“The Issues Today Revolve A Lot Around The second unit” Capitals Dominate Flyers 4-1: Philly’s Nightmare Continues
On the first night of a home-and-home with Washington, the Flyers came out flat against the Capitals, and fell to 1-4-1 on the young season.
The loss featured many of the same trends that we’ve seen through the first six games of the year, with a lack of quality center play, turnovers from young defenseman, and a return to the power play that was dreadful in 2023-24. This might be a rebuild, folks.
The Basics
First period: 3:49 – Nic Dowd (Fehervary) (SHG), 15:07 – Andrew Mangiapane (McMichael) (SHG)
Second period: No scoring
Third period: 0:34 – Travis Sanheim (York, Michkov), 1:38 – Dylan Strome (Carlson, McMichael), 14:07 – Jakob Chychrun (Duhaime, Vrana)
SOG: 29 (WSH) – 18 (PHI)
Power play woes
The Flyers power play is … returning to its 2023-24 form, and that’s not a good thing for any of us. But particularly, the issues today revolve a lot around the second unit, which was depleted without the likes of Jett Luchanko and Tyson Foerster. Instead, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton saw time on the power play for their first extended looks of the season, and the second unit was a mess.
In the first period alone, two misplays by the group, particularly Egor Zamula, led directly to two Capitals shorthanded goals. In both cases, Zamula was caught behind the play as the Capitals went the other way on breakaways. Really, if something doesn’t change, the Flyers are going to have to look at removing Zamula from the second unit. There’s far too many times when Zamula’s mistakes turn into legit chances for the penalty kill, and the Flyers can’t afford to keep a guy like that on the man advantage.
Brink has jump, but commits bad turnover on power play
Speaking of power play woes, Bobby Brink was certainly a part of them, as one of his turnovers led directly to the Capitals’ second shorthanded goal of the night. And to top it all off, John Tortorella certainly noticed it, and removed Brink from PP2 on the Flyers remaining power play opportunities for the night.
However, Brink had some noticeable pop tonight in a game where not a ton of Flyers had it. There were numerous shifts, especially in the second period, where it felt as if Brink was flying on the ice and creating chances for his teammates. It’s fair to wonder though that despite Brink’s offensive creation, the mistake on the power play sends Brink out of the lineup when Tyson Foerster and Jett Luchanko check back in tomorrow night.