PHILADELPHIA — It’s something the John Tortorella-era Philadelphia Flyers have prided themselves on for the better part of the last season-plus: They rarely stop working or giving maximum effort even when things are bleak.
Thursday’s meeting with the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at Wells Fargo Center was the latest example. After digging themselves a 3-0 hole with a couple of soft ones allowed by starter Ivan Fedotov followed by an early power-play goal on Aleksei Kolosov, who relieved Fedotov to start the second, the Flyers stayed aggressive and overtook the Panthers to snag a 5-4 third-period lead.
But there’s another part of their identity, too, and it cost them in a 7-5 loss. After Joel Farabee witnessed Sam Bennett shoving Travis Sanheim into the wall late in a 5-5 game, he jumped the agitating Panthers forward, who also appeared to get Travis Konecny with a high hit at the end of the first period. The result was a Florida power play it capitalized on, as Sam Reinhart scored the game winner with 1:59 to go. Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-netter.
There were more positives in the game from a Flyers perspective than negatives. They generally outplayed the Panthers for most of the night. Matvei Michkov registered his first career three-point game with a trio of assists and seems to be building chemistry with Owen Tippett, who benefited from Michkov’s playmaking twice. Tyson Foerster got on the scoresheet for the sixth time in the last nine games with a much-needed Flyers power-play goal. The fourth line contributed a score from Garnet Hathaway.
But the late third-period penalties to Farabee for cross-checking and Bobby Brink for interference, along with dreadful goaltending from Fedotov and Kolosov, the latter of whom allowed a terrible floater from Gustav Forsling to beat him from just inside the blue line to tie the score at 5-5 with 5:17 to go, did them in.
“I think we had a really good second period there and crawled our way out of that hole and ended up getting the lead in the third,” said defenseman Nick Seeler, whose one-man effort at 9:31 of the middle frame brought the Flyers back to within 3-2. “Would have loved to hang on to that one. A lot of positives, and I thought we produced offensively, which was great for us.”
Said Hathaway: “I thought there were times we played our aggressive style: on our toes, checking forward, things we talk about. I thought we did that for a good part of the game.”
The Flyers’ Joel Farabee had three penalties against the Panthers. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
Michkov was the biggest spark.
On Foerster’s power-play goal that got the Flyers on the board in the second, he found a lane to the net in spotting Farabee just off the post. The puck deflected through the slot to Foerster, who put it in.
A marginal call on Scott Laughton for interference shortly after Seeler made it 3-2 ended up costing the Flyers, when Carter Verhaeghe was left alone at the side of the net and easily lifted the puck over the undersized Kolosov.
But for a second time, when the Flyers could have sagged, they responded. Michkov corralled a loose puck and immediately found Tippett in the circle for a one-timer at 17:41 of the second, and just 23 seconds later the pair hooked up again when Michkov forced a neutral zone turnover with his glove and then nudged the puck ahead to Tippett, who potted another to make it 4-4 at the intermission.
“We’ve played together for a while now, started together at the start of the year — I think we’ve built some chemistry and just lately it’s been some bounces,” Tippett said.
Said Seeler: “Those guys (Tippett and Michkov) are obviously some of our most skilled players, and it’s great to see them get on the board and make those plays for us. Mich seems to find ways to make plays like that.”
Michkov is adapting well and making necessary modifications to his style, according to Tippett.
“He’s changed his game and I think a lot of the credit goes to him and the way he’s carried himself and the way he listens to guys in the room,” Tippett said. “He takes all the feedback and suggestions. He’s understanding it more and he knows us better now. A lot of the credit goes to him and just being able to absorb all that information at once.”
Had the Flyers held on, their resiliency and Michkov’s steady improvements would have been the story. Instead, Brink’s penalty negated a Flyers power play 50 seconds in, leading to Forsling’s goal that Kolosov should have easily handled.
On the Farabee penalty three minutes later, there’s a case to be made that Bennett’s hit on Sanheim should have been a cross-checking or boarding minor, too. Instead, it was Farabee — who ended a seven-game point drought Thursday — who left his team short-handed.
“I have no issues with what Beezer did,” Seeler said. “Sticks up for a guy and we end up getting a penalty. Whether that was fair or not, I’m not here to say. I have no issues with what Beezer did.”
Some questions were left unanswered after the game.
Tortorella didn’t speak, instead leaving that duty to assistant coach Brad Shaw, who wasn’t able to clarify why Samuel Ersson — confirmed as an option to play by Tortorella on Wednesday — sat out for the 10th straight game with a groin injury. Farabee wasn’t able to offer any perspective on his penalty, either. A team spokesman said well after media availability was over that Farabee was unavailable because of treatment. (It wasn’t a great look for an organization that’s trying to get back on par with the other professional sports teams in a saturated market.)
Even with the loss, though, the Flyers can still look back on the game as another steppingstone. They were the better club against one of the best in the league, and they would have come out on top had they received any semblance of NHL-level goaltending from their netminders who had been playing better lately but still probably wouldn’t be on any other NHL team’s roster.
“(The Panthers have) been in those scenarios, and they’ve found ways to have success,” Shaw said. “The fact that we don’t finish it off, that’s something we have to work on. That’s part of being a team that’s not quite down the path as far as we’d like to be as a group. … We’re going to work on that, and hopefully next time we get to this scenario, we’re taking the proper step and talking about a victory.”
(Photo of Matvei Michkov, right, congratulating Owen Tippett on his second goal of the second period: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
