March 02, 2024

Instant observations: Tyson Foerster scores twice as Flyers best Senators

Tyson Foerster and the Flyers keep firm control of their playoff position as March continues.

By Evan Macy
PhillyVoice Staff

Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports

Senators goalie Mads Sogaard reacts after allowing a penalty shot goal by Flyers right wing Tyson Foerster.

The Flyers went back in the win column Saturday night, besting Claude Giroux's Senators 4-2 to keep pace in the Metropolitan Division playoff race — and they did it without Travis Konecny and a handful of other players currently off the ice nursing injuries.

Here's a look at what we saw in the second game of a back-to-back in South Philly:

The Good

• After blowing a 2-0 lead in epic fashion just one night earlier — in Washington 5-2 — the Flyers came out feisty and in control, hopping on the Sens early by netting a Joel Farabee's re-direct from a Nick Seeler wrist shot from the point just over one minute into the game.

Not a bad start on Broad Street 👏 pic.twitter.com/4ZZ4WdL6ol
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) March 3, 2024

It's confidence instilling for fans to see a team that desperately wants to remain in contention a few months from now having a short memory. They looked just about as good as a team can in the first period, out-shooting Ottawa by a ridiculous 19-4.

• Nothing fancy on Tyson Foerster's second period goal, fired on net after a Scott Laughton face-off win. The youngster's fifth strike in five games put the Flyers back up 2-1:

Grip it & rip it!

Tyson Foerster stays red hot to get the Flyers the lead right back! pic.twitter.com/yRa9u64SSc
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) March 3, 2024

His next goal — scored not long after — was more dramatic as he converted a penalty shot just before the second period buzzer. It was, of course, his sixth in five games and gave Philly some breathing room with a two-goal edge.

Making history.

Our five penalty shot goals in 2023-24 are the most in single-season @NHL history. #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/IF7PX8gI3N
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 3, 2024

The lead after two is a good spot to be this season — after Saturday's win, the team is now 20-2-2 when leading after 40 minutes.

• We'll dig into the Flyers special teams a little later on, but their penalty kill once again flexed its muscles with a masterclass in the third period, killing off a double-minor and then another penalty to suck a lot of life out of the Senators. They were nearly perfect through nine and a half short-handed minutes — but relented with two minutes to go in the third, short-handed and up against an extra attacker. The Senator's second goal came in a 6-on-4 situation.

Even still, here's a look at one of the better PK units in the entire league, a unit that no doubt was key in Saturday's victory:

Category	Stat	NHL Rank
PP goals allowed	22	2nd fewest
PK percentage	85.9%	2nd
PK chances	192	9th
Shorthanded G	14	1st

• Credit to Flex Sandstrom, who has been inconsistent but came to play Saturday stopping 26 shots and coming up big during a few short-handed situations in the third period.

• Also credit to Cam York for drilling a meaningless empty netter with less than one second to play.

The Bad

• The Senators came out in the second period looking ashamed of their performance in the game's first 20 minutes and Vladimir Tarasenko was able to convert this effort into a goal as a very pretty backhand shot bested Sandstrom to even things at 1-all. Thrust into a backup role in net, the 26-year-old netminder has allowed nearly four goals per game and is one of the weaker spots on this roster right now.

• The Flyers remind me a little of a good NBA team that doesn't know how to play half-court offense. For a variety of reasons that we won't dive into too deeply in this space, their power play remains positively futile.

Ottawa had three penalties in the opening period alone (and four in all), almost appearing to prefer playing short-handed, knowing the Flyers are among the worst in hockey with an extra man. Philly failed to score each time.Their stats coming into this one:

Category	Stat	NHL Rank
PP goals	26	30th
PP percentage	13.3%	31st
PP chances	195	8th most

It's not for a lack of effort, nor a lack of chances. Each power play opportunity created its share of shots on goal, but few of them were high quality looks.

This has been a theme in 5-on-5 as well, where they are admittedly much better scoring-wise. The Flyers pepper goalies with shots — it's one of their offensive identities. The squad entered Saturday's contest with the second most shots fired on net in all of the NHL. Which makes sense — as they routinely out-shoot their opponents. But it's also resulted in them sporting the third worst scoring rate on SOG, 8.9% for the year.

The Gritty

• It was superhero night at the Wells Fargo Center, and while it was corny, it was also quite revealing to learn that Gritty is, indeed, Spiderman:

Courtesy of your friendly (and gritty) neighborhood Spider-Man! 🕷️🕸️@GrittyNHL | @Marvel pic.twitter.com/lbWrZeqbbg
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 3, 2024