After securing a point vs. the Islanders in an overtime loss on Saturday, and beating the Bruins in Boston on Monday, it looked as though the Flyers might have some momentum. That essentially all went away in the third period Tuesday night. They dominated the Bruins in the second period, probably should have had a multi-goal lead going into the third, didn’t, and proceeded to post a four shot third period and lost 4-2.
To come out with that kind of third period in a must-win game, is pretty damn embarrassing to say the least. That loss can’t be overlooked, but a win in regulation today could make it sting a little less. This will be no small feat, as the Islanders are tied for the lead in the East division with the Washington Capitals. And they just got better, adding Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri from the Devils, both players will be active for tonight’s game.
The Flyers sit five points behind Boston for fourth in the East, and have just three games remaining before the trade deadline on Monday. These next three games starting tonight will be huge in determining what moves are made prior to said deadline, and if the Flyers season is deemed salvageable by Chuck Fletcher and Co. Or they’ll just do nothing as they have all season and we’ll sit here in pain. I think it’s probably the latter.
The one thing going right now that is positive no matter how you slice it, is that Carter Hart has been much better of late in net. The young goaltender has struggled most of the season but since coming back from a brief scratch, he’s been quite solid. Maybe not the form he showed last year, but certainly better than anything we’ve seen this year from him.
Two big questions
1. Can they play a full 60?
Tuesday’s game was arguably their best in months … until the third period. This team has struggled to play a full 60 all season so this is seemingly a pointless question, but I gotta admit guys it’s really hard to think of anything that hasn’t already been asked at this point. This team has been exhausting.
2. Can Alain Vigneault not bench Joel Farabee again? Please?
This is more of a plea rather than a question, but for the love of god can we stop with this garbage? Farabee has been one of the very few bright spots about this season and benching him late in games is getting old quite fast. I’m not saying playing Farabee will really make that much of a difference on the outcome of the game, but Christ at least he’s fun to watch.
Lineup notes
- Hart gets the nod in net, hoping to build off a strong game vs. Boston, Ilya Sorokin will go for the Isles
- One would assume the lines revert back to the beginning of the last game, but with this coach we really just don’t know
- Carsen Twarynski was added to the taxi squad yesterday so could we see him return to the lineup?/
Transactions: We’ve assigned forwards Andy Andreoff and Linus Sandin from the Taxi Squad to the @LVPhantoms (AHL), and recalled forward Carsen Twarynski from the Phantoms to the Taxi Squad.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) April 7, 2021
