staggered and stop-and-start the game was with the variety of penalties taking place. No momentum being had, no stabilizing structure to depend on for consecutive minutes. And, well, that was definitely true and when the penalties stopped getting calls in the third period both teams got a chance to breathe and the Preds completely took the game over.

As soon as some 5-on-5 play was consistently happening, Nashville ran right over the tired Flyers blue line and ended up being rewarded with the eventual winning goal. Maybe it was just being at different game states that caused some exhaustion, but the Flyers just got taken advantage of by the Predators to push and prod at them and eventually, Philip Tomasino scored his second goal of the game to ruin this weird game. It was coming and the team deserved it in the end.

While the Flyers ended the first period with a plus (or even) in shot attempts and expected goals, they got absolutely crushed in both categories for the final 40 minutes. The Flyers earned a 5-on-5 shot attempt percentage of just 29.56 during those final two periods. That is absurd and just terrible. Again, they deserved this loss.

Owen Tippett deserves his flowers Tippett seemed like a man on fire tonight. He was involved in so many plays, active defensively, and would find himself in alone with 1-on-1 opportunities to beat a single defender or the netminder. While he did technically get on the score sheet with a secondary assist to Frost\'s bonkers opening goal, his effect on the game wasn\'t really rewarded with any of the basic statistics.

Thankfully, we can cherry-pick some numbers and see that at 5-on-5, Tippett was just one of two Flyers tonight to end the game with an on-ice shot attempt for percentage of of over 50 percent, and he topped the team with 53.85 percent. It doesn\'t really matter, since it is just one game out of his whole season, but he just looked dominant and different. Lately, he seems to have hit another gear and really is looking more like the player who we projected could score 35 or 40 goals this season no problem.

Next up, the Flyers have to visit Detroit to play the Red Wings before the holiday break. Oh, the magic of Motor City.

Talking Points