Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / Episode 29: Flyers Lose Game 2 to Hurricanes, May 5th, 2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hey everybody, welcome to Hatrix, Unofficial Flyers podcast. I'm Rick Mullin. I'll be your host today. And we are going to go over round two of the Stanley Cup playoffs, game two, Philadelphia Flyers versus the Carolina Hurricanes. And much, much better showing for the Flyers. Last night, they had a much better game. After game one, ⁓ unsure what we were going to look like. It was a really tough game, game one. The Flyers really didn't have much at all. That was good to talk about that game. But last night was a better game, but sadly it's the same outcome. So Flyers lose ⁓ three to two in overtime, but they scored, which was great. They scored two goals real quick, very beginning of the game and then just couldn't get any more as the rest of the game went on. But let's talk about some stats real quick. The Flyers had 36 shots to Carolina's 43. The Flyers had 49 hits to Carolina's 48. Penalty minutes were 14 for the Flyers and 16 for Carolina. And at the faceoff dot, the Flyers struggled last night. Carolina won 60.3 % of the faceoffs to the Flyers 39.7%. Big difference there in the faceoffs. First period at the 4.02 mark, Jamie dries down on a power play. It was a power play goal. I thought, oh man, look at this. We finally got a power play goal. Maybe we're turning this thing on. Maybe we figured this out. But Jamie gets an unassisted power play goal at the 4.02 mark. And then a little while later, not much longer, at the 4.41 mark. So roughly what? 40 seconds, 41 seconds? something like that. 39 seconds later, Sean Couturier from Carl Grunström, he scores. Grunström went behind Inet with the puck. Couturier was out front. He was using his body to fight for space and Grunström threw it out front right on the Couturier stick and Coutts goes and buries it and makes the game two to nothing. So, Flyers are looking good. know, five minutes into the period, they're up two goals to nothing and they were taking it at the ⁓ at the Carolina Hurricanes. At the 10-21 mark of the first period, Nikolai ⁓ Ehler scores on the power play from Jackson Blake and Andrew Miller. And that ends the period two to one. Going into the second period. Good game. We're going to go talk a little more details as we go by. We're just going to round up the boring stuff here. But second game, ⁓ second period, I'm sorry, no goals scored by either team. So it's still two to one. Flyers going into the third. We get to the 1121 mark of the third period and sadly, Seth Jarvis scores from Nikolai Ehlers and Jordan Stahl. He ties the game two to two with just about eight and a half minutes left in the game. ⁓ Man, that was so tough. That goal was just biting my finger and I was watching this game thinking, ⁓ my God, come on, just get through this period, just get through this period. And sadly, the Flyers couldn't. Carolina ties it. We are going to overtime. Overtime was pretty good. It was really good. The Flyers struggled through most of the game a little bit again. they are trying to ⁓ play with this Carolina team and they are, you know, they are. They're really, they're really doing good. There was a point there where Carolina was really out shooting them, but towards the end of the game, it kind of evened up. But the Flyers played way better, way better. ⁓ Mavie Mishkov had a decent game. He had, think like four shots on net. Sean Ketourier is still probably our best offense man out there and he's on the fourth line. Sean had, or Kuz had five shots on net and a goal. ⁓ they gave it everything they got, nobody can be disappointed in this team. I mean, yeah, there were two breakaways during that game. one stuck out more than the other because it was an overtime, but Mavie Mishkov went in. He had an opportunity in regular time to get up another goal and he took a good shot, but Anderson saved it. going into overtime, the Flyers, they came out in overtime and they were all over Carolina. I mean, it was definitely a Flyers overtime. The Flyers were playing much harder. They were playing to win and they took it at the Hurricanes. And it was really good to see. thought, it's just a matter of time before, you know, we, drop one here and win this game. ⁓ TK and there's, there's, if you listen to the other podcasts, there's a lot of heat on TK right now. Everyone's kind of telling him he needs to do more. he's the guy, the veteran presence. He's the, yeah, he's the rat. He's, you know, leading the, ⁓ stuff on the ice. ⁓ However, was one of the biggest players. saying like, I'm just tired of losing. I'm just tired of losing. We need to get to the playoffs. And he hasn't produced real well in the playoffs at all. there are thoughts that he's a little banged up. And there's