Back To Earth: Flyers fall 5-2 to Toronto and keep Sandstrom winless
The Philadelphia Flyers were defeated by the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 and concluded the back-to-back with only one point. The trend of consistently being outshot was bound to break the Flyers, especially without a Vezina-caliber performance. Felix Sandstrom did all he could, but the fact is there’s only a handful of goaltenders that can win, given the performance in front of him.
Toronto came into this game as a frustrated bunch who are on the brink of getting their coach fired. It’s a tense locker room being swarmed upon by the Canadian media vultures and they were desperate for a bounce back.
John Tortorella to Toronto reporters regarding Sheldon Keefe: “You guys don’t know what he’s done for that team… You guys chuck darts at him because you want some results… He’s a terrific coach. I hope he jams it to you all, quite honestly. Not tonight.”
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) November 2, 2022
This was a golden opportunity for Toronto to get back on track, and the Flyers’ only chance was if they weathered the early onslaught. For the most part, they did, with two early penalty kills paving the way for a Joel Farabee snipe to make it 1-0.
MY GOD, JOEL FARABEE (3) pic.twitter.com/9sYmSfBrtA
— TLY (@TheLibertyYell) November 2, 2022
This was exactly what they needed to start this game and keep the frustrations snowballing for the Maple Leafs. It’s why this loss doesn’t sit well with me, they had all the momentum against a team so mentally weak the Anaheim Ducks broke them.
After a failed powerplay opportunity, Nic Deslauriers then tripped Auston Matthews for the third Toronto powerplay of the first period. Give that unit enough cracks at it and they will burn you, and that they did. All the momentum built was lost and the Flyers went into the second period down 2-1.
Toronto’s special teams unit answered the call and ripped the game out of our hands, but we had our chance to respond with four powerplay opportunities in the second period and failed. That’s where I feel like we lost this winnable game.
4 Powerplays that period and didn’t cash in on one… feels like that might be the difference tonight
— TLY (@TheLibertyYell) November 3, 2022
After another Toronto goal, Owen Tippett wristed one on the powerplay to make it 3-2, then John Tavares promptly destroyed Travis Sanheim and effectively put us to bed.
JOHN TAVARES 🚨🚨
SENT HIM TO THE SHADOW REALM pic.twitter.com/O1PPmcrvtT
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) November 3, 2022
Well, what can you expect? Without Carter Hart going completely Rambo, there’s not a chance we can consistently survive being outshot by 15+ shots. The roster isn’t good, but there are fixable errors that can allow your team to not be hemmed in all games. Their even-strength/powerplay entries are atrocious and there are enough failed lazy clears to make your head spin.
At least there’s no expectation for this team to succeed. Is this the back-to-earth moment we all knew was inevitable? Or will the Flyers respond against Claude Giroux and the Ottawa Senators on Saturday?
We shall see.
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Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia Flyers
