Flyers 2, Lightning 1: Fedotov breaks through

The road trip rolls on, and despite stranger and less optimal conditions mounting on the Flyers -- Matvei Michkov scratched and Aleksei Kolosov dinged up, and the Flyers only hope being whatever they\'re going to get from struggling Ivan Fedotov and maybe the EBUG that\'s not really an EBUG because he\'s been signed to a one-day contract -- they managed to roll into Tampa, bear down, and come away with an honestly quite solid road win. Just as we all predicted.

The Basics

First period: 19:15- Nikita Kucherov (Hagel, Lilleberg) Second period: No scoring Third period: 15:44- Owen Tippett (Konecny) OT: No scoring Shootout: Goncalves (no goal), Konecny (goal), Hedman (no goal), Tippett (goal) SOG: 31 (PHI) - 23 (TB)

Some Takeaways

A good road period... nearly

The Flyers, with a depleted lineup, had a difficult matchup ahead of them tonight, and the first task was going to be simply keeping even and keeping this one from getting away from them early. And for the most part, the Flyers were able to accomplish this aim. It wasn\'t a terribly exciting first period, but that\'s all the better for the Flyers. Despite one slip-up in the form of a penalty taken by Tyson Foerster, the Flyers were able to limit the Lightning to just seven shots on goal in the opening frame. It wasn\'t a perfect period -- they did give up six high danger chances -- but it was a real bend but don\'t break effort.

Well, until they got inside the final minute of the period, and everything broke down and the Lightning got themselves on the board.

Fedotov report

With Aleksei Kolosov taking a minor injury in the pregame skate and only an EBUG waiting in the wings, this one was going to come down to the play of Ivan Fedotov, who\'s hoping to shake off the brutal start to the season he\'s had.

And it was kind of a wild game for Fedotov. Things looked dicey for him early on, with his first notable play on the night being icing the puck himself. And then there was this goal against, which was pretty illustrative of his struggles

https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1854693593740390702

But, to his credit, he settled in reasonably well from then on out. It wasn\'t perfect, and the Lightning were able to get him to bite on a few more fakes and then scrambling to recover, but still, somehow he made the saves they needed him to in order to keep them in this game. And at the end of the day, Fedotov came up huge for them in the shootout -- performing much better in these one-on-one situations with less to track -- and sealed the win for the team, and his own very first win, to boot.

Anthony Richard, come on down

With Michkov out of the lineup for tonight\'s game and Ryan Poehling still unavailable to sub in, this opened things up for Anthony Richard, fresh off his recall from the Phantoms, to make his season debut. It was a good game for Richard, on the whole. He got a nice bit of work in, just shy of 17 minutes across all situations, and managed to put up two high danger chances in that time. He was using his speed well to cut through the Lightning defense, and his willingness to get to the net for chances (something the team has struggled to find consistency in) surely won\'t go unnoticed by the coaching staff.

Now, it\'s hard not to think about what was left on the table, to look at the chance he had to pull the Flyers into the lead late in the third period and think \"Michkov would have scored there,\" and maybe a little unfair as well. Richard\'s job was to come in and do the most with the minutes he was given, and he accomplished that.

A small step forward

The Flyers have been a bit up and down, to say the least, as it relates to their on-ice system throughout these early goings of the season. It\'s been a particularly tough streak for them of late, with things hitting a real low with Tuesday\'s loss to the Hurricanes. But the Flyers seemed to take some lessons from that, and avoided letting bad habits take and their overall play to spiral, stopping the bleeding tonight in Tampa.

Because really, this was the best they\'ve looked from a pure process standpoint in a little while. It wasn\'t an overly flashy game, or even a particularly high event one, but the Flyers looked more settled down generally, and more direct in their style of play. We saw them finding more success in getting pucks deep, more direct in getting to the net, and they even came away with the better of the share of Expected Goals (52.07 percent) for their troubles. Tippett\'s goal was a result of this good work, but they had a couple of really good chances in a similar vein which they just missed on.

With how up and down things have been, who knows if this strong play will continue into Saturday\'s game against the Panthers or if they\'ll slide back again, but it\'s clear that the Flyers at least have figured out how to tap into some more and better offense, and the hope is that they\'ll be able to keep the ball rolling.

In conclusion...

https://twitter.com/MaherMediaCo/status/1854716170873848011

Mood.

Talking Points