people out there calling him out that, know, you can't say you're tired of losing, tired of losing. Then you get finally to the playoffs and you don't contribute much, and he has and he hasn't he's not a playoff performer yet. the other few playoff games that he had, he's really doesn't have many points, many goals. So, this was an opportunity for TK to, put the puck where his mouth is, I guess, to say, ⁓ and, get a close this game down, do something to win this game. And he had the opportunity. He had a breakaway. It was him and Anderson. In all honesty, when I watched it, it really, to me, looked like TK was completely unsure how much time he had. He wasn't, I don't think he was sure if there was somebody on him or not. And he took a wrist shot from a little further out than I would have liked to see him take. And Anderson may have got a little piece on it. Some people are saying that it was shot wide. You pretty much everyone was saying it missed the net, but the stat shows that TK got a shot off. must have hit the goalie. The goalie had to save it to get the stat. And ⁓ he missed, you he missed. He had the game winner on his puck and over time, on his stick and over time. And he couldn't bury it. So anyhow, going into that overtime period, that's heartbreaking. was 1854, Mark. Taylor Hall comes down and he goes through the crease. And from Jackson Blake and Sean Walker, and he scores kind of like a greasy, gritty goal in front. And nobody Thought nothing of it. Everyone thought, okay, game's over. Everyone kind of stood around a little bit and know, ⁓ little R was upset. He was standing there hoping there may have been a call or something, but there wasn't. And they, he finally skated off looking at some replays today. ⁓ I don't know. There's some people saying it was definitely goalie interference. ⁓ I think it was a lot positive. think it was Jackson Blake when, ⁓ Valdar has his glove hand over the puck. Jackson Blake stick comes in over Vladares wrist and the puck gets the puck. It's knocked out and then he leans down on the stick. So, you know, Vlad, he can't get his hand out to get back, you know, I guess to move. And during that little, little bit of time where, you know, Vlad, his hands stuck on the ice because it's pinned by, you know, this hurricane player stick, the puck gets pushed into the net by Taylor hall and games over. So. That's a tough one. it was a really tough one. I Rick Taki could have said something, you know, maybe he didn't see it. Maybe they recognize it. Maybe they did. And they thought it was nothing. end of the game, you might as well may as well talk to the ref and try to get a goalie interference there. Maybe he did and the refs blew him off. I don't know. But today there's people on, lying on social media saying that it was definitely goalie interference. It shouldn't have been allowed. I don't know if this kind of weak goalie interference. Did he? Kind of lock his arm down. Yeah, but I don't know. It is what it is. So the Flyers, the Flyers as a whole, they played, they played a really good game. It really was. And it's sad because this is what they looked like during the regular season when they played the Hurricanes. What? They played them four times, right? Three times they played the Hurricanes. Three times it was super close. Three times we went to overtime. Actually four times, but the fourth one doesn't count. Because when you had we were only playing a team of their third and fourth liners. But, you know, three times we went to overtime and three times, the Flyers lost. So, it's nothing new here. Like the Flyers just can't get over this hump. They just can't get over the hump to beating the Carolina Hurricanes. And some people are going to say, hey, the Flyers aren't as good as the Hurricanes. And I don't know about that. And I know. I know. Call me crazy. Call me crazy. But— Three times our team played their team and three times we took a contender all the way to overtime to lose in overtime. To me, that sounds like we're a pretty good team. We are a lot better than we're getting credit for. And if the Flyers could just find a way for someone on this team to get that extra goal, maybe to... light the lamp one more time during the power play. Philly wins probably three of these games. I mean, it's crazy to think about it because yeah, I mean, they look like they get outplayed a lot. But, you Philly did really well. the Flyers did really, really well against this team. yeah, know, Vilar stood on his head, you know, Anderson had to make 39 saves, you know, or 36 saves. And, um. I just think the Flyers are way better than they get credit for. We're going out there with a bunch of young guys, unseasoned guys, no playoff experience. And we took it at them here in game two. We took it at them. And this game couldn't win either way. And matter