The Flyers enter this weekend facing a true test of character. It's not just the challenge of back-to-back road games against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, although that's the immediate task at hand. Both the Ducks (7-4 on October 28) and the Kings (5-0 on November 4) defeated the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center in recent weeks.
The bigger challenge for the Flyers right now: not losing faith in the process amid a 2-6-1 stretch in the last nine games.
In several of the losses, the Flyers controlled the majority of the play but were unable to pull out winnable games in the third period. However, the team's last two losses -- to the Kings and to the previously winless Sharks -- were games where the Flyers trailed for most of regulation and mustered only a single goal in 120 minutes of hockey.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella and numerous players on the team have talked extensively this season about how the current squad has a tighter-knit locker room and greater unity than what "Torts" perceived last season. Now, given the recent lack of goals and the club's modest five out of 18 possible points in the last nine game, the Flyers' unity and character are being put to the test.
It's not so much about wins and losses in what everyone admits is still a rebuilding process. Rather, it's about how the team competes and whether the factors that are ultimately causing losses -- a third straight season of large-scale power play struggles, strained depth on the blueline, struggles to finish scoring chances -- are gradually improved or whether the areas of undeniable improvement so far (puck possession, for example) are pulled down due to frustration.
Foerster seems close to breakout
When pucks aren't going in the net, there's no doubt that it grows tiresome after a while to constantly talk about which players are creating and/or getting to the right areas to receive scoring opportunities. Eventually, chances alone aren't enough. Either goals have to start going up on the scoreboard or it sounds like excuse-making to focus on the quantity and quality of chances.
However, before there's a breakout, there is typically a spell -- sometimes a frustratingly prolonged one -- where there's an abundance of good chances and a paucity of rewards. There's nothing a player or team can do other than keep plugging away until there's a payoff.
Flyers rookie winger Tyson Foerster is one of the Philadelphia players who seems snakebitten in the goal-scoring department. He enters this weekend searching for his first goal of the 2023-24 campaign. For a player accustomed to being a scorer in junior hockey, the AHL and during his first taste of the NHL (three goals and seven points in eight games with the Flyers in 2022-23), Foerster is in unfamiliar territory.
Dig a bit deeper, though, and you'll find that Foerster appears very close to getting on a roll offensively once he gets that elusive first puck to go in the net for him. Through the first six games of the season, Foerster only had one individual high-danger scoring chance. He wasn't getting to the prime scoring areas nearly often enough. That has changed, however.
Over the last seven games, Foerster is tied with Travis Konecny for the team lead in individual all-situation scoring chances (23) and tops all Flyers players with 14 high-danger chances per Natural Stat Trick's calculations. Foerster is right on the verge of seeing some much-needed rewards. He just has to stay with it.
The same thing is true on the playmaking side for Morgan Frost. Over his last four games, Frost was the creator of eight high-danger chances, including three for Foerster as well as three for Konecny. But there's still a goose egg in the center's point total for the season. That is something the skillful center is hoping to change.
Cates' faceoff improvement
By most measures, Flyers center Noah Cates enjoyed a successful rookie season for the Flyers in 2022-23. One area where he struggled, however, was at the faceoff dot. The converted winger posted a 39.4 percent winning percentage (416 wins, 638 losses) on faceoffs last year.
Cates has put in a lot of hard work on improving at the dot, and continues to work on it. He takes a lot of practice puck drops on non-game days. The results are getting better, albeit gradually For the 2023-24 season to date, Cates has a 45.8 percent (81 wins, 96 losses) on faceoffs. Take away a single 1-for-9 night against the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 30 and Cates is on the positive side over the last two weeks.
It's nothing dramatic. But it's a step in the right direction, at least. The Flyers as a team still need to get better on faceoffs. Currently, the club ranks 27th in the NHL at 45.6 percent.
