Dan Sanford

Sports Editor

das6267@psu.edu

The Philadelphia Flyers already knew they were in deep trouble after a 10-game losing skid earlier this season which saw head coach Alain Vingeault relieved of his duties after eight of them. They sat at a 9–12–4 record by the time they won another game, and the path since Vigneault’s termination on December 6 has just gotten worse and worse.

It almost seems as if the Flyers undertook a challenge to see if they could lose more games in a row than they had already embarrassed themselves with. But surely, a team with household names in Claude Giroux, Cam Atkinson, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Ivan Provorov shouldn’t sustainably perform this poorly, right? To be that futile even once is beyond expectation.

Truly, Saturday’s win against the Los Angeles Kings marks Philadelphia’s first win since Dec. 30 against the expansion Seattle Kraken. Both matches required an overtime period to decide the winner, and the Flyers were 37 seconds away from victory when the Kings tied the game to send it to overtime.

So what’s wrong with the Flyers? To begin with, many of the Flyers’ key star pieces are missing due to injury. Kevin Hayes, a top six winger for the Flyers, played poorly through 20 games before it was revealed that a previous surgery to fix a core muscle was unsuccessful, and re-entered the injury reserve after the ninth loss on Jan. 18th. Joel Farabee, the young phenom who is arguably the Flyers’ most exciting player, was ruled out for four weeks after the following game. 

Ryan Ellis, a top pairing defenseman, has not played since November after a lower-body injury that was originally projected to keep him out six-to-eight weeks; top-line center Sean Couturier was placed on injured reserve to begin the new year. Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said Wednesday that both may miss the rest of the season.

The rest of the team, aside from Giroux and Atkinson, have simply been unable to pick up the slack. Konecny has scored two goals in his last 27 games and James van Riemsdyk has played well below the pedigree he earned with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Scott Laughton is carrying a load that he is uncomfortable with given his typical role with the team, and prospects such as Morgan Frost simply have not been able to step up in the absence of these important players. The defense has been absolutely porous, as well. It is not for the lack of goaltending attempts; Martin Jones has a just-above average save percentage as of the time this article was written, and Carter Hart has impressively held onto a 91.3 percent  save rate through this tumultuous stretch. However, the two have a poor 3.56 and 2.87 goals allowed average, or GAA, despite those save rates – a telling sign of the way the defense is playing in front of them.  

The Flyers visit Long Island to play against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, and we will know how that game ends by the time this edition of the Behrend Beacon reaches shelves.