The Flyers had their chances Tuesday night. They just didn’t cash in on enough of them, and that was the difference in a 4-2 loss to the visiting Minnesota Wild.
Philadelphia’s finishing issues, a season-long problem, finally turned into a game that slipped away because of it. The Wild opened the night with a quick burst, taking a 2-0 lead in the first period and forcing the Flyers to chase almost immediately.
Matt Boldy got Minnesota started by slipping away from defensive zone coverage and beating Dan Vladar from the slot. Just 31 seconds later, Michael McCarron found space behind Noah Cates and Cam York and finished from close range to make it 2-0.
The Flyers did get a response, and it came from a couple of players who badly needed one. Joel Eriksson Ek pushed the Wild edge to 3-0 less than a minute into the second period, but Tyson Foerster cut into it late in the frame by redirecting a long Jamie Drysdale shot in traffic for his third goal of the season.
Then Denver Barkey gave Philadelphia a real pulse early in the third. On the power play, he took a clean pass from Porter Martone and ripped it to the near side over Jesper Wallstedt’s shoulder for his first goal of the season, trimming the deficit to 3-2.
Barkey has been making his presence felt in the bumper spot on the power play, and the numbers back that up. Four of his six points this season have come in the last seven games.
“Barks does a hell of a job in the middle supporting, which is honestly the biggest difference [on the power play] I’ve seen, personally,” Zegras said. “Any 50/50 battle, he’s right there to help and support.
He’s such a smart player, and he’s able to get it to that next guy, which just relieves a lot of pressure. He had a big goal for us tonight, which was great.”
Tyson Foerster’s goal and Barkey’s power-play strike gave the Flyers life, and they kept pressing after that. They outshot Minnesota 11-4 in the third period and kept pushing for the final 18 minutes after Barkey’s goal. But Danila Yurov sealed it with an empty-netter, and the Wild walked away with the 4-2 win.
Afterward, the frustration was easy to hear. Zegras pointed to the missed chances and the need to finish earlier in the game.
“We got to start, myself included, finishing some chances and giving ourselves a better chance earlier in the game,” Zegras added before studying a stat sheet at the podium. “We definitely had our looks, we had our chances.
I don't know what the shots were. I felt like we had some good sustained O-zone time for a lot of the second, most of the third.
Probably put a couple of those home, it’s a different game, right?”
That’s been the Flyers’ story far too often this season: not a full 60 minutes, not enough clean execution, and not enough damage done when the game is there to be taken. Barkey put it plainly after the game, saying the team needs to start “on time.”
The Flyers have had enough opportunities to turn things around against teams like Buffalo, Colorado, Utah, Ottawa, and Minnesota. Instead, they spotted the Wild a lead they couldn’t overcome.
It felt familiar, too, after the 4-3 overtime loss to Columbus last week and the 5-4 loss to Anaheim before that. Philadelphia keeps putting itself in holes, keeps finding moments to climb out, and keeps coming up short because of mistakes it still hasn’t cleaned up.
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