The Philadelphia Flyers have had some tough losses this season. This was one that will leave you staring at the scoreboard, hands on your hips, wondering how it all went so wrong.
It’s not just that they lost 7-4—it’s who they lost to. The Chicago Blackhawks, firmly planted near the bottom of the league standings, shouldn’t have been able to hang with a team that can skate and apply pressure across 60 minutes in ways not many other groups can, especially at this point in the season. Instead, they dictated play, pounced on mistakes, and exposed cracks in the Flyers’ defensive structure all night long.
“Sloppy game, sloppy goalies, their powerplay works, ours doesn’t,” head coach John Tortorella told reporters postgame. “That’s the story of the game.”
Flyers have lost 10 of their last 11 games (1-9-1) and 18 of their last 24 (6-15-3).
They’re 1-10-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets.
It’s not as if the Flyers didn’t show up. They scored four goals, gave Ivan Fedotov some refreshing goal support, and even carried long stretches of play. But every time they inched closer, Chicago found another way to slip behind them and bury the puck in the back of the net.
With just a handful of games left in the season, this isn’t just a tough loss—it’s the kind that makes you wonder where do they go from here?
1. Defensive Breakdowns Were Costly
It’s hard to place the blame solely on Fedotov when the defense in front of him was leaky, but no matter who you point the finger at, the fact remains—seven goals against is ugly.
It wasn’t all bad—Fedotov made a few key saves that kept the game from getting out of hand earlier—and the fact that Tortorella started him again after having to pull him in the last game against Dallas shows that the team still has plenty of faith in the 28-year-old netminder—something that can go a long way, even after a bad game.
However, when asked postgame if Fedotov was still having to prove himself as belonging on an NHL roster, Tortorella gave a short, blunt, and quite telling response: “S— yeah.”
2. The Penalty Trouble Won’t Go Away
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: you can’t win hockey games from the penalty box.
The Flyers have been flirting with disaster in this department for weeks now, taking more penalties than they’d like and forcing their penalty kill to bail them out over and over again. But in a game where they desperately needed a structured, disciplined effort, they still found themselves in the box too often.
And it wasn’t just the quantity—it was the timing. Every time it felt like the Flyers were gaining some momentum, there was a player in orange getting sent to the box. The Blackhawks aren’t exactly an offensive powerhouse, but give any NHL team enough power plays, and they’ll make you pay.
At this stage of the season, with the playoff race as tight as it is, the Flyers can’t afford to keep playing this undisciplined. They need to clean it up—and fast—if they want to have any chance of surviving against better teams down the stretch.
3. The Flyers’ Offense Deserved Better
Here’s the cruel irony of this game: for all of the Flyers’ defensive shortcomings, their offense actually put in a strong performance.
Four goals should be enough to win most nights. They generated chances, they sustained offensive pressure, and they didn’t look like a team struggling to score. That’s not nothing, especially in a game where they were chasing from behind for most of the night.
“I think it’s just symplifying, throwing pucks on net,” Jamie Drysdale told media postgame. “I think we’ve been due for some bounces…Just chuck pucks on net, and usually good things will happen.”
Travis Konecny netted another goal, proving that his scoring slump is a thing of the past. Even the defensemen got involved, with Drysdale and Travis Sanheim both contributing tallies of their own.
It’s cruel that when the offense is clicking the way that they’ve been trying so hard to do recently, the Blackhawks had an answer. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. And it’s the kind of loss that can weigh on a team, especially at this point in the season.
Final Thoughts
There’s no sugarcoating it—this loss hurts. Even with threadbare playoff hopes, every point matters, and dropping a game to the second-worst team in the league is the kind of result that lingers.
The Flyers now have to turn around and face a high-powered Toronto team that won’t be nearly as forgiving. If their defensive effort doesn’t improve, they’re going to get burned. If their goaltending doesn’t stabilize, they’re going to find themselves in another track meet they can’t afford to lose.
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