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The Philadelphia Flyers are heading into a pivotal Tuesday night game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden with a dreadful 2-6-1 record.
That gives them a total of five points in nine games and a placement of 31st in the NHL. Only the San Jose Sharks, who just won their first game of the season against the Utah Hockey Club on Monday night, are worse.
They are 1-7-2 and have four points in 10 games.
The Flyers, who are effectively the Sharks of the East, at least for now, need to find ways to win, and they’ve been finding ways to lose instead.
Rookie goalie Aleksei Kolosov played a good game for the Flyers against Montreal on Sunday, and although he conceded one weak goal out of the four, the Flyers had scored one goal through the first 57:48.
When you fall asleep for a whole period defensively and can’t score unless you’re on a power play or the goalie is pulled for an extra attacker, losses are bound to happen. The Flyers have a lot of players riding the struggle bus right now, and a tough matchup against a well-coached Bruins team is not going to make the process of breaking that cycle any easier.
Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Bobby Brink
Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton – Tyson Foerster
Noah Cates – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Extra: Nick Deslauriers
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Emil Andrae – Erik Johnson
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Extra: Egor Zamula
Sam Ersson (S), Aleksei Kolosov OR Ivan Fedotov
Pavel Zacha – Elias Lindholm – David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand – Charlie Coyle – Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic – Matt Poitras – Morgan Geekie
John Beecher – Mark Kastelic – Cole Koepke
Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei – Charlie McAvoy
Nikita Zadorov – Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman (S), Joonas Korpisalo
This is going to be a big game for the Flyers as a whole, but it is also an opportunity for Sam Ersson to have a statement game against the Bruins in lieu of all the instability behind him.
Ersson is an OK 2-2-1 this season, but his ugly 3.56 GAA and .872 save percentage will need some work. It is telling that the Flyers’ only two wins this season have come with Ersson in goal.
After Kolosov made his NHL debut on Sunday, it has become clear that head coach John Tortorella is a.) trying to win games with who he thinks is his best option between the pipes, and b.) actively trying to avoid burning Ersson out.
If Ivan Fedotov continues to show an inability to give the Flyers quality starts in goal, it’s going to be a problem.
In terms of the offensive struggle bus, here are some things I’m looking at:
Noah Cates has one assist in five games and has three games without a single shot on goal.
Tyson Foerster has zero goals and one assist in his last seven games. After starting the season with four shots on goal in each of his first two games, Foerster has two shots on goal in the six games since. That’s not going to cut it.
Joel Farabee started his season with a point in each of his first three games, but has one assist in the six games since. Four of his nine games have ended without a shot on goal.
Morgan Frost had three assists in three games at the start of the season, but the wheels have fallen off since then. He’s played fewer than 20 shifts in each of his last four games, has piled up a minus-10 plus-minus rating in his last six games, has yet to score a goal, and hasn’t recorded a shot on goal in either of his last two games.
We can go on and on, but those are the guys the Flyers are looking to for offense. Frustration is setting in, there’s no structure, turnovers are becoming prevalent, and players aren’t getting involved as a result.
It’s a recipe for disaster if left untreated.
Puck drop on Tuesday night’s Flyers game will be shortly after 7 p.m.
Tuesday night’s Flyers game will be televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia. For fans unable to watch the Flyers game, 97.5 The Fanatic will have the radio broadcast.
How Connor McDavid Injury Affects the Flyers
Bailey’s Daily: Flyers Rookie Hype; Demidov Surging in KHL
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