Flyers 5, Senators 4: Michkov takes over

The Flyers are, as always, having a normal one. On the road up in Ottawa, they put together what was, all in all, one of their sloppier efforts on the season, but still managed to do just enough to keep the Senators from completely running away with this game. They stuck with it alright, and it took overtime to settle this one as well, and it was -- what else -- some more Michkov heroics which stamped this win for the Flyers in the end.

The Basics

First period: 2:31- Travis Sanheim (Andrae, Hathaway), 6:02- Brady Tkachuk (Norris, Hamonic) Second period: 8:41- Drake Batherson (Stutzle, Sanderson)PPG, 18:48- Travis Konecny (Cates, Seeler) Third period: 4:27- Josh Norris (Chabot, Greig), 10:05- Adam Gaudette (Chabot, Greig)PPG, 10:42- Anthony Richard (Brink, Zamula), 12:45- Bobby Brink (Richard, Sanheim) OT: 4:06- Matvei Michkov (Konecny, Sanheim) SOG: 19 (PHI) - 36 (OTT)

Some Takeaways

A high-event start (but only the start)

You might not have guessed it based on how the bulk of this game played out, but this one got off to a really exciting start. Just two and a half minutes into the game, the Flyers got themselves on the board, jumping out to a very early lead, care of a goal by Travis Sanheim.

https://twitter.com/NHLFlyers/status/1857216754990084304

The Flyers had a chance to extend that lead just a couple of shifts later, when Scott Laughton forced a turnover right in front of the Senators\' net, but couldn\'t turn it into a shot on goal. It was clear, though, that the Flyers had some juice early.

And then, just as quickly as it appeared, that burst of offense all tried up for the Flyers. Just three and a half minutes after the Flyers got on the board, their lead was erased by Brady Tkachuk, and the Senators took over from here. The Flyers only managed three shots on goal across the whole of that first frame, and after what looked like a promising start, spent much of the duration of the game deeply back on their heels.

A note on discipline

Things went sideways on the Flyers in this one indeed, and while this was certainly a multifaceted issue, one of the key reasons was the troubles the Flyers found in the discipline department. The Flyers were called for five minor penalties tonight -- the bulk of which were somewhat careless stick infractions. And this put the Flyers in a hole in a couple of ways. On the one hand, with two goals allowed on the power play for the Senators, those penalties cost the Flyers pretty directly when they were having trouble clawing their way back into the game. And then on top of that, they\'re just real momentum killers -- the worst of which being Tyson Foerster\'s penalty taken to kill a much needed power play opportunity for the Flyers -- in a game when the team was really struggling to create offense in any situation, to be forced to play extra defense time and again was a tough situation to be put in. They got lucky that this one didn\'t snowball on them too badly, as the Flyers looked like they just couldn\'t get out of their own way with the penalties in this one.

Welcome back, Ivan Fedotov

With Sam Ersson taking another apparently minor injury in practice yesterday, it came down to Fedotov to start this game, and he was able to build pretty nicely on his last showing. The numbers don\'t look stellar for him, with four goal allowed on the night, but his overall play looked a little more calm, a little more settled than it has for much of the season to date. It wasn\'t a perfect showing, but with how much the skaters were struggling in front of him for most of this game, Fedotov put in some really solid work to just keep the Flyers in this game long enough for them to figure it out and get themselves going again.

We really ran the gambit of emotions in this one -- equally, Fedotov had his moments of being pulled so far out of position that we\'re left to wonder why on Earth he\'s doing all that, and then he would immediately respond with a huge point blank save on a shot from the slot. Truly, it\'s inexplicable. But somehow, it all got the job done.

Vibe check

So, in sum, the Flyers started this game well, saw their offense suddenly turn anemic for nearly two periods, and take some needless, careless penalties, but still manage to turn it on in the eleventh hour, and hang around long enough, do just enough, to force overtime,

https://twitter.com/NHLFlyers/status/1857255250446434362

But maybe this game was a reminder of the beauty of having a player like Michkov in the fold. The Flyers have the luxury of not having to bring their A-game (or even their B-game) for long stretches of games, because when you have a player with that much skill, who can make great chances out of seemingly nothing, he\'s always there as an option to take over and drag them to the results that they need in the end.

There are some lessons to be learned from this game, and the Flyers can\'t afford to replicate this effort too many times over, but it\'s a nice reminder of what they have in their young budding star.

Talking Points