Among all of the oddities of this young Flyers season has been the fact that two of their wins have come in a place where they’ve been in tough to find wins in recent years: the shootout. Wins over Buffalo and the Islanders got the Flyers — by far the worst shootout team in the NHL since its advent in 2005 — gave us all some hope that maybe, after years of futility, this would be the season where the Flyers’ shootout luck would take a turn.
Alas, things would course-correct a bit on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center — and in the process, a 19-year streak would come to an end for the Flyers.
After 65 minutes weren’t enough to declare a winner, Andreas Athanasiou would roof a puck past Steve Mason in the third round of the shootout, which was the only goal in the three-round skills competition and the goal that would give the Red Wings a 3-2 win.
The win was the Red Wings’ first win in Philadelphia since 1997, a streak that spanned 12 Flyers wins.
Still, despite the loss, there were some good things to come from this game. Steve Mason, in his first start in five games, had one of his best games of the season so far, and while that’s a pretty low bar to clear, he made a number of key saves in the first and second period to keep the Flyers tied, and his overall numbers of 33 saves on 35 shots are reflective of his strong night.
And offensively, things were more of the same for the Flyers, whose two goals came from their two most consistent sources of offense this season: their top power play unit and the Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek line. Two goals seems like a pretty lean night for the Flyers offensively with the way they’ve played lately, but the Flyers had a number of good chances snuffed out by Jimmy Howard as well.
Still, despite never trailing, this felt like one of the Flyers’ sloppier games of the season. Even though they scored the first goal, the orange and black got out to (you’re not going to believe this) a slow start, with Detroit opening up a sizeable lead in shots on goal in the game’s early going into the second period. The 35 shots allowed were a season-high for the Flyers, and that high volume came largely thanks to some overall lackadaisical play in their own zone.
But also, this happened.
Yo Steve Ott, you just got rocked by a 5’10 175ib 19 year old. pic.twitter.com/DY3OerKOXn
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 9, 2016
Fifth in the league in faceoffs, first in the league in gettin’ clobbered.
All in all, an even game and a tough loss in a matchup that was pretty even. Off to Toronto on Friday. Go Flyers. Here are your highlights.
Claude Giroux scores with the one timer! pic.twitter.com/7VOfhptSRZ
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 9, 2016
WAYNE SIMMONDS JUST DESTROYED ERICSSON pic.twitter.com/jVAnpvn4bc
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 9, 2016
Sloppy play by the Flyers leads to a Detroit goal. pic.twitter.com/MA3fjfyROO
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 9, 2016
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT’S
GOALS ARE THE BEST GOALS pic.twitter.com/YkpHen5amm— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 9, 2016
