Five takeaways from the Flyers’ 7-5 loss to Colorado

After the firings of Alain Vigneault and Michel Therrien, interim head coach Mike Yeo and the Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Avalanche 7-5. The Flyers finally broke the daunting 3 goal mark and it wasn’t enough to halt the Avalanches’ high flying offense. Martin Jones got the start for Philadelphia and was kept in for all 7 goals.

The Flyers’ starting lineup:

Claude Giroux came to play

We knew going into this game Claude Giroux was angry and ready to go. The Captain opened the scoring with a laser off a slick feed from Morgan Frost.

It’s his first game behind the bench and Mike Yeo immediately recognizes Claude Giroux and Morgan Frost mesh well together. Every time they’ve been paired up it seems like production follows. Giroux also broke the powerplay drought finishing a cross-ice pass from Konecny to make it 4-3.

Giroux now has 9 goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 23 games.

Powerplay Improves Already

Darryl Williams ran the powerplay meeting for the Flyers today and I’m already seeing improvements. For starters, they’ve finally decided to put Frost opposite Giroux and it paid off immediately. The movement was some of the best all season and they were able to finish.

I know the bar is low, but seeing any sort of improvement is better than previous games. The only concern I had with the unit was the lack of net-front presence. Anytime a shot was put on it seemed like there were zero screens in front of the net.

Lindblom breaks through

Oskar Lindblom finally broke through for his first goal of the year and you can’t help but feel happy for him. Watching Lindblom struggle was one of the most grueling parts of this season and I hope he gets it rolling.

With Vigneault out of the mix Lindblom returned to a familiar top-6 line with Konecny and Couturier. This line was money just two seasons ago and to see Yeo put them back together right away is refreshing especially with Lindblom scoring.

Couldn’t stop Colorado

The Avalanche simply played with their food tonight. They finished the game with 50 shots and every single goal they scored was beautiful. Keith Yandle had a couple notable brutal moments resulting in Colorado goals. Martin Jones didn’t receive much support from his defense, but I have to say he was swiss cheese tonight.

At one point Colorado had a 5-on-3 powerplay in which they cashed in on and it felt like a complete uphill battle the entire way. Cale Makar went coast-to-coast untouched and put one past Martin Jones for a soul-crushing 4-1 marker.

It’s cruel how none of this team comes together all at once. Offense is quiet? Defense and goaltending keep them in the game. Defense and goaltending having a bad game? Well now you’ll get more than three goals. The Avalanche are a tough team to face especially on a back-to-back, but it showed once again just how pitiful the Flyers have been this season.

Mike Yeo

Early first impressions of head coach Mike Yeo are positive for me. He’s clearly being thrusted into a rubiks cube of a situation and I like the way he’s approached the transition.

The lines and powerplay units were much improved from previous games and the timeout he called while down 4-1 was well played. The team battled back after that timeout and timeout placement was one of my main criticisms of Alain Vigneault.

With an off day ahead Mike Yeo has a chance to start to nail down his direction, system, and approach to this situation. Losing nine games straight and seeing your playoff hopes dwindle in December is painful and the Flyers are going to need a veteran bench boss like Yeo to do whatever he can.

Next up: @ New Jersey Devils on Wednesday (7PM/NBCSP)

Mandatory Credit: Getty Images

A Host on @TheLibertyYell and a contributor to @TheLibertyLine.

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