The Flyers are still searching for answers – dependable ones.
Travis Konecny produced a four-point night (with two goals and two assists), Owen Tippett snapped his five-game goal-less drought, and Morgan Frost finally got on the board with a slow-roller off his shin pad.
They climbed out of a second-period hole and battled the Carolina Hurricanes to a late-game draw.
And they still lost.
They got pinned down and worn down in their own end during regulation’s final minute, which created the opening for a surging Martin Nečas to put a rebound away through chaos in front of the Philadelphia net – all just with 30 seconds left.
It was a backbreaker – with an empty-netter soon after for Carolina’s good measure – in a 6-4 loss on the road Tuesday night.
The Flyers have lost two straight after winning two straight and have dropped seven of their last 10 games.
They’re 4-8-1 with only nine points, which as of Thursday morning, has them at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, with a matchup against a weakening but still threatening Lightning team due up in Tampa later in the night.
They’ll still be searching for answers.
Matvei Michkov will be doing it from the press box.
The Flyers announced with the posting of Thursday night’s lineup that their star rookie will be a healthy scratch against Tampa Bay, after he was benched for a bit last week against St. Louis and saw his ice time decline over the past few games from the 19-21 minute range down 13-15.
Michkov had an assist on Konecny’s first goal Tuesday night against Carolina, while on the power play, but skated in just 13:57.
“Just part of the process,” said head coach John Tortorella, who hinted last week that this was a possibility, of Michkov’s scratching after the Flyers’ morning skate Thursday.
“With young guys, they can watch games, too, as far as development. It’s trying to help him.”
All within a stretch where the 19-year old has been seeming to realize just how tough the NHL really is.
Michkov has brought four goals and six assists through the first 13 games out of the gate for the Flyers, but since his two-point, plus-four performance in Oct. 26’s 7-5 win over Minnesota, opposing play around him has picked up in its physicality and his care with the puck, along with his pursuits away from it have slipped.
It’s inevitable that it’ll stand as an unpopular move among the fan base for its team’s chosen star, but at the same time, with a Tortorella-coached team, general manager Danny Brière and the Flyers always knew this was pretty inevitable.
So Michkov will watch for a night looking for answers from up top, while the rest of the team continues to try and find them on the fly down below.
Anthony Richard, the recent call-up from Lehigh Valley to fill in for Ryan Poehling’s IR stint, will dress with the hope that he’ll bring the speed into the forward lineup that was on display through camp and the preseason. Down with the Phantoms in the AHL, he racked up four goals and five assists for nine points after seven minor-league games in.
Aleksei Kolosov, who faced a flurry of Carolina shots on Tuesday (stopping 29 of 34), is slated to start again in goal in Tampa on Thursday night, as he continues to try to find his footing in the NHL amid his current look as the Flyers’ backup netminder and Sam Ersson’s recent injury.
It’s been an up-and-down run for the 22-year old so far in what’s already proven to be a volatile backup situation that the Flyers weren’t anticipating. And in the immediate view of Thursday night, it’s shrouded in a bit of mystery now, too, as reports came out from the morning skate that Kolosov left the ice early with trainers trying to stretch something out in the tunnel (per PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor).
As for the rest of the team, they’re still trying to find themselves, still early into the season, granted, but in a hole that’s getting deeper and quicky.
The flow from the near-identical group that caught nearly everyone by surprise and made a season-long push for a playoff spot last season just hasn’t been the same.
Puck movement has largely looked sloppy and disjointed for the better part of the season so far, which has led to an offensive drought that’s been plagued by flubbed chances or an inability to work into the high-danger areas at the front of the net.
Last week, when they finally rung off two straight wins for the first time all season over Boston and then St. Louis, it required a renewed defensive commitment dependant on heavy checking and relentless shot blocking, which got the Flyers by with 2-0 and 2-1 results, respectively.
But that’s a tough style of play to sustain over the course of 82 games.
The Flyers still need more offense, and other ways to win if they’re going to get by.
So they’re still searching for answers – dependable ones.
“We’re trying our best,” Konecny said in the postgame quiet of Tuesday night’s loss. “I mean, I thought we played a pretty good game.”
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