Flyers Hit A Franchise Low And The Frustration Keeps Growing

The Philadelphia Flyers' struggle to secure a victory continued with a shootout defeat to the Seattle Kraken, marking a new franchise record with their eighth consecutive winless start to the season.

Bobby McMann delivered twice and the Seattle Kraken walked out with a 3-2 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, handing Philadelphia another painful chapter in a start that keeps getting worse.

The loss pushed the Flyers’ winless streak to open the season to eight games, a franchise record at 0-5-3. Philadelphia kept finding a way to hang around, but Seattle had the last word when McMann finished the shootout in the fifth round.

McMann opened the scoring with his third goal of the season on a power play in the first period. A loose puck bounced into the right circle, and he snapped it past Flyers goalie Dan Vladar.

Seattle added to the lead in the second period when Ville Ottavainen scored his first NHL goal at 8:54. The Flyers had been caught with tired players on the ice after an icing call on defenseman David Jiricek, and the Kraken made them pay.

Philadelphia answered back with two goals to pull even. Trevor Zegras got one past Philipp Grubauer in the third period, and Christian Dvorak also scored for the Flyers. Vladar finished with 29 saves.

Grubauer turned aside 24 shots for Seattle and helped the Kraken extend their road success to three straight. He also had a tense second period with Zegras, with the two exchanging penalties after a pair of plays that escalated quickly.

Zegras slashed Grubauer, Grubauer responded with a cross-check, and after Zegras left the box, Grubauer threw a puck at him. Zegras shot it back after the whistle, and the sequence ended with both players penalized.

Even with Zegras beating him once in regulation, Grubauer came up big when it mattered most, stopping him in the shootout. McMann then finished the job to settle it for Seattle.

The Kraken continue their five-game road trip Thursday at Tampa Bay. The Flyers are in Detroit on Thursday.

In Other News...

Flyers Blue Line Still Has A Problem As Injuries Keep Lingering

The Flyers blue line is still carrying a heavy injury load as they head into their meeting with the Detroit Red Wings, with the club again preparing to be without key defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Cameron York. Philadelphia has already spent plenty of time juggling its back end, and the latest availability report suggests the group is still far from full strength as it tries to steady itself on a night-to-night basis.

Ristolainens situation is particularly notable because he had recently returned to practice after missing the last five games with a hand injury, but there is still no indication he is ready to suit up. York remains in the same uncertain lane, leaving the Flyers with more questions than answers on defense while injuries continue to ripple around the league, including Buffalos absence of Rasmus Dahlin and other notable sidelined players. [Read more 🡒]

Flyers Losses Are Raising A Trade Question Fans Wont Ignore

A rough start to the season has put the Flyers in an uncomfortable early spot, and it has already started to change the way the rest of the league looks at them. With Philadelphia struggling out of the gate, general manager Danny Briere is hearing from other teams more often than he probably expected this early, as rival front offices take a closer look at whether the Flyers might be willing to move help for the present in exchange for future value.

For a club trying to build around young talent, the line between available pieces and untouchable ones matters. The Flyers are believed to have a core of prospects and young players they are not eager to discuss, but that only makes the rest of the roster more interesting to the teams calling around. Among the names that naturally come up are veterans on the blue line, the kind of players contenders tend to want when the calendar turns and needs become more obvious. [Read more 🡒]

Flyers Showed Fight Again But One Problem Still Wont Go Away

The Flyers found another way to keep themselves in a game at Xfinity Mobile Arena, but the result still looked all too familiar. Philadelphia fell 3-2 to the Seattle Kraken in a shootout, stretching its losing streak to eight, even after Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras pushed the game into the third period with timely goals and Dan Vladar turned aside 29 shots to keep the Flyers within reach.

For stretches, it felt like the kind of response this team has been searching for, with pressure from the Flyers eventually forcing extra drama and another chance to steal points late. Instead, Seattle held firm when it mattered most, with Philipp Grubauer finishing with 24 saves and the Kraken cashing in in the shootout, leaving Philadelphia to sort through another night of effort without the payoff that would have mattered most. [Read more 🡒]