The Philadelphia Flyers put an end to their three-game losing streak on Monday night. But did they ever make it as tough on themselves as possible.
Cruising through two periods with a 2-0 lead and a sizable shot on goal advantage, the Flyers nearly collapsed in the third, at one point allowing the Vancouver Canucks to outshoot them 13-0 and cut the deficit to one. But Travis Sanheim’s distance snipe from the defensive zone into the empty net with 59 seconds left finally allowed the Flyers to breathe easy, locking down the 3-1 victory over the league’s worst club by record.
Travis Konecny and Michael Bunting also scored for the Flyers, who earned just their fifth win of the season with the victory. Joseph Woll nabbed his second win as a member of the club, stopping 18 of 19 shots. Leevi Meriläinen made 14 saves in defeat.
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3 Comments (2 conversations)
guadzilla
Some of the Flyers 3rd period woes are a direct outcome of a young team with a lot of losses and feeling the pressure to win. Fans talk a lot about “let the youngsters play through the growing pains” – well, that’s what this is.
Re Tocchet – i am not in the camp of going “fire the coach” at the drop of a hat. But it certainly seems to me that he is focused more on winning now vs developing the players. Torts was ok with his talented forwards making some mistakes as long as they played to their strengths – he gave TK his leash and even MM, to some degree (benchings and occasional scratchings notwithstanding), and both of them responded with great seasons.
But Tocchet seems to be focused on winning now to a much greater degree. I realize that’s what coaches are paid to do – to get the team to win. But surely he and DB should be aligned on the goals – that player development is more important than short-term gains. That doesnt seem to be happening. MM will learn to take shorter shifts over time – let the guy develop his creative skills now and take a few more chances. He and Zegras are the only 2 players creating anything right now. In what planet does it help his development to cut his ice-time short b/c he stayed out longer trying to create more offense?
rts88
I hope that the dust up between Michkov and Seeler is just that. However, Ricky Glasses had this happen in his locker room before with Miller and Pettersson in Vancouver. We all know how that worked out.
guadzilla
Seeler is probably just trying to echo what the coach is saying (as expected from a veteran player) about being responsible and playing it safe.
The bigger issue is that this “playing it safe” mindset – and the associated punishing of young, creative players for trying too hard to create offense – is the message that Tocchet is preaching to the team, and the message that Seeler and the other veterans are also trying to hammer.
Dont get me wrong – i get the importance of playing within structure. It’s a team sport, after all. But there is also a balance between enforcing structure and letting your talented players unleash said talent. Torts had that balance dialed down well. Tocchet is way too dogmatic.