By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Flyers came out on the short end of a hard-fought between two teams battling for playoff position. Of course, it was former Flyer Jeff Carter there to spoil the party and put the only blemish of a stellar game by Michal Neuvirth.
The Kings came into the game on a four-game winning streak and the Flyers had won four of their last five, so with both teams riding waves of success of late, something had to give eventually in a physical game where space was limited and chances were few and far between.
Here are 10 Postgame Points from Flyers-Kings.
- In 62 minutes and change, the only goal came courtesy of Jeff Carter. In 3-on-3 overtime, mistakes are always magnified and in this case, the Flyers made a critical error, following the puck. As Anze Kopitar carried the puck in the zone, Dale Weise followed in an effort to cover his man. The problem is Brayden Schenn followed and so did defenseman Brandon Manning. That left Carter wide open at the side of the net. A player who scores as regularly as he does simply doesn't miss from there.
- Give a ton of credit to Michal Neuvirth. Three times, he used his left arm while sprawling back into the crease to make a desperation save. The one thing the Flyers have really needed throughout the season is for their goalie to make a key save to bail out the team from a mistake. Neuvirth did that multiple times on Saturday.
- Putting Dale Weise and Brandon Manning on the ice in overtime turned out about as well as you could imagine, with Carter's goal coming while the two were on the ice. Weise has barely played over the last several weeks. Manning typically never sees the ice in overtime. But with Travis Konecny and Shayne Gostisbehere benched for the second straight game, there were few options the Flyers had to work with.
- More on Manning, who was also used on the Flyers second power-play unit. The Flyers power play overall was a disaster, only getting two opportunities and having one cut short by a too many men on the ice penalty, but Manning looked clueless on the power play. He's not a strong puck carrier and seldom jumps into the play. As somebody who isn't classified as an offensive defenseman, seeing him get power play time didn't make a lot of sense.
- Prior to Carter's goal in overtime, Manning carried the puck into the offensive zone looking dangerous. From the high slot, it was the perfect time to take a shot and see if Peter Budaj would leave a rebound. Instead, he tried a pass to Weise, which could not be controlled. That wasn't the only time the Flyers passed up on a shot in overtime. Jake Voracek looked like he had a chance to shoot on goal as well and instead passed off to Claude Giroux in the slot with little room to work with. Giroux managed to get a pass to a cutting Ivan Provorov, but the puck hopped off his stick before he could get a shot on goal.
- It was a bit of a slow start for the Flyers, who struggled to match the Kings speed early, but after taking nine shots in the first, the Flyers had eight total for the rest of the game, giving Budaj a relatively quiet afternoon for the 17-save shutout. So if you're counting, that's a total of 57 shots for the Flyers in their three games this week, an average of 19 per game.
- Defensively, the Flyers did a good job getting in shooting lanes and keeping the Kings to the outside early, but faded as the game went on. Consider this a solid 30-minute defensive effort with the Flyers playing on their heels for a good part of the rest of the game. Teams that play in survival mode typically take the fall eventually.
- This was quite the physical game, with the Flyers and Kings matching each other with 36 hits apiece. The best hit, a cutting hip check by Radko Gudas — that wasn't called a clipping penalty — on Kevin Gravel, which lifted him into Steve Mason's lap on the Flyers bench.
- For as good as the Flyers have been in 3-on-3 — 10-6 last season and 5-3 this season — there are few teams that rival how good the Kings have been this season at 3-on-3. The Kings have an 11-4 record in games that go to overtime, but that record also includes shootout results. The Kings are 1-3 in shootouts, giving them a 10-1 record in the 3-on-3. Impressive.
- Ivan Provorov continues to put up tremendous numbers away from the offense. He was on the ice for a team-high 24:08, blocked four shots, took two shots, had two hits and looked as dangerous as ever with Giroux and Voracek in overtime. His defensive game was decent, not his best for sure, but that hardly matters when a 20-year-old plays top-pair minutes and makes it look fairly easy.
Bottom Line
Any time you fail to close out a game in overtime and get the extra point, it's a point lost in the standings. Both teams could ill afford to let one get away, with the Flyers clinging to the final wildcard spot and the Kings entering the day with a one-point edge in the final wildcard spot in the West.
The Flyers created some mild separation in the standings — the one point temporarily gives them a three-point lead over the Panthers for the final wildcard spot and puts them one point ahead of the Bruins holding the third spot in the Atlantic Division. But mild separation is only a temporary thing. Come Monday, the margin will likely be back to within one point, and facing a tough St. Louis team, the Flyers will need points again.
It wasn't an overly poor game from the Flyers, but it certainly wasn't strong. The Flyers have started to regularly string together games where offensively, they just can't get anything going. Defensively, yes, they are keeping the puck out of their net, but still allowing too many grade-A chances and not doing enough to erase those chances and get ones of their own.
It's a disappointing end to a game the Flyers were in the whole way through on the scoreboard, even if it looked like the Kings were only a matter of time away from doing the inevitable and getting on the board. As with Thursday's game, a strong response on Monday will be a necessity.
