Patience can only stretch so far, and David Jiricek may already be pushing the Flyers to the edge of theirs.
The 22-year-old defenseman had a rough night in Philadelphia’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday, a game that dropped the Flyers to 0-2-2. The whole team was outplayed, but Jiricek’s mistakes stood out in a way that was hard to ignore. He looked shaky in his own zone, struggled in the neutral zone, and had a giveaway that turned into the kind of replay you wince through twice.
That sequence was the low point. Under a bit of pressure while racing for a loose puck headed back toward his own end, Jiricek fired a blind pass that went straight to Pontus Holmberg.
Holmberg was waiting on the other side of the ice, suddenly handed possession, and Jiricek’s attempt to recover went nowhere fast. Holmberg blew past him and finished for his first goal of the season.
It was the kind of mistake that defines a night. Loud, ugly, and impossible to miss.
And yet, the frustrating part for the Flyers is that Jiricek’s overall numbers were not nearly as disastrous as that one play suggested. Philadelphia actually performed better with him on the ice than without him.
At 5-on-5, the Flyers posted just 30.49 percent of the shot attempt share and 18.75 percent of the expected goals share as a team. With Jiricek out there, they won the attempt battle 14-12 and owned 63.25 of the expected goals share.
No other Flyer topped 50 percent in on-ice shot attempt share. After Jiricek, the next-best expected goals share among Flyers against Tampa Bay belonged to Carl Grundstrom at 40.33 percent. Jiricek logged 14:31 at 5-on-5, though he didn’t contribute much on the offensive side, finishing with one shot on goal, two attempts, and nothing else.
That leaves the Flyers in an awkward spot. Jiricek is still just 22, but the margin for error is getting tighter.
If he were not waiver-eligible, the path would be easier to map out. As it stands, the question becomes whether Philadelphia keeps trying to make this work, sends him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, or eventually opens the door for someone else.
Oliver Bonk is one name that comes up as a possible option, especially with Rasmus Ristolainen out injured for now.
Still, Jiricek is not the biggest problem on this team. The Flyers have bigger issues than one defenseman getting turned inside out in a 4-1 loss to a strong opponent.
Even a cleaner play on that goal likely would not have changed the result. What matters more is that Philadelphia has lost the defensive structure that helped carry it to the playoffs last season.
That bigger breakdown is the real concern. Jiricek’s future is part of the conversation, sure, but the Flyers’ larger collapse in structure is the thing demanding attention right now.
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