(Kate Frese/SB Nation)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The dreaded two-goal lead struck again for the Flyers.
Friday's game wasn't the first where the Flyers seemed on their way to snapping their losing streak, but it was a welcome sight for a team that had come so close times before and needed to finish.
Ultimately, they didn't, with the Islanders scoring twice in the third and getting the overtime game-winner from Nick Leddy to hand the Flyers their seventh loss in a row.
Let's get right to it with our Postgame Review.
Postgame Points
- Drought Breakers - Let's try to start with the positives. Seeing goals from Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere was a welcome sight.
Simmonds needed to be as easy as it was. It's hard to remember a cold stretch this long for Simmonds in his Flyers career, and he got a tap-in to an empty net for his first goal in 15 games. His reaction said it all.
As for Gostisbehere, who didn't have a goal in 14 games, he came so close to getting a goal of his own with a shot off the post that set up Simmonds for a rebound goal. He snapped his own streak not long after that with just his second goal of the season.
It's been a rough go of late for both players and hopefully the individual success of scoring helps loosen them up. But the overall defeat is going to be hard to take when you consider the success that the Flyers had in the middle period.
- Rookie Watch - These last two games have featured about as young and inexperienced a roster as there is for the Flyers. Six rookies were in the lineup again on Friday. For the most part, they all fared well.
Danick Martel was one of the Flyers more noticeable forwards early, but was seldom used down the stretch in a tie game. That's been the case with Taylor Leier and even Nolan Patrick as well. Patrick was especially noticeable early in the game, but really became invisible in the third period.
Defensively, there were going to be growing pains with all three rookie defensemen. Robert Hagg helped create a goal by causing a turnover and got an assist on the same play. Travis Sanheim continues to try to drive play offensively and added some physicality to the game at times. Sam Morin saw the lowest ice time among the trio, but handled himself well and was the physical presence the Flyers were looking for, tying for a team high with four hits.
- Scoring's Not the Problem - When the Flyers losing streak started, it was not due to poor goaltending or defense, but an overall lack of scoring. Remember, this seven-game skid started with a pair of shutout losses to Minnesota.
In the last four games though, the Flyers have scored 13 goals, an average of over three per game. They have gotten goals from more than just the top line and defensemen now too. Scoring isn't the problem with this team as the streak drags on, especially now that guys like Simmonds and Gostisbehere were able to snap their scoreless droughts.
And it's not like Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek aren't still providing offense. They are too. Couturier's at 13 goals, two shy of his career-high after just 23 games. Giroux is up to double-digits in goals as well and had two more points in this game.
So, yeah, scoring is not the issue here.
- Defensive Woes - Right now, this is where the biggest problem lies. Brian Elliott didn't have much of a chance on any of the goals scored by the Islanders in this game.
Both defensemen — Shayne Gostisbehere and Sam Morin — got caught out of position on the first Islanders goal, leaving Valtteri Filppula as the last Flyer back. That's a mistake.
On Cal Clutterbuck's deflection goal in the second, Travis Sanheim has him marked, but doesn't do a good enough job tying him up, and Clutterbuck is able to maneuver to the front of the net and adjust his positioning to deflect it.
The Islanders third goal came on the power play, a continued struggle for the penalty kill. The penalty kill looked a lot better in this game than the last three, but it's still holding the Flyers back and making each trip the box loom large.
The Islanders tying goal was a complete lack of positioning and physicality. Brandon Manning was man-handled by Andrew Ladd twice, as Ladd dipped and ducked to get inside positioning. And Sanheim was too busy watching Jordan Eberle with the puck to try to disrupt Ladd in the slot.
Finally, the overtime goal. John Tavares has been a magician for the Islanders in the last two games. This one was actually more impressive than his individual effort, mainly because I think he only took a short break during the overtime and otherwise held possession for the rest of the 2:44 that was played.
The Islanders do a great job resetting in the neutral zone and get the clean entry. Sean Couturier has Josh Ho-Sang marked. On the replay, you can see Jake Voracek directing Ivan Provorov to stay with Tavares, who starts to go toward the net. So Provorov stays stationary and Voracek never picks up the defenseman. Leddy comes cutting in, gets the pass from Ho-Sang and walks in uncontested for the game-winning goal.
This isn't just a case of defensive mistakes from a young defensive group. This is team defense. This is missed assignments and coverage from forwards and defensemen alike. It's got to be corrected fast and there just hasn't seemed to be any sense of adjustment at all in the last few weeks.
- Need to Finish - The Flyers entered the third period with a two-goal lead. They had a two-goal lead against Calgary last Saturday. They had a two-goal lead against Winnipeg last Thursday. All three vanished and led to losses beyond regulation.
If the Flyers want to shake off the losing streak, they also need to finish off a 60-minute effort. The game in Winnipeg was really the closest they have been to doing that. The Flyers really sat back in the third period of games against Calgary and at times on Friday too, when they could have easily put away the opponent with one more goal.
A two-goal lead is one of the most dangerous things to have with a lot of time, especially a whole period, left to decide things.
After the game against Vancouver on Tuesday, Dave Hakstol called out a lot about the team and himself really — preparation, work ethic. The only way to win with a 60-minute effort is to work hard for it. The Flyers didn't do that.
And then in overtime, the personnel decisions just screamed that the Flyers were begging to lose. Playing a trio of Claude Giroux, Valtteri Filppula and Brandon Manning in 3-on-3 overtime?
Giroux needs to be utilized in overtime for sure, but I didn't even see anything that merited the time for Filppula or Manning even as a reward for a strong game. They were two of Philadelphia's weaker players getting the benefit of playing in sudden death 3-on-3 overtime while Travis Konecny, Jordan Weal, Martel, Patrick and even Simmonds, never touched the ice. It makes no sense at all.
Quotable
"We have to find a way to get confidence, especially in the third. We have to believe in what we’re doing and what we’re doing is going to work. When we start believing that we’re a good team and we can finish games and the way we play is going to win us games, we’re going to start winning. Until then, stuff like this can happen." – Flyers forward Claude Giroux
"It starts from the net out. I got to make a couple of saves there and we get up a couple of goals and you need to close games out. I think we’ve seen it during this stretch, that we have kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. I think we have confidence going into 3-on-3, we have the skill and the hockey sense to do it. We are just losing guys and not playing man on man, that’s kind of how it breaks down." – Flyers goalie Brian Elliott
Play of the Game
A great shift from Nolan Patrick sets up Shayne Gostisbehere for the point shot that catches iron, but Wayne Simmonds is there for the finish.
By the Numbers
The game was fairly even in shot attempts at even strength the whole way through, but notice the disparity in the third period, where the Islanders posted a 60 CF% at even strength with a 21-14 shot attempts advantage. That kind of period was the difference in the game, allowing the Islanders to claw their way back and force overtime.
Stat of the Game
The Flyers had a total of 35 hits in the game, including 20 by defensemen. The Islanders finished the game with 24 hits as a team.
