January 08, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Ryan Poehling, Travis Konecny, and the Flyers are trying to hold the line.
The Flyers reached the midway point of their season in the middle of the pack.
They had battled the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs to the brink for the second straight game on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, yet for the second straight game, they left the ice with a loss, this time 3-2 in regulation.
They're 17-19-5 after 41 of 82 games. Their 39 points, as of Wednesday morning, left them 13th out of 16 in the Eastern Conference standings, but only three points out from a Wild Card spot.
They have their process, and it can be effective. The Flyers outshot the Leafs 32-17 – and 32-25 the game prior in Toronto – and had various stretches on Tuesday night where they just looked like the better team.
Aggressive defense at the blue line kept offensive cycles alive while pushing Toronto attackers to the outside down in the Flyers' own end, and runs of persistent checking led to two Travis Konecny goals – each of which gave the Flyers a 1-0 and then a 2-1 lead.
But then they have their drawbacks.
Rookie sensation Matvei Michkov was generating offense and working after a goal of his own all night, but just couldn't find his chance to cash in on, which fed into the lingering issue of if the scoring isn't coming from either Michkov or Konecny, it isn't, consistently, coming from much else.
Then there are the lapses. The Flyers can play solid hockey for 40-50 minutes, and you can clearly see it, but then they'll have these several-minute slips in between where they fall off of their game and it costs them – you can clearly see those, too. It's how John Tavares, Auston Matthews, and then Matthew Knies scored the three goals that brought the Leafs back in it and then put them ahead late.
Oh, and by the way, goaltending is back to be a rollercoaster again. Sam Ersson is working through injury again several weeks after returning from a previous ailment, 23-year-old Aleksei Kolosov hit a wall performance-wise, and Ivan Fedotov just re-entered the fold after a month in depth chart limbo, though to his credit, he has given the Flyers a chance these past two games against the Leafs, and the Flyers have played both those games well.
It just wasn't well enough to beat one of the NHL's top clubs right now.
"I think we're a top team, too" Konecny said postgame Tuesday night, denying any kind of moral victory. "I don't look at that like proud of us to compete with them. We can compete with anybody."
But right now, the Flyers are stuck in the middle of the pack.
They can beat a Columbus, San Jose, or Anaheim – struggling but developing teams themselves – which the Flyers did do over the holidays.
And they can give the better teams like Los Angeles, Vegas, and the Leafs a fight, too, but they need to be on top of their game to do it, and just aren't far along enough yet to close those types of tough games out – or to do it often, at least.
Last year, the Flyers caught nearly everyone by surprise when they were holding on to a playoff spot to this point in the season. This year, the shock factor is gone.
So they're stuck in the middle, but for right now, maybe that's not the worst thing.
Big picture, the team is young, trying to get younger (with notable prospects like Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey, and Jett Luchanko in the system), and have all of those draft picks at their disposal this summer. Michkov getting here early and showing immediate flashes of stardom is great, and signs of progress from other young pieces like Tyson Foerster, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae (before his AHL demotion) are great, too. This is still a rebuild the Flyers are working through, and that still needs time.
But in the here and now, they are back home from the holiday road trip for a few nights against Dallas, Anaheim, and then Florida, then have a run of games against divisional and conference opponents who are right in the middle of the pack with them to close out January (the Blue Jackets, Islanders, Rangers, Devils, and Red Wings).
At this rate, the Flyers are highly unlikely to catch up to Washington, New Jersey, or Carolina in the top three of the Metropolitan Divison, but hey, if they put together one decent stretch through the bottom half of the conference, suddenly they'd be right in the Wild Card race.
But right now they're stuck in the middle. They're inconsistent, and a bit frustrating. But maybe that's OK – or, hopefully, will be.
"I think we're pretty comfortable with how we're gonna play," head coach John Tortorella said prior to Tuesday night's loss. "I think some guys have steadily improved. I think some guys have put themselves in the conversation of still being evaluated.
"That's a big part of what this year's about. Uneven in the first half, some really good stuff, some stuff where we lose ourselves a little bit, but it's nothing shocking to me. It's a constant evaluation of all the players as we continue to move forward."
A few other Flyers thoughts from Tuesday night...
Just shy of five minutes in, Joel Farabee and Toronto's Connor Dewar dropped the gloves and started exchanging punches.
Farabee got his shots in and then the takedown to the crowd's approval, and maybe to a bit of surprise.
Joel Farabee and Connor Dewar fire up the Philly crowd with a fight to start off the night 🥊 pic.twitter.com/OhyRjDsViC
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2025
The 24-year-old already has a handful of fights to his name – see his HockeyFights page HERE – but he's far from viewed as a brawler.
So why then and there?
"Just was a little quiet in the building, so I figured I'd ask him," Farabee told the ESPN+ broadcast after the first period (via Flyers Nation]. "[Dewar] thankfully gave me one. He's a really good guy, so I appreciate him giving me one there. I thought it was a pretty good fight."
It's a beautiful game.
Joel Farabee on the fight with Connor Dewar:
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) January 8, 2025
"Just was a little quiet in the building so I figured I'd ask him. Thankfully he gave me one, he's a really good guy."#Flyers pic.twitter.com/qfJv48uVwH
The Flyers were pressing for the tying goal with time winding down in the third period.
Fedotov was pulled for the extra attacker, they had the puck set in the offensive zone, and then Konecny and Michkov threaded two silky passes across the ice to leave Owen Tippett with an open net to shoot at all alone.
He sailed the shot along the goal line and missed, looking up to the arena lights in disbelief.
Oh my god.
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) January 8, 2025
Matvei Michkov just put a goal on a platter for Owen Tippett and he missed a wide open net. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/nJeu6OGH2P
Brutal sequence. Just brutal.
Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll then fought off two more dangerous shots from Konecny to keep the Flyers at bay through the final seconds and to hold on for Toronto.
Michkov and Scott Laughton both went skating after the puck in front of their own net right at the start of the third.
Laughton got there first, Michkov couldn't get out of the way in time, and the two collided to send themselves crumpling to the ice.
Michkov got up after a few seconds but went to the locker room and stayed back there for a bit.
Laughton needed a bit more time, but eventually got up and headed back himself.
Both later returned to the bench to finish the game and appeared to be all right – had some humor about it, too.
Safe to say Laughton and Michkov made up after their collision 🫶 pic.twitter.com/acLx1f99sj
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 8, 2025
Aren't those familiar faces behind the glass on Konecny's second goal?
Them boys up front are always protecting. 😤#LetsGoFlyers | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/6JEjLAo9R2
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 8, 2025
There were "E-A-G-L-E-S!" chants, and Dickerson rode the Zamboni.
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