Bad Bounces, Missed Shots Sink Flyers Against Wild

The Flyers showed huge improvement against the best team in the West, giving a strong effort, but a couple of bad bounces and missing the net on 21 shots sunk the Flyers. Their gritty comeback fell short, with the Minnesota Wild taking a 4-2 win on their way out of town.

Minnesota’s top line is the most lethal in the NHL, and they showed that standing off in the first period when Quinn Hughes found the stick of Matt Boldy, who moved between the dots and wristed a shot past Daniel Vladar for the first goal of the game. Minnesota is 8-0-3 when they score the first goal. They didn’t wait long; 31 seconds later, when Blake Coleman was trying to clear the puck behind the net, the pass went off the skate of Porter Martone and went right to Michael McCarron, who wristed the shot past Vladar to take a 2-0 lead.

In the second period, when Jamie Drysdale tried to use the boards to clear the zone, the puck hit the linesman; Boldy collected the puck and got it to Joel Eriksson Ek, who got the puck past Vladar. After the goal, Trevor Zegras voiced his displeasure for this by banging his stick on the ice in front of the office and earned himself a 10-minute game misconduct penalty for his effort. Later in the period, Tyson Foerster redirected a Drysdale slap shot that went by Jesper Wallstedt for a goal, making it 3-1.

In the third period, the Flyers revamped their power play; Martone kept the puck in the zone and held it long enough to allow Denver Barkey to get to the high bumper, and he ripped a shot past Wallsted for his first goal of the season, bringing the Flyers within one goal at 3-2. With time winding down, Danila Yurov scored an empty-net goal to make the game 4-2.

Flyers Defense Couldn’t Clear the Zone, Leading to Disaster

The first period for the Flyers got off to a fast start, and they were in a bit of a track meet with the Wild, going back and forth until the three-minute mark, when Minnesota pressed into the zone, and the Flyers were pinned in the zone for 1:24; on the sequence that resulted in the first goal, the Wild had six passes before they got the shot off. As Minnesota was cycling the puck, the Flyers were overcommitting to chase the puck despite playing a modified zone, leaving passing open and giving the Wild open looks.

What set this up was the Wild’s ability to pass in the Flyers’ defensive zone. This all starts with Minnesota’s passes hitting their intended targets in the tape, which allows them to pull the Flyers’ defense out of shape and expose the seams in their zone. Once they’ve exposed the seams, they have the skill to make zone entries like this look more like a power play. The Flyers handled it better after this first one, but this is a learning experience for the Flyers.

Flyers Power Play Kept Them in the Game

All of a sudden, the Flyers power play unit has found some magic and has quietly become the best part of the offense for the Flyers. The power play unit of Matvei Michkov, Zegras, Martone, and Barkey has gelled and truly become a power play unit that has a plan and plays accordingly. This has resulted in them scoring seven goals in eight games.

On the second goal for the Flyers, prior to the goal, they held the zone and made smart, crisp passes leading up to the tally, which got the Flyers into position and kept the pressure on the Wild defense, which kept them on the ice longer, fatiguing them and softening up their zone. Minnesota’s defense is very stingy, and if the Flyers can wear them out, it will make them more likely to make mistakes and get caught out of position, which was the opening they needed to get the goal.

Flyers Compete Level Remained High in Loss

After Minnesota scored their second goal, the momentum was completely on the side of the Wild. Earlier in this season, adversity like this would have sunk the Flyers. They didn’t let that get them down Tuesday night and tightened up their defense and gave nothing to Minnesota. The third goal was particularly disheartening when the clearing pass went off the official and bounced right to Boldy, who got it to the puck to Eriksson Ek, which would have unraveled this team early on. But they held their composure.

It’s hard to collect morale victories, because you don’t get points in the standings for those. But this was a complete effort against one of the best teams in the West. They actually outshot the Wild 25-22, and when you add in the 21 missed shots, that shows that the Flyers are putting pressure on a championship-caliber team, and they were two bad bounces away from taking down the team with the most points in the West. This game didn’t result in points, but a 60-minute effort is a start, and this is a game that the Flyers can build on.

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