Flyers Let Frustration Consume Them in Crushing Game 3 Loss: ‘It’s Awful’

The Flyers came back home after two road losses in very different ways. Game 1, the Flyers were overpowered by a pressuring Carolina forecheck. Game 2, they held their own, went to overtime, and lost on a goal when Taylor Hall cleaned up a rebound as the overtime period was winding down. One loss was overwhelming. The other was a gut punch. What would home ice do for the Flyers in Game 3?

Well, it wouldn’t make a difference to how the puck bounced early for the Flyers. In the first period alone, it felt like the post and crossbar saved as many Flyers shots as Frederik Andersen did. There were several, including a great chance where Travis Konecny had a breakaway, Alex Bump caught Anderson leaning, and on the shot, he rushed it slightly and hit the post, and Porter Martone had an open look, where the pipe saved Anderson. Open looks like those don’t come often against a squad like Carolina, and if you can’t capitalize, it not only deflates the team, but often times goes back the other way quickly.

Another big issue for the Flyers is that while they were playing fairly loose and in the flow of the game for the majority of the first two periods, the penalties that were taken by the team were not instances where the team was playing hard, and things happened; they were emotional responses, which seemed to reach a boiling point as the second period was coming to a close. Hall had a hit on a falling Travis Sanheim on the boards. It was a penalty that could have been a 5 minute game misconduct, but the officials ruled it a 2 minute penalty, and the Flyers lost their composure after that penalty decision.

“I was just trying to make a play on the puck,” Sanheim said postgame. “I fell to one knee and was just trying to get it out. In a vulnerable spot and he decides to finish his check, and just felt like his hands drove my head right through the wall. I thought it was a pretty dirty play.

“Just felt like he could have laid off a little bit, and he decided to put me into the wall. I guess that’s his decision.”

The Flyers’ bigger issues were that they collapsed defensively, and this collapse was on full display on the short-handed goal after the penalty decision. On the ensuing power play after the Hall penalty, the Flyers lost the faceoff in the Canes zone, Jordan Staal took the puck the other way, Jamie Drysdale bit on the shot attempt, and Stall found the trailing Jalen Chatfield to score what would become the game-winning goal.

“I just made a bad play and there’s honestly not much more to it. It was a puck that came out,” Drysdale said. “I felt like I could get to it and I saw that they had guys coming out and I tried to make the play to spread it. Kind of one of those what ifs. If it got through it was great, but time and place and I just got to put that puck back in and live for another day.”

While that was certainly a big moment, the loss of composure was the bigger issue, especially moving into the third period, where the Flyers had a manageable 2-1 deficit going into the second intermission, but the lack of discipline showed in the third period, and that would ultimately be the undoing of the Flyers in this game.

“Yeah, it’s awful. Especially at this time of the year, you wouldn’t expect all these penalties, but it is what it is,” Captain Sean Couturier said. “We got to be more disciplined at the same time and control our emotions and be better. The penalties really kill the flow of the game and it’s hard to get everyone going.”

While that moment may be looked back on as the turning point in this game and possibly the series, there are many reasons that the Flyers are standing at the edge of the cliff right now, one game away from elimination. One that has been an issue all season has been special teams, specifically the power play unit, which has been problematic all season. This has been an issue all season, but it’s only been amplified in this series. The Flyers have struggled with the man advantage all series, scoring only one power-play goal in this series. It appears that there are no answers for how to fix this unit from the coaching staff at this point, either.

“There’s reads and plays you got to make to be on the power play,” Rick Tocchet said. “In all fairness, we got some guys that are playing power play that probably wouldn’t play a lot of minutes on a power play, and we’re trying to get these guys to understand certain things.”

Never count out the heart and grit of this Flyers team, but they certainly were dealt a huge blow in Game 3, a game they had to win to get back into this series. As it stands now, they are standing on the brink of elimination against a team that hasn’t blinked yet in the playoffs. Game 4 will either be the moment that the Flyers come in and play disciplined hockey, or the end of an incredible season.

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