January 10, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Flyers winger Owen Tippett crashes into Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith as the puck gets left behind in front of the crease during the third period of Thursday night's game at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers lost, 4-1.
There was no energy in the building Thursday night – or at least not much that was positive.
The Flyers were a mess. Too many errant passes, or picked-off or deflected ones, kept them from moving through the neutral zone effectively, and on the chance they did get past that part and into the offensive end, the visiting Dallas Stars constantly kept them pushed to the outside and away from the net until the Stars found their moment to jump on them in transition.
The Flyers got soundly beat, 4-1, at the Wells Fargo Center, though the score could've been so much worse.
They were flat. Boos followed them off the ice after each period, even as the crowd quickly thinned at the end with the final seconds ticking down, and they were hardly unwarranted.
The Flyers had just played their worst game in a good while, and on the night they were honoring late founder and owner Ed Snider.
There was nothing to hide behind.
"I'm not gonna break down the goals. We don't play many bad games, even though our record is what it is," head coach John Tortorella said afterward. "We have not played many bad games. We played bad tonight."
Which extends a bad stretch to begin 2025.
The Flyers battled Auston Matthews and the Atlantic Divsion-leading Toronto Maple Leafs to the brink in back-to-back games, but only managed a single point out of those contests through an overtime loss on the road on Sunday.
But they were at least able to hang their hats on their process being there. They checked well, they generated looks, and despite their goaltending situation devolving back into uncertain chaos again, Ivan Fedotov stepped back into the net for the first time in a month and at least gave them a chance in either game.
The Flyers played a game strong enough to at least hang with one of the NHL's better teams.
Thursday night against a Western Conference contender in the Stars, though, they didn't have any of that.
Dallas' Mavrik Bourque, Roope Hintz, and Wyatt Johnson each scored off the rush to bury the Flyers in a 3-0 hole.
Morgan Frost gave them something late into the third, when he put a bounce off the wall from behind the net past Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith, but that was all the Flyers could manage on Thursday night.
Sam Ersson, in his return from injury, got pulled for an extra attacker with a few minutes still left. The Flyers kept possession in the offensive zone, but struggled to get the puck inside and below the hash marks.
When it finally did, it fell right to Miro Heiskanen's stick with time and space. He launched it across the ice into the empty net, and that was it.
Fans funneled out to get a beat on traffic, those who stayed continued the boos or threw out faint "E-A-G-L-E-S" chants.
The Flyers lost – or have gone winless in, if you prefer – their last four games (against Vegas, Toronto, and now Dallas) to drop to 17-20-5 on the season and a bit further down a middling Eastern Conference.
And there was nothing to hide behind after that Stars game.
"Just kind of lacked energy throughout the game and couldn't string plays together," Frost said in the locker room postgame.
"Some of them were offensive turnovers that we're just throwing blind passes, and [the Stars] are so good at their transition as far as taking off," Tortorella said. "That's what I was talking to the team throughout the game, let's just get ourselves situated as far as odd-man rushes and see where it takes us."
They just couldn't.
"We struggled," Tortorella continued. "We played sh***y."
A few other Flyers thoughts following Thursday night...
The Anaheim Ducks will be here Saturday night, and every Flyers fan knows what it is.
Cutter Gauthier is expected to play his first NHL game in Philadelphia, just over a year after the former top prospect was traded to the Ducks with little warning from a behind-the-scenes falling out with the Flyers that was kept under wraps.
The Flyers already played the Ducks out in California a couple of weeks ago, and beat them, 3-1, and beforehand, the team wasn't all that interested in talking about that storyline.
Gauthier himself said he had the game circled on his calendar, and though he did go plus-1, that was with 13:19 skated and only two shots on goal. He had no points, and noticeably some boos that followed him around on the Ducks' home ice at the Honda Center.
No matter how you want to spin it, it'll be interesting to see how the Wells Fargo Center receives him on Saturday night.
The Gauthier trade is probably always going to be a bizarre sore spot for fans no matter where the Flyers' trajectory ultimately takes them, because 'What if?' and so long as it stays unknown, 'What went wrong?' are ever-powerful thoughts.
Sam Ersson got back in goal Thursday night for the first time since he had to leave the New Year's Eve win at San Jose, and the Stars definitely kept him busy.
Dallas' attack had him moving laterally in the crease a lot, and he could only stop 19 of 22 shots faced.
It's been a rough year for Ersson so far, between injuries and perhaps resulting inconsistencies after he was sent into the season as the No. 1 goalie on the depth chart, which played factored into the goaltending's overall spiral of late with the uncertainty between himself, Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov.
Thursday night's loss couldn't be put solely on the goaltending, though. In fact, he's probably part of why the result wasn't dramatically worse against the Stars, especially during a sequence early into the second period, when Dallas had the Flyers completely pinned down in their own end, and with defensemen Egor Zamula and Rasmus Ristolainen caught on nearly four-minute shifts.
Ersson fought off an initial shot and scramble in front, then, after more Dallas cycling, saved another shot from the high slot with his pad.
The rebound kicked out to Stars winger Colin Blackwell out wide, but he lost it in his feet trying to settle the puck. Ersson flailed to the other side of the crease and stopped the shot Blackwell was able to dig out, then finally got a glove on it to stop play.
Goaltending has been an issue, but Tortorella wa sure to note that it wasn't Thursday night.
"Sam's always been able to handle situations like this and that's the most encouraging part for me," Tortorella said. "I thought he played really well, and hopefully he can grow off that."
For the sake of the Flyers' overall stability, they need him to.
Samuel Ersson 🔥 pic.twitter.com/A2Azpa04zc
— NHL Sverige (@NHLsv) January 10, 2025
After Anaheim on Saturday night, the Flyers have a run of games against conference and divisional opponents to close out January.
They haven't been getting results of late, but as far as this season is concerned, an underwhelming Eastern Conference across the board still leaves them with a shot if they can get on a hot streak.
But January could very well be the make or break for that.
"Hopefully we can come up with some wins," Ersson said.
As mentioned above, the Flyers used Thursday night's game to honor Ed Snider.
The players' jerseys had Snider patches on their left shoulder, just like last year, though this time with the design pulling inspiration from the team's Stanley Cup banners – a really nice touch.
Students from Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education were in attendance and part of the pregame festivities, along with a group of them shadowing Flyers employees throughout the night.
Former Flyers and Snider Hockey trustees Paul Holmgren, Kimmo Timonen, and Wayne Simmonds were also on hand to drop the ceremonial first puck, and Flyers Charities announced a $300,000 donation back into the program to upgrade its several rinks throughout the city. The foundation itself is matching the donation twice over to bring the total up to $900,000.
The on-ice result was flat Thursday night, but off the ice, the Flyers have been making a concerted effort to bring back the culture and atmosphere around the organization that used to be there before Snider passed in 2016.
It can't be done overnight, but initiatives like these are a step back to it.
🧡🖤 EMS🖤🧡@FlyersAlumni and @SniderHockey & Education trustees @Simmonds17, @kime4kids, and Paul Holmgren dropped tonight’s ceremonial puck ahead of our Snider Legacy Game. #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/IAOd2WWeh0
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 10, 2025
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
