Highlights Beyond Highlights- Oct. 23 vs Capitals

On paper or just checking the score on your phone, Wednesday’s game comes across as another loss for the Flyers – at 1-5-1, it’s certainly more than the team would like to have seven games into the season.

But this one offered light at the end of the tunnel. The general malaise that had enveloped the team from sometime in the Seatlte game through the first half of this contest suddenly began to lift in the second half of the first period. Coming out of a TV timeout late in the second, suddenly the Flyers were back to their old selves.

So whereas many were still scratching their heads even partway through Wednesday’s contest, the club was able to build a platform towards breaking out of this skid hopefully this weekend against Minnesota and Montreal.

When pucks aren’t going in, all a team can do is buckle down and work hard to try and generate some breaks. Travis Konecny was doing that throughout the game. In this clip, before the Flyers started to turn things around, he makes a great backcheck play to prevent a scoring chance.

Then later on, after he had already scored, Konecny continued to try to be a catalyst. After he accelerates to this puck, he makes one man miss and then feeds Garnet Hathaway for a ten-bell opportunity. Upon getting the puck back from Morgan Frost, Konecny has a pass blocked, but then makes a great effort to get it back again. He continues to be a thorn, attracting Tom Wilson, with whom he ended up getting coincidental minors.

On two occasions, Sean Couturier’s presence in front of the net helped earn the Flyers a goal. The first one came on Owen Tippett’s tally, where Couturier went net-front and distracted both the defenseman and perhaps the goaltender.

Later, while on the power play, Couturier establishes position in front of the net and takes some abuse to stay there while the Flyers work the puck around. He’s then in position to establish the screen while Matvei Michkov floats one through.

Although a loss, it was a step forward for the Flyers, and it felt like a big one given the last three games. Look for another one this Saturday against Minnesota.