Joel Farabee
The Flyers road trip only gets tougher as they go through the gauntlet of Central Division teams all in playoff position. That begins on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues, a team slipping a bit with a 3-4-3 record in the month of March.
The Flyers road losing streak continued on Tuesday night and reached 13 games, as they got off to a slow start in the first period. Their attempt at a comeback came up short in a 6-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
The final 20 games for the Flyers begin with the start of a five-game road trip in Detroit as the Flyers take on the Red Wings on Tuesday night.
It’s not about whether Owen Tippett has the ability in him. That’s what got him drafted 10th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft. It’s about if he can consistently have noticeable performances like the one in his Flyers debut on Sunday, especially if the opportunity for ice time and an increased role is there.
The only Flyer who needed to find the back of the net was Kevin Hayes. Hayes scored twice in the second period, including a power-play goal with 5:05 remaining. That proved to be the game-winner through the third period, as the Flyers claimed a 2-1 win over the Islanders.
One day after trading Claude Giroux to Florida, it could be the final game for several other Flyers players, as the team plays the final game before the trade deadline on Sunday afternoon against the New York Islanders.
In the end, Giroux ultimately held the keys to his destination. Florida was where he wanted to be. That left the Flyers limited in what they could get in return. If nothing else, the return in the Giroux deal is more of a reality of what the state of the Flyers is and remains after this trade, and the result of years of shortcomings by the organization.
The Flyers, without Claude Giroux in anticipation of a trade, will take on the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.
Giroux took his lap around the Wells Fargo Center ice, waved to the crowd, and darted off the ice, only to return for a curtain call, another final lap around as he was named first star of the game, and exited up the tunnel. His teammates all lined up to hug him. The emotion started to show. This felt like the end of an era.
Joel Farabee scored off the great feed from Hayes to secure a 5-4 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center on a night when the team honored Claude Giroux for his 1,000th game.
