PHILADELPHIA — Early on, with losses in six of their first seven games, the 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers looked like the team that many figured they would be last season: a young group experiencing growing pains and devoid of high-end skill that wasn’t nearly talented enough to be in the playoff discussion.
That hasn’t been the case lately. The Flyers beat the New York Rangers, 3-1, in their annual Black Friday game at Wells Fargo Center, in one of their most complete efforts so far. They are 7-2-2 in their last 11 and 3-0-1 in their last four.
In other words, maybe this year’s Flyers are similar to what last year’s Flyers turned out to actually be: a hard-working and typically structured club that plays together as a group and that, while still lacking the kind of talent that teams like the Rangers feature, can still will their way to enough points in the standings to keep things interesting.
In fact, they’ve already caught up to the nose-diving Rangers in points in the standings with 25. New York, which has dropped five straight games in regulation, still has two games in hand on the Flyers, but the clubs seem to be headed in opposite directions. Since none of the Blue Jackets, Islanders or Penguins appear to be world-beaters in the Metropolitan Division either, perhaps the Flyers will again remain in the mix until the very end.
Getting to 11-10-3 and over .500 for the first time since an opening night shootout win in Vancouver, headed into the second of a back-to-back on Saturday in St. Louis, could be one of those important mental hurdles they had to clear.
“Yeah, for sure. I didn’t even know that but that’s a great feeling,” Noah Cates said. “I feel like we got through a tough couple stretches in November with the schedule and whatnot so to come out of that and get our record up to .500 is huge for us.”
Leading the way has been Travis Konecny, who may actually be playing the best hockey of his career before an eight-year contract extension kicks in next season. Konecny gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead at 4:24 of the first period, just 70 seconds after Bobby Brink opened the scoring. He added a late empty net goal to seal it.
Since Nov. 5 no one in the NHL has more points than Konecny’s 19 (8g, 11a) going into Saturday night’s action (Carolina’s Martin Necas also has 19). That’s nearly double the second-highest scorer on the Flyers, defenseman Travis Sanheim (10 points). Konecny’s 16 even strength points over that span also leads the league, two more than Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.
“Just playing,” Konecny said, downplaying a question about his level lately. “Just trying to keep building what we’re doing as a team. Whatever my job is that night, just try to step up and do the best I can.”
But the Flyers are also getting more significant depth contributions lately, too. Brink’s line with Cates and Tyson Foerster was their best on Saturday territorially as well as helping to generate the first goal, which came when Foerster blocked an Adam Fox shot in the defensive zone and raced the other way before flipping the puck to Brink who was charging in alone.
This pass by Tyson Foerster to Bobby Brink 👀 pic.twitter.com/15zIaI311n
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 29, 2024
Fourth-liner Garnet Hathaway was as involved as he has been at any point this season, and had a handful of scoring chances including three good looks at the net early in the second period. Only the stellar goaltending of Igor Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game as Hathaway the Flyers tried in vain to take advantage of the numerous defensive breakdowns by the Rangers, which were at least fueled in part by the Flyers’ aggressiveness and cohesiveness.
Coach John Tortorella mentioned after the game that “three of four lines were good” on Saturday — the obvious exception being the Morgan Frost-Owen Tippett-Matvei Michkov line, which didn’t see the ice for the final seven minutes. But Frost had goals in each of the previous two games, and Michkov scored in two of the previous three, so they’ve helped the cause lately even if Saturday wasn’t their best effort.
“(Ryan Poehling’s) line has been involved — Garney ends up probably three or four really good chances tonight,” Tortorella said. “Tyson’s been inconsistent. I thought played better tonight. We’re going to need to get out more of him.”
As for Brink, Tortorella said: “I thought it was one of Bobby Brink’s better games away from the puck, with the puck. Created a lot of turnovers.”
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Flyers’ improved play is that they’re doing it without their No. 1 goalie Sam Ersson, who continues to work his way back from groin problems and was spotted on the ice on Saturday morning by NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Since Ersson came out of the lineup after a shootout win over the Sharks on Nov. 11, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov have combined for a 5-2-1 record with a meh .894 save percentage and decent 2.70 goals-against average.
It hasn’t always been pretty. Kolosov allowed a bad goal on Wednesday in Nashville and probably could have played the first better, too, in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win, while Fedotov fumbled the puck behind the Flyers’ net on the very first shift on Saturday. Had the Rangers capitalized, it could have changed the game.
But they’re both doing enough lately, for the most part. Fedotov didn’t see any Rangers shots until after the midway point of the first period, and made key saves on Brett Berard and Alexis Lafrenière late in the opening frame to preserve the Flyers’ 2-0 lead at the break.
“Tough game for Feds today. Not much action, watching that other guy (Shesterkin) just stand on his head,” Tortorella said. “He made some really key saves at key times. Koly’s done the same thing. … Those two guys, we’re alternating them through, have done the job and kept us in games when we’ve struggled, and made important saves at important times.”
While Wednesday’s game in Nashville wasn’t pretty, as the territorially challenged Flyers essentially stole the two points on a late Frost goal and Sean Couturier’s winner in overtime, Tortorella is particularly encouraged by Saturday’s win coupled with a tough 5-4 shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at home on Monday in which Fedotov could have been better but the team in front of him looked solid.
“This is the style of play we want to play,” Tortorella said. “Vegas and this game here, there are so many clips — if we see good team concept clips that (are examples of) what we want to do, we keep those on file. We’re filled with them in these two games.”
(Photo: Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)
