Missed Chances Mount as Flyers Let Another Opportunity Slip Away vs. Red Wings

The Flyers had an opportunity to gain ground in the playoff race Thursday night, and let it slip away. Despite another loss by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia fell 4-2 to the Detroit Red Wings, continuing a troubling trend of missed chances that could define their season.

“I love the effort [Thursday], [the Red Wings] just had a couple of moments, big moments — they scored, we didn’t, and that’s really what it came down to,” Rick Tocchet said postgame. “But we had our chances, we just didn’t put them in.”

He also referenced the 20 missed shots Thursday night, which, to him, has been an issue all season.

The loss came down to the third period.

Despite entering the night with a +12 goal differential in the third, the Flyers were shut down—thanks in part to a strong performance from Detroit goaltender John Gibson. The missed calls on Porter Martone will draw attention, but they didn’t decide the game. The Flyers’ inability to execute late did. The Kane goal was a game-changer, and then letting Alex DeBrincat loose off the faceoff from the Travis Konecny goal is unacceptable. That goal didn’t just seal the loss; it drained the building of its momentum. It begs the question: Was this a costly bump in the road, or has the clock struck midnight on the Cinderella Flyers?

That’s what makes Friday night against the New York Islanders so important. These two teams played each other back in January, and the Islanders won 4-0, but it’s safe to say that this Flyers team is considerably better now than they were at that point, and keeping Matthew Schaefer under wraps is going to be job one to leave Long Island with critical points.

“It’s still high, we’ve been doing very well, we can’t let two losses affect us like that,” Samuel Ersson said of the Flyers’ confidence level postgame. “We were playing well, I think we played well [Thursday] too, I have to come up with a couple more saves to keep us in it, and it sucks, but reload here and get ready for [Friday].”

When asked about his chances Thursday night, Flyers rookie Martone responded with: “I feel like I could have scored a couple, I think I’m building some good chemistry with [Konecny and Christian Dvorak], and one is going to find the back of the net soon enough.”

His poise and calm confidence are something you generally don’t see from a 19-year-old rookie, and it’s a great sign for the future.

The Flyers are going to need a “Great 80” effort from Daniel Vladar and the revamped Flyers offense to take home a win. Over the last 10 games, there’s reason for optimism. The Flyers are 6-3-1 in their last 10, compared to the Islanders’ 5-5-0 — but recent form won’t matter if late-game execution continues to falter. The Flyers need to put together three periods of the brand of hockey they are clearly capable of to get points against the team above Columbus in the playoff picture.

The loss to the Red Wings raises a larger question: a bump in the road, or the beginning of the end? This loss leans more toward an anomaly. Clean up the third period, limit neutral zone turnovers, and improve zone clears, and the outcome looks very different. The amount of energy they played with was not the issue at all; if the effort had been bland or lazy, it would be fair to start questioning the season.

But in reality, they were in that one up until the end, and there is no reason why the Flyers cannot rebound against the Islanders. Only time will tell, but as long as the Flyers concentrate everything on the Islanders and clean up sloppy mistakes, they have to find a way to take points.

If Thursday was another missed chance, the Flyers are running out of time to make up for them.

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