March 15, 2024
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Life is not going to get easier for Joel Farabee and the Flyers.
The Toronto Maple Leafs didn't play their best game, but they didn't necessarily have to.
With a core of stars – even without Mitch Marner in the lineup – and chemistry that's been built on for years, they know where to find the openings and where one another is going to be on the other side of them.
So if you give them even an inch, as the Flyers did in their 6-2 loss Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center, they'll take miles.
William Nylander working along the half-wall with Marc Staal covering him? Yeah, that's a mismatch that he'll turn into something, and immediately did when he circled into the slot to set up Tyler Bertuzzi's deflected goal off Auston Matthews' quick feed to the front of the net.
A puck lost in Morgan Frost's feet while in the defensive zone that gets kicked out right to a Toronto skater? Pontus Holmberg only had three goals on the season entering Thursday night, but knew to fire before Sam Ersson could even register what happened.
Coming down the ice with speed and space to shoot because Erik Johnson and Travis Sanheim were both caught on their heels back skating on the zone entry? Timothy Liljegren can jump on that with a quick drag and a shot, too.
Matthews straight through the middle of the ice all alone and chasing after the 60-goal mark? Bad news every time, and so is Nylander with space to shoot on the draw immediately after.
And then an expiring Toronto power play where three of the Flyers' four penalty killers were skating without sticks? Of course the Leafs were going to punish them for that on a night that had already gotten well away from Philly.
Owen Tippett fired home a power-play goal for his second in as many games, and Tyson Foerster tacked on a shorthander late, but by that point, it didn't really matter.
The Flyers got trounced, Ersson got pulled by the end of the first, and a banged-up – possibly exhausting – team got another reminder of where they're truly at, all for the second time in three games.
They've been good, surprisingly so as stated numerous times throughout the season, and they have some solid pieces and what looks like a decent foundation now to work with. But they don't have those game-changing stars, those difference-makers, a Matthews or a Nylander, who can score or create at any time or with anything.
Not yet, which hurt them especially Thursday night against a team that did, and with their current state in a tightening playoff race that they did a ton of work to put themselves in for the majority of the season.
Their blueline is banged up and stretched thin. They miss Sean Walker's two-way ability to get and move the puck, but they had to take the first-rounder Colorado was offering for him for the sake of the rebuild. They miss Jamie Drysdale, Nick Seeler, and Rasmus Ristolainen, each out with injury, just as much too. Drysdale for his quick and fluid skating that can factor into the offense, Seeler for his relentless hounding and fearlessness in shot-blocking on the middle pairing, and Ristolainen for his size and improved coverage in their own end.
Cam York and Travis Sanheim are eating heavy minutes at the top as result, while Staal, Ronnie Attard, Egor Zamula, and Erik Johnson, try as they might, just make for an overall slower group.
Their main sources of offense have gone mostly cold, too.
Tippett has netted a couple now, but Travis Konecny hasn't scored since coming back from injury, Morgan Frost isn't skating with quite that same punch he had a month ago, Joel Farabee has been battling his own offensive slump for a bit now, and Sean Couturier – while holding up okay defensively – is still relegated to the fourth line and only notched his first point in the last eight games when he assisted on Foerster's late and inconsequential shorthander.
Little is working in the Flyers' favor right now, and this late into a higher and higher-stakes game, they're struggling to find ways to overcome that.
"We're definitely not playing the way we've been playing all year the last couple games," Couturier said postgame Thursday night. "It's something we need to address, and I heard [Scott Laughton] say 'Look at ourselves in the mirror and bring our best game' because it's that time of the year where we need everyone to step up and be at their best."
"The last three games haven't been good enough," Laughton said. "Even against San Jose. We get a win, but it's not good enough at this time of year, especially in the stretch we're in. Everyone's gotta look in the mirror and figure out what we need to do collectively as a group here to get better because that's, especially on home ice, it's not good enough, not hard enough."
And won't be with who's on deck.
The Bruins await on Saturday in Boston and are a team that can and will put the Flyers away if they don't stay on top of things from the jump – they already did back at the end of January. Then it's the Leafs again back here in Philly on Tuesday, followed by the Hurricanes, Bruins once more, the East-leading Panthers, and the Rangers.
It's another gauntlet of high-powered opponent after high-powered opponent that won't be giving the Flyers any breaks, certainly not now, which puts their current playoff position under serious threat if they can't figure something out quickly.
Because if you give any of these upcoming teams an inch, they'll take miles.
"We're gonna have to play a simple, disgusting road game and squeak one out there," Laughton continued in turning the page to Boston. "But tonight's not good enough and everyone's gotta look in the mirror tonight and see what's going on."
They'll do so with the margin for error wearing thin as they continue to try to hold on to third in the Metro.
The one or two silver-linings, however: The Islanders and Red Wings, each behind them in the divisional and wild card race both got thrashed Thursday night as well.
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