PHILADELPHIA — Travis Konecny, who scored the only two Philadelphia Flyers goals Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center in a tight 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, quickly shot down a suggestion the team should be heartened by its being able to stay with the Atlantic Division leaders in both games of a home-and-home set. Despite also dropping Sunday’s game, 3-2 in overtime, the Flyers went toe-to-toe with Craig Berube’s club that already looks more playoff ready than it has in years past.
“I think we’re a top team, too,” Konecny said. “We can compete with anybody.”
Compete, maybe. But actually win, well, that’s the issue. Particularly lately.
The 17-19-5 Flyers are steadily working their way down the Metropolitan Division standings, now two games under hockey .500 for the first time since Nov. 20. Though they’ve strung together some decent minutes against other strong clubs, particularly in stretches coming out of the Christmas break, they’re still 3-7-1 in their last 11 games and 1-3-1 in their last five.
The main culprit in some recent losses was putrid goaltending. But Ivan Fedotov, who allowed three goals on 17 shots Tuesday, wasn’t the primary reason the Flyers fell. Instead, it was their perpetually awful power play and declining penalty kill that were mostly to blame.
Only one of Toronto’s three goals came with a man advantage, but the other was power-play influenced, coming just one second after a penalty expired. John Tavares overpowered Fedotov with a wrist shot from the circle early in the second period to tie it at 1-1 on a man advantage, and then just 41 seconds after Konecny’s second goal after a nifty steal from Noah Cates restored the Flyers’ lead, Auston Matthews found open ice before zipping it home just as Tyson Foerster was stepping out of the box for high sticking him earlier. Matthew Knies’ game winner at 13:21 of the third on a deflection was all the Maple Leafs needed.
A point of pride last season and the early part of this season, the Flyers are down to 19th in the NHL on the penalty kill, with a 78.4 percent success rate.
“It’s just a good power play. They’re moving,” Cates said. “Just got to kind of find that chemistry and work together, and talk together a little bit more.”
That’s 20 goals for TK and a four-game point streak for Catesy. 😎#TORvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/5N1CDyhdTg
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 8, 2025
The power play wasn’t any better, going 0-for-4 with four total shots on goal. It’s 2-for-28 over the last 12 games.
At five-on-five, the teams were fairly even. Special teams were the difference.
“We were playing the right way,” added Cates, who has points in four straight games, and 11 of his last 13. “Really aggressive on them in the neutral zone against their top guys. I think we take some confidence, it just really hurts not getting a point tonight, but if we play the right way, and if we play like that against a lot of these teams, I think we’ll get points and start to get on a roll here.”
Coach John Tortorella wasn’t all that critical of the Flyers’ performance, revealing that the Flyers’ internal metrics showed they held the powerful Maple Leafs to just 10 scoring chances.
But, “too many penalties,” said the coach, whose club was short-handed four times. “We played a good game.”
If there was positive news Tuesday, it came earlier. Goalie Sam Ersson, who left a New Year’s Eve win over the San Jose Sharks after two periods, was back on the ice skating on his own and then briefly with the team during the morning skate. Tortorella is hopeful that Ersson’s lower-body injury won’t keep him out for an extended period, as he was in late November/early December when he missed 11 straight games.
“Hopefully he can get himself solid and get back to it,” Tortorella said.
In the meantime, Fedotov, making back-to-back starts, showed to be more reliable than Aleksei Kolosov has been recently. Just the fact he didn’t let in multiple egregious goals in either outing — and none of the three Tuesday could be called that — was an improvement over Kolosov.
Fedotov did acknowledge Tuesday’s game was difficult in that he didn’t see any shots until there was 5:38 to go in the first period, and the Maple Leafs had just nine shots through two periods.
“Feel better game by game,” Fedotov said. “A little bit tough when (the) opponent (is) not shooting a lot.”
He continued: “Feel really good when you play a lot, and you can find (a) rhythm.”
Tortorella declined to say whether Fedotov’s recent play has moved him up the goaltending ladder and ahead of Kolosov. In the morning, he acknowledged he still isn’t quite sure where it’s all going to go, considering Ersson’s injury issues and the inconsistencies and inexperience of the other two.
“Obviously, goaltending is something, each day I wake up I’m not sure where it’s at, the way it’s gone so far,” he said. “But, that’s something we’re trying to iron out.”
Unless they do, while also ironing out the wrinkles in their special teams game, the wins are going to be difficult to come by.
“Eventually, it will turn around for us,” Konecny said. “Just keep working hard.”
(Photo of Ryan Poehling and Bobby McMann: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
