The 10 Points that Cost the Flyers the Playoffs

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Dan Heaning, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

With the Philadelphia Flyers season officially over, the time has come to look back upon the season and analyze what went wrong.

One way to do that is to go back and look at certain games where the Flyers really needed to pull out wins because they either were holding a lead going into the third, playing an inferior opponent or needed to prove their mettle in a playoff hunt.

As such, the Flyers missed out on making the Stanley Cup Playoffs by eight points. Yes, only seven points separated the team for the Toronto Maple Leafs, owner of the final Wild Card spot, but with a mere 32 wins in regulation and overtime the Flyers came nowhere near matching Toronto’s total for the tiebreaker.

Therefore, the Flyers were just four wins away from another postseason appearance, and upon review of this past season, the team really lost out on 10 points that would have assured them a ticket to the playoffs.

4. Dual losses to the Arizona Coyotes in October (3 points) – The Flyers drew the Arizona Coyotes early on in the season with only 11 days separating the two contests in October. In their first meeting, the Orange and Black fell behind 3-1 early in the second period. Thanks to goals by Wayne Simmonds and Matt Read, the Flyers forced overtime. Philadelphia dominated the 3-on-3 overtime, but ultimately lost thanks to an Oliver Ekman-Larsson tally late in the extra session.

While the Flyers got a point out in the desert, they weren’t able to do so at home where they were a more formidable squad this season. Philadelphia fell behind early again and tied the game at two in the second stanza. However, in the third period, the Flyers allowed three goals including the game-winner by former Flyer Ryan White in a defensively suspect final frame.

The Coyotes were one of the worst teams in the NHL this season and looking back on the schedule, the Flyers let three points slip away by allowing an inferior opponent to skate away with two wins in 11 days. The most egregious of which being the home defeat after having lost to the Coyotes already.

3. Flyers fail to adapt and overcome against Columbus in January (1 point) – Fans will blame this one on a suspect waved off goal or a goal that should have been disallowed. The Flyers thought they took an early lead, but Columbus head coach John Tortorella challenged the goal on the grounds that Michael Raffl was thought to have interfered with Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky before Andrew MacDonald’s point shot slipped by. Raffl bumped into CBJ defender Ryan Murray which resulted in the blueliner nudging his own goaltender, who was outside of his goal crease.

In the second period, the Blue Jackets took the lead when David Savard sent his own point blast past Steve Mason, who seemingly was interfered with by Josh Anderson. Anderson’s skate appeared to have collided with Mason’s skate and caused the goaltender to lose his balance allowing the shot to go in.

In the eyes of Flyers fans it should have been 1-0 with a vice versa of calls, but instead, the Blue Jackets held a 1-0 lead until 16.5 seconds left in the third period when Brayden Schenn tied the game at one. However, Schenn had missed the net on two prime scoring opportunities earlier in the tilt and the team failed to convert on their only power play. Nick Foligno would score during the 3-on-3 overtime giving the Blue Jackets the win.

However, a full two points in this game would have completed a great weekend for the Flyers who were sputtering after their 10-game win streak. A victory would have given them four points against Tampa Bay and Columbus and may have pulled the team out of the dregs of their mid-season rut. Instead, the loss was the beginning of a stretch where the team would lose five out of their next six games including two 4-1 losses to Eastern Conference bottom feeders, Buffalo and New Jersey.

Similar stretches continued into February effectively ending the Flyers hopes for the postseason.

2. Flyers can’t get it done against Boston again in March (2 points) – In a two-game stretch, the Flyers faced crucial contests against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins. After getting doubled up by the Leafs in Toronto, the Flyers faced yet another a crucial late-season matchup in Boston and, once again, couldn’t pull out a win.

What separates this game from the rest is the manner in which the Flyers lost. After David Pastrnak gave the Bruins the 1-0 lead early in the game, the ice tilted in the Flyers direction from about the eight-minute mark in the opening frame to about midway through the third period. During that stretch, Jordan Weal had tied the game at one in the second period but the Flyers came away with nothing else despite outshooting the Bruins 23-15 through two periods. During the third, the Flyers and Bruins would trade chances as Boston would throw up three times more shots than Philadelphia in the final frame.

Ultimately, the game was decided by Drew Stafford throwing a low percentage shot toward the net which led to Brandon Manning inexplicably deflecting it past his own goaltender with 5.6 seconds left in the game effectively burying the Flyers.

Philadelphia needed two wins against two teams they were chasing in the playoff hunt. While the Flyers were soundly beaten 4-1 in Toronto, they could have saved face with a much-needed win against Boston. Like 2014-15, they walked out of Beantown with a loss even though that Flyers team from two seasons earlier actually made it into overtime.

1. Blowing a 3-2 lead to Toronto in November (4 points) – With the Toronto Maple Leafs having secured the last wildcard spot, this game would turn out to be a four-point swing and the most best opportunity for the team to pull out a win in Toronto.

Philadelphia and Toronto traded two goals in the opening frame, but in the second stanza, Wayne Simmonds’ shorthanded tally put the Flyers up 3-2 going into the third period.

From here on out, the Flyers would completely melt down defensively and collapsed in ridiculous fashion during the final frame. In a period Philadelphia only surrendered nine shots, the Leafs score four unanswered goals.

The meltdown would spark a season-long debate of Dave Hakstol's lineup decisions. At the time, some wondered why Dave Hakstol scratched Michael Raffl for the game, but there was no realistic way Raffl would have prevented such a disaster from occurring. However, the faith in Hakstol among fans would be shaken from here on out. For the rest of the season, many lineup decisions would be questioned by fans and writers alike as the head coach continued to scratch and bench fan favorites and young talent in favor of less offensively capable veterans.

To the point of the playoffs, though, a win would have taken away two potential points for Toronto and inched the Flyers closer to the last wildcard spot. A win by the Flyers in just this game alone would have effectively halved the points the team would have needed to overtake Toronto and may have given them a serious chance of making the playoffs.

Instead, Philadelphia goes another sports season without a playoff team and in the case of the Flyers, it shows just how games early in the season really do matter as much as the ones in March.