Shayne Gostisbehere
Sam Morin’s first NHL goal was the difference in this game, one the Flyers absolutely needed to have. It doesn’t solve all their problems and it remains to be seen what effect this has on the team moving forward. But this could be their last chance to take a positive moment, a moment that can bond a team, and turn the season around.
An unlikely hero emerged late in the third, as Sam Morin scored his first NHL goal with 4:27 to play in the game. That goal held up as the game-winner, in a much-needed, 2-1 victory for the Flyers over the Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.
After another lopsided defeat to the Rangers that eerily resembled last week’s 9-0 embarrassment, this time an 8-3 margin, the statements made this week mean very little. This team is fractured beyond repair. It likely requires some sort of significant change. And the worst part is that in a year where there is so much uncertainty and hesitancy to take action, the Flyers might be stuck.
The Flyers took the ice against the Rangers at Wells Fargo Center and should have had revenge on their minds. Instead, the Rangers scored three in the first and three early in the second to pile on. Carter Hart was chased from the game. Mika Zibanejad had another hat trick and six-point game. And the Flyers were shelled by the Rangers again, this time by a score of 8-3.
The only thing consistent about the Flyers right now is their ability to be inconsistent. One night, you get a decent effort. The next, you get an embarrassing effort. And on a night when you needed to build on that effort, needed to turn it into a win, needed to start getting things back on the rails right away, the Flyers were as flat as can be.
Losses are losses at this stage of the season. Whether it’s 9-0, or 6-1, or 2-1 in overtime, they all hurt the same in the standings. It’s a missed opportunity at two points that you had when the night began. But in this game, when the Flyers did deliver the effort and executed better for almost the entire 60 minutes, two glaring mistakes cost them, and this time, they didn’t have the answers to make a couple of mistakes change the result.
Anthony Beauvillier got a wraparound chance and scored with 1:19 remaining in overtime to hand the Flyers a 2-1 loss to the Islanders on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
In the end, the Flyers probably got the deserved result for the chances they had in the third period and the strong start they had in the first. It’s two points they desperately needed and will take any way they can get at this point. The process on the ice may still have a lot of flaws and they were on full display again, but it’s a game the team can put back in the win column, another game where they took care of business against a team behind them in the standings.
The Flyers stayed the course, and this time, pulled off the comeback to claim the two points. Jake Voracek got the deciding goal in overtime with 1:13 remaining to give the Flyers a 5-4 win.
Both Alain Vigneault and Claude Giroux said the Flyers are trending in the right direction. James van Riemsdyk agreed and said they did a lot of good things. But the results don’t lie. The Flyers are not a playoff team at the moment in the standings for a reason. And they need a quick fix or this will be yet another season of disappointment, yet another season of mediocrity.
