That’s a wrap on the back to back. Despite some promising gaining of momentum as the game went on, and a big stepping up performance from their fourth line, the Flyers fell short, falling to the Senators to close out their final bit of weekend action of the regular season.
The Basics
First period: No scoring
Second period: 11:43- Nic Deslauriers (York, Hathaway), 12:36- Tim Stutzle (Chabot, Hamonic), 17:17- Noah Cates (Andrae, Brink)
Third period: 4:41- Fabian Zetterlund (Pinto, Chabot), 7:33- Garnet Hathaway (Seeler), 12:54- Thomas Chabot (Crookshank, Stutzle).
OT: 1:40- Tim Stutzle (Batherson, Giroux) PPG
SOG: 32 (PHI) – 26 (OTT)
Some Takeaways
The debut that wasn’t
Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened in and around this game unfolded all before the puck even dropped. Because there was some real intrigue happening heading into this game — a little over an hour before puck drop, it was noticed that Nikita Grebenkin was listed on the Flyers’ roster on their website, and the Flyers confirmed before warmups that they had recalled him from the Phantoms on an emergency basis. But… why? As we spent time racking our brains to recall any dramatic plays from Saturday’s game which might have led to a forward taking an injury and being out for this game (and coming up empty), sources indicated that the Flyers had a couple of guys who were questionable coming into this one, and Grebenkin’s debut might just be on deck.
It was an exciting possibility, with how well he’s been gelling with the Phantoms, it would have been nice to see what he could do with the NHL team, but it wasn’t to be. Everyone on the main roster was actually healthy enough to play today, and Grebenkin was sent right back to Lehigh Valley. Whomp whomp.
Fedotov time
After getting a full day off yesterday at home, as Sam Ersson got the start against the Islanders and Aleksei Kolosov backed up, Ivan Fedotov was given the nod for this afternoon’s start. And this game was, there’s no other way to put it, a weird one for Fedotov.
He showed some good flash at times, and while he did the best he could in a couple of instances where he got hung out to dry, he also did his own fair share of hanging himself out to dry. Let us explain — the first Senators goal would have been a tough one for anyone, as it saw Zamula take a poor angle and let the speedy Stutzle get inside position on him, and drive to the net. We can forgive that one. But the second goal, though it came after failed clears for the skaters, saw Fedotov sort of losing sight of the puck and being beaten over his glove, and then the third was even stranger, with him looking like he threw his stick away and then getting beaten on a shot from distance (though one that would have likely beaten him with or without possession of his stick). And then on the fourth one, we swing back around to forgiving — beaten after some stellar cross-ice movement from the Sens on the power play in overtime, while the Flyers scrambled in front, Seeler stung and Cates without a stick.
So, all in all, not a bad performance for Fedotov, but not an altogether commanding one either.
A little sleepy
If there was a concern that there might be a bit of fatigue shown on the Flyers’ part after playing in a hard-fought game yesterday, one which went a little extra long into the shootout, and having to travel to Ottawa right afterwards, it did seem to manifest to a degree in this one. The first period and into the second period saw the Flyers looking a little off, with their pace dragging a little bit and struggling to get a good volume of chances on net.
But it would be hard to call it all fatigue — the Senators also didn’t look especially sharp at the start, weren’t getting a ton of very good chances for their part either. Perhaps it was just something about this matchup that required a long feeling out period (which, notably, was not very fun to watch either).
Surge falls short
Of course, that feeling out period didn’t last forever, and once the dam was broken (or so they say) as far as the scoring goes, we were off to the races. The pace notably picked up through the back half of the game, and while the skaters at the top of the lineup were being tightly defended and finding themselves still a bit frustrated, the Flyers’ fourth line stepped up to bring them some offense — with two of their three goals on the afternoon coming from them. The Senators found a way to keep counterpunching as well to keep this one close, but the Flyers were doing enough on their side to keep them from pulling away with this one either.
But of course, the Flyers good momentum did run out eventually. The hope was that the bonus hockey period would be as kind to them as yesterday’s, but a badly timed interference penalty taken by Travis Sanheim put the Senators on the power play, and we already know what happened from there.