NEWARK, N.J. — The Flyers’ slogan this year is “Here for the Rise,” but right now their efforts are falling flat.
They followed up a disastrous loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday with a slightly better performance but still lost, 3-2 in overtime, to the New Jersey Devils.
Here are two major storylines from the loss.
Joseph Woll is good
There was a lot of talk over the summer about Joseph Woll being an upgrade between the pipes. On Thursday, in his Flyers debut, he proved it.
Throughout the night, as the guys in front of him struggled to find their game, Woll bailed his new teammates out left and right. Early on, he read the play well and ate up a shot by Jack Hughes, the eventual overtime scorer, from the right circle. It seemed to settle Woll in for a game where he’d be peppered.
Woll faced 44 shots, with 33 coming at five-on-five. He seemed to relish the chance to shut down his former coach Sheldon Keefe’s squad, as Natural Stat Trick had him stopping 11 of 12 shots from high-danger spots, 10 of 11 mid-danger, and 20 of 21 low-danger.
“Woll was outstanding, like he was terrific” coach Rick Tocchet said.
Like Sam Ersson, with whom he swapped spots via trade to be the backup to Dan Vladař, Woll is calm in net. That calmness allows him to read the play and track the puck, like when he stoned Jesper Bratt sneaking in early in the second, or stopped Dawson Mercer a few minutes later atop the crease on a bouncer.
After his preseason debut in Hershey, Woll said he has been prioritizing his athletic ability and skating. Well, he showed it in the third period when he made a Martin Brodeur scorpion-like save — Woll said he “threw a crab leg” — to rob Bratt with the score tied 1-1.
“He kept battling all night,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “We wouldn’t have been in the game without him. What a performance from him, and obviously good to see and happy for him. And the way that he was able to play, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t have gotten the win for him.”
The Flyers are still out of sync
It’s a bit shocking to see, because across the first two games of the season, the Flyers have spent a lot of time in their own end, but they don’t rank in the bottom third of the league in terms of time spent in the defensive zone. That doesn’t mean everything is OK, of course, as NHL Edge has the Flyers spending 45.8% of the time on their side of the ice at even strength. In direct correlation, they are well below the league average at 37.7% of time spent in the offensive zone.
Part of that is turnovers; they had 23 giveaways and just three takeaways on Thursday. Part of that is a disconnect — the word tossed around when John Tortorella was in charge feels apt — whether in their passing, their puck protection, or their puck support.
“We are choppy with the puck,” Tocchet said.
He added: “A little bit better in the D zone [than in the opener], but still some hockey IQ mistakes, not smart hockey. We’ve got to really buckle down here, and the problem is we don’t have much practice time, so we’re going to have to do it on the fly here.”
Defensively, the structure was better as they kept the Devils to the outside more, and there wasn’t as much running around. As Sanheim said, guys were battling harder, and it was the same group, outside of Woll, getting a chance to get things right. But it still wasn’t good enough.
“I wish I knew the answer,” forward Christian Dvorak said when asked why they have struggled so much with the puck.
“We’ve been leaving our goalies out to dry here these first two games. We’ve just got to execute better. Maybe just play simple hockey and can just go from there.”
The Flyers have gone from one of the stingiest teams last year — 25.5 shots against per game, fourth fewest — to allowing the most (41.0). Yes, it’s two games, but a) it’s not sustainable and wears the team down, and b) they are about to face the team that averaged the second-most shots last year, the Carolina Hurricanes, on Saturday (7 p.m., NBCSP).
And the Flyers are not helping themselves in the offensive zone. It’s been a lot of one-and-dones, a lack of consistent pressure, and missed opportunities. They are averaging 22 shots per game, which, to be fair, is only 3.5 shots off their average last season.
But the biggest discrepancy is in getting to the net.
According to Natural Stat Trick, last season the Flyers were seventh in high-danger chances for percentage (52.89%) and seventh in high-danger goals for percentage (53.47%) at five-on-five. This season, while a small sample size, they are dead last in the former (16.13%) and have not scored a high-danger goal while allowing two. The good news is they’re not last in high-danger chances, as they have five, but they have given up 26, the most entering Friday.
Rasmus Ristolainen scored the Flyers’ first goal of the season from atop the crease on a deflection, but it came during a six-on-five with a delayed penalty on the Devils. Sanheim’s goal was a monster slap shot past the glove of Jake Allen.
“We’re probably just, by the time you get the puck, you’re tired, you’re at the end of the shift, and you have to set up, try to make a play, get a puck deep, and put the next line in a good spot,” Dvorak said. “So I think if we do that, that’ll help us moving forward. Yes, I think we’re just trying to make too many plays in the neutral zone, and forecheck was a strength last year, so I think we’ve got to get back to doing that.”
Although it was the same group, Tocchet shifted some line combinations on Thursday.
Porter Martone started the game back on a line with Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak, and Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Matvei Michkov were reunited from last season. It seemed to give them a lift, but as the game wore on, Tocchet cut his lines down to three. Martone (12:27), who got his first shot on goal of the season, Alex Bump (8:18), and Carl Grundström (8:30) were planted more on the bench; Bump and Grundström played one shift in the third apiece, and Martone played four for a total of 2:03.
Tocchet said he shortened the bench because Hughes’ line was caving in that group and he felt he was “going with the best nine.”
