The Flyers spent too much of Tuesday night chasing the game, then nearly stole it anyway.
What started as another messy, disconnected first period at Xfinity Mobile Arena turned into a frantic comeback attempt against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with Philadelphia rallying from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime. But the extra session ended the same way the night began for the Flyers: with breakdowns, and with Columbus cashing in. Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson finished off consecutive 2-on-0 chances, and Johnson scored on the second one to send the Blue Jackets home with a 4-3 win.
For a while, it looked like the Flyers had no idea how to get out of their own way. Fans were chanting “shoot” while the puck sat too long on sticks, then disappeared in turnovers and rushed transitions back toward their own end.
In a four-on-four situation midway through the first period, Philadelphia had the kind of open ice that should have helped reset the night. Instead, it led nowhere, and Columbus made the Flyers pay while Philadelphia went more than half the opening period without a shot on goal.
The Blue Jackets built their lead with a first-period goal from Fantilli, then added two more from Zach Werenski and Denton Mateychuk. The first came after a poorly timed Flyers change left Oliver Bonk stranded and Noah Cates overcommitted to the puck carrier, opening space for Fantilli to finish off the play off Dan Vladar’s blocker. The next two were open point shots, one tipped by Johnson, the other taken through traffic around Vladar’s crease that he never had a clear look at.
Philadelphia, in other words, looked exactly like a team trying to climb out of a bad start and still carrying the weight of it.
They were sloppy. They were passive.
They were not connected. Passes died in the neutral zone, possessions collapsed along the boards, and any time the Flyers got pinned in their own end, they seemed to have no clean escape plan.
The version of this team that had beaten Ottawa, Colorado and Buffalo did not show up in the first 20 minutes.
But the second half brought a different pace, if not a fully reliable answer.
Porter Martone finally turned toward the net and fired, creating the rebound Noah Cates knocked in behind Columbus goaltender Cam Talbot. Late in the third, Trevor Zegras found space and jammed a shot under Talbot’s blocker from the short side. Then, with the goalie pulled and the clock almost gone, Tyson Foerster sent a centering pass into the middle and Jamie Drysdale dropped to a knee as the puck hopped in off him to tie the game.
That surge was enough to extend the night, but not enough to save it.
The Flyers then gave up the kind of overtime chances that end games in a hurry, and this time there was no recovery. Fantilli and Johnson broke in on the second 2-on-0, and Johnson finished.
Afterward, Cates didn’t sugarcoat what the first period looked like.
“For whatever reason, seems like our energy's a little off, our mojo with positive or negative things happening to us,” Cates said postgame. “It can't be a 'poor me' mindset. It's gotta be, whether it's good or bad, let's get after it the next shift and turn the tide for us in our favor.”
He also pointed to the response after the opening frame, saying, “Coach got on us,” and added, “But I think we kinda knew after that first, not good enough, you know, getting booed, all that stuff. I'm happy with how we responded, but that first 20 can't happen.”
Rick Tocchet had already been talking before the game about the areas that had improved, even as the Flyers continued to search for a complete effort.
“Well, I think what's encouraging is the sections of the game,” Tocchet said at Tuesday’s morning skate. “We weren't scoring.
Obviously, the power play wasn't good. Neutral zone wasn't good.
Our defense, like the zone, wasn't good. But if you look [at] each, like, [our] system has been better, our neutral zone regroups have been better, scoring some more goals, power play's been better, I think.
So if you analyze that way, yeah, it's good.
“Now we still gotta work on game management. We still gotta work on 60-minute consistency.
I mean, every team's searching for the 60-minute game, right? But the sections of the game, we have improved on, which is a good thing.”
The Flyers did still get a point. But at 14 games and nearly a month into the season, the bigger picture is not getting prettier.
Their record sits at 3-7-4, and the climb from there keeps getting steeper. Time, for this team, is starting to feel like the one thing they can’t afford to waste.
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