It's early in the 2024-25 season and the Flyers are still trying to find themselves.
For stretches in a wild 7-5 win against the Wild Saturday — the first win at home this season — the team looked like the playoff hopefuls from last year, destined to turn around the fortunes of a mediocre franchise sooner than was hoped. And for other stretches, they looked lost, immature and lazy.
But somehow the sheer talent on the Flyers roster found a way to prevail in an impressive win over a quality opponent, as the Flyers win marked Minnesota's first regular loss of the season.
The Flyers' first line was diabolically productive in the victory, and with the game tied at five inside the three minute mark, Rasmus Ristolainen found a way to shove the puck past the Minnesota goalie to get the Flyers the game-winner:
In the win captain Sean Couturier completed his second career hat trick.
Here's a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from a feisty one in South Philly that ended a six-game losing streak:
The good
• Thank god for Matvei Michkov. With the Flyers seemingly out of gas after surrendering two goals to relent a 2-0 lead late in the second, the Russian rookie decided enough was enough, firing a lightning quick shot from the slot that beat Filip Gustavsson to get the Flyers back ahead, 3-2.
Having a player who can shift momentum that quickly is a luxury the team hopes it can get used to. It was his first career goal in Philly and he leads all NHL rookies in points so far.
• As soon as the Flyers got their first offensive zone possession of the game in the opening period, they had their 5-on-5 offense looking on point. After some jockeying for space, a shot from near the blue line from Ristolainen was blocked by Wild goalie Gustavsson and right in front of Flyers' vet Couturier.
Coots got his 500th career point and first goal of the year just about a minute into action and it doesn't get much simpler than this:
The goal has to feel good for Couturier, who has not scored for 32 games dating back to last season.
What felt even better was the Flyers' captain relentlessly finding a way to get the Flyers back on top after a wild series of see-saw goals, scoring midway through the third to return Philly to a one-goal lead, 5-4. It marked the most goals scored by the Flyers this season and ignited the Philadelphia crowd, desperate to witness the first win at home.
• He completed the hat trick with an empty net in the waning seconds of the game.
• Nick Seeler gave Philly early breathing room a few minutes after the initial Couturier score, with a slap shot fired from the slot (thanks to savvy passes from Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov) into the back of the net at the 3:51 mark of the first. The Flyers' first line really does have the potential to be lethal when it gets some steam — responsible all five Flyers' even-strength goals Saturday.
It was only Philadelphia's third time this season scoring first, and its first time scoring in the first in three home games.
• In a goal that screamed both effort and creativity off the stick of Konecny, the Flyers found second equalizer on the power play in the final period — a beautiful lunging wrist shot. There is too much talent for the Flyers to roll over and give up when things are not going well and the fight while trailing in this one was reassuring throughout. A look at the gorgeous score from the Flyers' All-Star:
• The Flyers entered play this weekend with one of the most reliable penalty kill units in hockey (successful over 89% of the time through the first seven games). They continued that trend early in the second period, when a pair of back-to-back penalties set up nearly four minutes of short-handed time (with around 25 seconds down 5-3). The team was able to keep the puck in front of them and make things very difficult for Minnesota, which didn't capitalize — and Travis Konecny even created a short-handed opportunity that nearly found the back of the net.
The bad
• They may have come out firing (to the tune of the aforementioned 2-0 lead) but the offense sputtered to a halt for quite a while after that, as the Flyers collected just three shots on goal in the frame and none on latter part of the period. In fact, it wasn't until they were down a man in the second period that the team even got its fourth shot on net. They didn't reach double-digits in SOG until the final stanza.
Coming into Friday's action, the Flyers were one of just nine NHL teams with less than 200 total shots on goal, and they average just 28 of them per contest. Their 8% scoring rate on those shots is the fifth worst in the league, which helps to explain why the offense has been so flat to start. More opportunities will go a long way, and the offense needs to find a way to generate a much higher quantity of looks.
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• The Samuel Errson shutout didn't make it to the third period, as a redirect from Brock Faber got past the Flyers' goalie and seconds later the 2-0 lead evaporated when Marcus Foligno was able to focus and net a shot while falling down and speeding toward the Flyers' goal in transition. A third goal for the Wild came on a too many men on the ice penalty with seconds left in the frame, drawing things even at 3-3 (after Michkov's goal put the Flyers briefly ahead).
• A go-ahead (for the moment) fourth Wild goal came right after an early third period face off, as Foligno beat Errson with a slap shot from the point — with a few frustrated stick slams from Flyers players to follow. A tying goal came again, from a shot at the point as the Flyers failed to clear the puck after having a chance to end a Wild scoring chance — this one via Jake Middleton.
The ugly
• Here's a perfect contextualization of the above point about the mediocre number of shots on goal from Flyers' sticks. Midway through the second period, the Flyers had what looked to be a sure goal — or at least an extremely high percentage chance of scoring with a two-on-zero, with just the goalie to beat for Morgan Frost and Garnet Hathaway.
They didn't even get a shot off. Too many passes.
• The Flyers are admittedly the third youngest team in the NHL (average age is 26.3), but they need to play with more discipline and thought. In Saturday's win the Flyers were called for five penalties while drawing just three of their own (the final coming with just a few seconds to play). That kind of disparity will hurt a team more often than it doesn't — the solid Philly PK unit not withstanding.
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