Hanging in there… until they didn’t
Despite what the score would suggest, this did at least start out as a very solid game for the Flyers. They had some decent jump in the first period, and indeed got the better of the chances through that first frame, and were able to make it more than halfway through that first period before so much as allowing a shot on goal. And they were able to carry that defensive steadiness nicely into the second period, but ultimately, it wasn’t an effort that they were able to sustain.
Because the mounting frustration from that goal drought stretching on really seemed to weigh on them, as time went on, and they began to cheat on defense in order to create more offense, and that burned them in a big way. It’s a shame too, because Sam Ersson was otherwise playing a strong game, but some breakdowns in front of him by the skaters had this game going sideways on them.
Ristolainen Watch
In a game with not a whole lot going on, there was one big thing of note: Rasmus Ristolainen played his last shift at the tail end of the second period and then was missing from the bench for the whole of the third.
And this is a curious situation. If you’re thinking “I don’t remember seeing anything dramatic happen to him that would make me feel sure he’s injured,” you wouldn’t be the only one. We (sentient blog) have no inklings on what may have happened to him, and the broadcast, combing through clips of his last shifts, noted that they didn’t see anything standing out for them either. Obviously this raises the intrigue level as we just saw another player pulled mid-game for trade related reasons, but with no rumblings from the league insiders coming up yet, this whole thing remains a big old mystery. Something to monitor though!
As our old pal Charlie O’Connor would say: welp.
The Flyers kicked off their brief road trip out West this afternoon with a matinee game in Colorado, and if the gut feeling was that a very depleted Flyers team matching up against a very dangerous Avalanche team was going to be a rough one, it ended up being very correct. Let’s get into it?
The Basics
First period: No scoring
Second period: 8:33- Samuel Girard (Mittelstadt, Drouin), 17:23- Nathan MacKinnon (Makar, Drouin)PPG
Third period: No scoring
SOG: 24 (PHI) – 32 (COL)
Some takeaways
The Philadelphia Phantoms
We alluded to a depleted lineup for the Flyers, and boy was it ever. And to make up for some of the absences they’re dealing with, they already had Anthony Richard and Rodrigo Abols up from the Phantoms to fill in up front, and for today’s game, they had to double down on AHL recalls in the mix, inserting both Emil Andrae and Jacob Gaucher (making his NHL debut, to boot) into the lineup.
And we can give some credit to those guys — Abols had a couple of looks, Andrae made a few nice defensive plays, and Gaucher was nicely involved in all areas in the minutes he got — it’s not like they’re playing extremely poorly or looking hugely in over their heads, they’re just in a setting where nothing is really clicking for anyone, and it’s hard to stand out in a big way in the face of all that.
A big goal drought
The big storyline from this game, of course, was the lack of scoring. It’s a historic lack of scoring, truth be told, as the Flyers were shut out for three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.
And that’s a tough one, to be sure. The team is clearly looking frustrated (more on that later) and looking around for answers, but things just aren’t clicking for them at the moment. It isn’t for lack of trying, and while the Flyers might not be getting the same huge volume of good chances that they have in other games, it’s not as though they’re getting absolutely none either. But this is just, at least in part, a product of their situation right now — their lineup is depleted by injury with Owen Tippett and Ryan Poehling out, now they’re without Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee on top of that, the players that came back for them in the trade haven’t been able to get into the lineup yet as they await their visas, and they had the weirdness with running an 11 forward setup to work with on top of all of that. The team is trying, but the deck is stacked against them right now.
Feb 2, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae (36) and Colorado Avalanche left wing Joel Kiviranta (94) battle for the puck in the second period at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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