The Philadelphia Flyers got a taste of their biggest loss of the season, losing 5-0 to the Los Angeles Kings on home ice. Falling to a 5-6-1 record on the season, what were some takeaways from the thorough defeat?
Flyers’ Self-Inflicted Wounds Prove Costly
While the Kings had a very solid game, the Flyers helped them as best as they could to win this game. They had several untimely turnovers, had poor discipline, and were never really in the game to begin with. The scoreboard tells the truth, with it suggesting that the Flyers being dominated at every facet of the game. That they were, and it was certainly an uninspired effort overall.
Cam York’s play in this game was rather disappointing, and it seemed as though head coach John Tortorella agreed, benching him for the third period of the match. He was beat earlier in the game with him watching a goal go past Cal Petersen in the first period, and took a needless delay of game penalty that would result in a tally on the power play for the Kings. He shouldn’t be a scapegoat for the loss, but he exemplified the way the team played as a whole. He will be better in the future, but this was definitely an off night for him.
Petersen wasn’t at his best, letting in a couple goals that he theoretically could have stopped. Even with that, the Flyers really gave him no chance to compete to begin with, not even considering the fact that they were held scoreless by the Kings anyways. They were sloppy and simply got beat in every way by Los Angeles. No goaltender could have won for the Flyers, and their self-inflicted wounds made sure of that.
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The Orange and Black really haven’t had a blowout loss against them this season, but this was certainly one of them. Their mistakes turned a bad effort into an ugly one. The Flyers beating themselves has been a bit of a theme this season and was very apparent in this game.
Power Play Continues to Falter
On four opportunities to strike, the Flyers’ power play was unable to score once again. Scoring on only four of their 41 attempts so far this season, the man advantage has simply been abysmal. There have usually been a few good chances for the Flyers in a specific game to at least use as a positive, but that was not the case in this match. The Flyers have lacked a reliable power play since the days of Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, and it is showing once again this season.
The Flyers have had good movement at times on their power play, but they lack a true superstar to man it, as well as someone with an elite shot to take advantage of open space. That might be coming with forward prospect Cutter Gauthier, showing consistent flashes of brilliance on the man advantage in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Unfortunately, the Flyers won’t have his services available to them in a timely manner to try and get something going.
In the last few seasons, the power play has been borderline unusable in Philadelphia. No team in the league has scored on it at a worse rate than the Flyers since the start of the 2021-22 season, and that trend likely won’t change this season, now a dozen games into the Flyers’ 2023-24 campaign.
Related: Flyers’ Strengths & Weaknesses for 2023-24
By no means was the Flyers’ power play ever considered to be a strength, but improving on their last-place finish in terms of power play percentage in each of the last two seasons seemed like it was a reasonable assumption to make. With how it has performed so far, it will have a chance for a three-peat as the least efficient power play in 2023-24.
Flyers Completely Countered Offensively
It has been rare for the Flyers so far this season, but they were simply shut down offensively by the Kings. It’s important to give former Flyers’ goaltender Cam Talbot his props for shutting the door, but they really didn’t challenge him whatsoever. The Kings had the Flyers’ number all night, and they did a sensational job defensively. Nothing the Philadelphia offense tried could work.
There were very few forwards that looked good for the Flyers, if any. Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost were arguably the two best, but even they weren’t incredibly impressive, at least for their standards. They did some good work in order to start plays, but nothing notable truly came out of most of them.
There was really no high-quality chance for the Flyers during the entirety of the game. By the time the third period hit, they were completely out of it and didn’t threaten with opportunities at all. Registering more shots on goal in the first period alone than the rest of the game, they made Los Angeles’ job just that much easier.
The Flyers’ biggest strength this season has been their offense. When it’s not generating at all, they won’t win a single game. Philadelphia was certainly humbled by a dominant Kings team. There is a reason why they are a real contender in the Western Conference. Not even the Vegas Golden Knights gave the Flyers this much trouble, so perhaps it was just an off night.
The Flyers begin their annual California road trip by visiting the 0-10-1 San Jose Sharks to start out on Nov. 7. With their opponent allowing 10 goals in each of their last two games, it is a great opportunity for the Flyers’ offense to get going.