of fact, at times I thought the Flyers would have won. They definitely had the opportunities. And there were times, Carolina couldn't have won it too, but they didn't. So five times we played these guys now, right? Five? Wait. Yeah, five times. We lost. We won one lost four lost four. And six times right four to write six six times one one. Lost five but we lost five we lost four by one goal in overtime and we we basically crapped the bed with one game that first playoff game we lost three to nothing. So flyers flyers again I think they are on the right path I think they're doing well it was pretty cool to see. the bar key bump in our tone line. I know that line was negative, minus two last night. Yeah, there's talk obviously that they're going to get broken up and, but I like that line. if you look at bump, ⁓ I think bump played a good game. think bump was the one of the only players that was trying to skate that puck over the blue line. ⁓ And like he had, he sweats and a cough on his. back like ⁓ multiple times trying to skate down the ice across that blue line and he didn't lose the puck. He held onto it. He tried to make something happen. He was definitely trying to skate it ⁓ in and not just throw it away. He was thinking possession, not giving it back to them. And he drew a penalty on Svetlakov because Svetlakov was riding his back and hooking him and stuff, trying to get him off the puck. So I give a lot of kudos for Bump not to get nervous and try to throw that puck away and to try to actually skate that puck into the zone. ⁓ Denver Barkie, he's a dog, man. He's a dog on a bone. That kid's small as heck. Every time I see him, he looks like he's 15. And he's playing hard, man. He's skating, he's banging, he's doing everything he can. He's ⁓ really doing well. I watched him win a few face-offs, and he's doing great. I really like that lineup. ⁓ Marton, Marton's a little edgy. He ⁓ hasn't been as relevant in this series. He definitely is a little slower. Like he's got in the puck and he's got in some ice space and he's trying to skate down the ice. And you can see he's like laboring to get down the ice. So he needs to, he needs to, you know, to do like exactly what Mischkoff's trying to have to do this summer and, know, get some skating classes in, work on those legs, try to get faster. ⁓ but that line looked, I liked it. Yeah. Minus two. get it. But Not a bad line for a bunch of rookies in the second round of the playoffs in my opinion I think there's a really good future for these kids I saw Couturier had most shots on the team again last night. I think he had five again Man, what can you say? so here's the here's the one one thing to think about so Sean Couturier He has a terrible year. mean, the beginning of the year, it's terrible. Everyone's saying he's done, he's washed up, he needs to go. He's not worth the money we're spending. There's no way to get rid of him though, because no one wants his contract. We'd have to eat his contract. you ⁓ force him to retire, wave him, get rid of him, whatever you call it. He... ⁓ his salary cap stays on the books. So we're spending, know, $6 million or something like that for like seven years or something like that ⁓ to keep you know, obviously we're not going to do that. we would try to trade them. ⁓ everyone's mad. Everyone's mad. he sucks. He's Don. He's toast. And I said it too. He was definitely toast. He 100 % was not a ⁓ first line player. ⁓ He wasn't a first player for, you at least a year or two now. know, Torz had problems with him last year. He wasn't producing and we all saw it. I thought it was over. I don't know what Couturier did. I really don't, because he was moved to the fourth line and he was asked to be a role player. And he goes down to the fourth line and all of a sudden he's playing ⁓ really He's playing really good. He's hammering bodies. He's creating turnovers. He's getting scoring chances. He's creating scoring chances. So you start thinking about it you think, he's down on the fourth line doing this stuff ⁓ and couldn't do that on the first line though, right? ⁓ He do that on the first line. So here we got this ⁓ problem where our best player on the ice, ⁓ of big body and because of how hard he's hitting, he's getting in, he's creating turnovers and he's controlling and possessing the puck deep in the Carolina hurricane zone. And he's looking to try to get help. there's, Grunström's coming in or Hathaway or ⁓ Glendening. he's not really able to create a lot of chances with those two there. So ⁓ what do you with Katori idea? Look at what he's doing these last few games and think maybe it's time to bump him up to a line where he's got some guys on it that can actually produce. I mean, what's your thoughts? ⁓ What do you think? I'm half tempted to say like, it a whirl. Like honestly, like give it a whirl. You know, if he's the only one getting in there creating the space and turnovers, then heck man, give him some wingers that can actually, you know, put up some numbers and let's see if we can capitalize on his current play. I mean, worst thing that happens is you do it for a period or whatever and it doesn't look good. You put him back on the fourth line and start over, right? But. I think I've seen enough over these last few games in the Pittsburgh games that Coots is for checking, he's banging, he's creating turnovers, and he's getting the puck and then he can't really find anybody because the talent he has around them, they just aren't there. