(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Make it three straight losses for the Flyers, who managed to get onto the scoreboard, but were held to one goal. That doesn't do much to equate to wins, not unless your goalie is perfect at least.
The Islanders were a motivated team and proved it on Thursday night, handing the Flyers a 3-1 loss to knock them out of a playoff spot at the moment.
Here are 10 Postgame Points from Flyers-Islanders.
- Let's start with the elephant in the room. Shayne Gostisbehere made his return. And, get this, the power play scored a goal, off a Gostisbehere shot no less. Defensively, he was better too, though he was on the ice for two goals against. That said, the two blemishes were hardly Gostisbehere's fault. He was still trying to get into position after a bad line change on Jason Chimera's goal in the second, and on Casey Cizikas' goal in the third, Gostisbehere played the man one-on-one perfectly fine. A weak turnaround shot beat Steve Mason.
- Which brings us to the second point, Mason. There was nothing wrong with Mason's overall game, but with the Flyers down one right at the start of the third period, to allow such a weak goal to Cizikas is a backbreaker. We've mentioned time and time again that goalies need to step in and make a clutch save here and there. This wasn't even that clutch of a situation. This was routine. Mason needed to stop that.
- The Cizikas goal quite possibly should have never happened before a shot chance even went on Mason. That's because on the entry into the zone, Mark Streit was taken out of the play by Nikolai Kulemin on what looked like blatant interference. Doesn't change the fact that it was a soft goal.
- The Flyers played a great first period, truly. They took 16 shots on goal, had numerous quality chances, played physical and determined hockey. So what happened? What changed in the last 40 minutes that suddenly took all the energy and passion out of the Flyers? The full reason to that is still a mystery.
- Here's one part of the answer to the above questions: the Islanders upped their level of play in the final 40 minutes. If not for a power play, which resulted from Mark Streit taking a penalty after committing a turnover, the game would not have been tied in the first. That's how much the Flyers outplayed the Islanders in the first 20 minutes, to the tune of a 16-8 shot advantage. In the final two periods, the Islanders outshot the Flyers, 22-20. The Islanders really played the brand of hockey the Flyers should strive to play. The effort was there. The energy was there. They started winning puck battles. They started to control the play. And they never let up, not after getting the lead and not after extending it in the third.
- It sure felt like the Islanders were sloppy with the puck in the first period, but for the entire game, they committed just four giveaways. Either they really were not that bad with the puck in the first 20 minutes or were flawless for the rest of the game. The Flyers finished the game with 10 giveaways, by the way.
- It doesn't happen often, but the Flyers were completely outdone in the faceoff circle. The Islanders finished the game with a faceoff percentage of 58.7 percent to the Flyers 41.3 percent success rate.
- The Flyers fourth line does some good things every now and then. No, really, they do. The problem is that it is almost immediately followed by something very typical. A perfect example came in the second period. At the Islanders blue line, a turnover appeared to send the Flyers on a two-on-one in close quarters. The Flyers had the odd-man situation in front of them, but never truly gained possession.
- It's only the first of many games the Flyers will be without Travis Konecny, but his presence was clearly missed. Konecny was no more of a guarantee to score than any other player on the team, but the threat remains there. Konecny's presence on the second line with Sean Couturier and Wayne Simmonds would have possibly helped open things up given his speed and work ethic. Nick Cousins was a solid fill-in in this game with five shots, but the speed was lacking and that hurt this line.
- The Flyers goalie situation is about to become interesting as the regular season is winding down and the Flyers will have to make a decision on whether to keep one of Steve Mason or Michal Neuvirth or both or none. The Islanders were essentially facing a similar situation earlier this season, but made their call early. They chose Thursday's starter Thomas Greiss, who made 35 saves in the win. That's starting to look like a smart decision for GM Garth Snow and company.
Bottom Line
Wayne Simmonds said it best. "Four point game," the Flyers forward said. "Come out, don’t play in the second period, they take over and we’re trying to battle back in the third and we still didn’t do a good enough job. They still have three games ahead of us too so it hurts."
At this point in the season, the Flyers can't afford to lose the "four-point games" due to a lack of effort.
All in all, this wasn't a bad game from the Flyers. They had shots. But how many times over the course of the last three games can you take shots that are uncontested with no one going to the net? How many times can you just try to throw a shot on goal from the boards? After a while, it's obvious what isn't working. And there's no adjustments.
Much will be said about the Flyers place in the standings after this game and it is notable. The Flyers had carved out an edge for themselves in holding a playoff spot early. It was mid-December and the Flyers were comfortably climbing in the standings. But what happens to a team stuck in such a holding pattern is that they tend to fall back to Earth hard.
The Flyers have completed that fall. Even over their bye week when losing a playoff spot looked inevitable, they were only out of the playoffs on a tiebreaker technicality. Now, this is legitimate. The Flyers are not holding a playoff spot, and no tiebreaker can save them.
Dave Hakstol will face a lot of criticism for this. Ron Hextall will be questioned about the construction of this team. While Hakstol's unorthodox lineup changes may be questionable at times, he's handling the process the way Hextall wants him to, with patience. Hextall isn't changing his tone either. Patience is still the key, so don't expect a rash and bold move regarding the front office or coaching staff or playing roster during the season.
This team is what it is right now. That's a borderline playoff team. Right now, they are on the wrong side of that border. And it's up to whatever 20 players get the call on game day by Hakstol to turn the tide.