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Maybe we bump him up, put him different wingers on his lines. I don't know, but it's a thought because Coots, in all honesty, He's looking really, really good. Really, really good. TK's not. TK's still throwing bad passes back to the points and when no one are there, TK's missing the net. TK is definitely stirring the pot and pissing people off out there, which is important. But the production from TK isn't there and I know he knows it. And again, he might be hurt. Everyone's talking that he's playing through injuries here. But I wish we had some... TK hear that from the past that scored, put bucks on that scored and we don't. And this series is, well this last game has been really close. It's been really close without Tippett. These two games without Tippett, the first one we get blown out, the second one's really tight. If Tippett's in there, do we win that game? There's a chance, there's definitely a chance. So it's not over yet. I'm not throwing that tail in yet. I think the Flyers played a horrible game one. think we all know they did. They know they did. I think Tocket has done a fantastic job. I really do. I was hard on Tocket at the beginning of the year because all we were seeing was this Mischkoff drama. I think, you know, that stemmed from Tocket making it so obvious and then, Tocket talking about it. I think definitely it was Mischkoff's fault. But I just think it was handled really poorly by Taket. And I called him out back then for it. But I'm going to tell you now, I Taket's been fantastic for this team. Honestly, he looks like he's getting a lot out of this guys, a lot out of these lines, a lot out of this whole entire locker room. And he made some good decisions. After that first game, he made some really good decisions to change their style of play. change their playoff a little, I mean, their power play a little bit. They're working the power play a little bit off the side instead of off the point. So they're moving the puck from the side. They're possessing it there. I was actually talking to my son and a couple of his friends when they were over watching the game and I had said that I think I'd like to see the Flyers actually run a power play from kind of like Gretzky's position behind the net. Maybe not there, but from behind the net, like either in the corner or wherever, but somewhere behind the net. I think we can get more juice out of it that way than throwing it to the point of two guys who refuse to shoot the puck. know, and yes, Jamie Drysdale scored on a power play, but it was because nobody was in front of him. He had a lot of open room. He skated in, took a wrist shot and scored. I'm not taking that from him. He was there. He did the right thing. But most of time, that's not the case. Most of the time someone's in front of you and Jamie Drysdale and ⁓ Risto just don't shoot enough, man. They just don't shoot enough. So if you're running your power play from the point and you got two guys up there that refuse to shoot, it makes no sense. It's just a waste of time. And that's why one of the reasons why our power play is so awful. So and then if they do shoot, which I don't understand this either, there's one timers. You get a pass to you, don't stop it. You one time it right off the pass. That's not what happens. Risto's got to stop it. push it forward a little bit, think about it for a couple seconds, know, waste a little bit of time, not sure what he's going to do. And then he may wind up, but by that time it either gets blocked or he doesn't wind up because someone's in front of him and he decides not to shoot and just throws it back to the side of the ice. So I think they should run that power play a little deeper in the zone and try to cycle down lower instead of cycling more up top. Anyhow, that's kind of what I see. But going back to Tocket, Tocket made some really good changes. He saw Barky was really doing well on the center position. He changed it up. He decided to leave Barky on center. He created a pretty good line, in my opinion, even though they were minus two. They had some chances in that young kid's line. And he's pulling all the strings where they're definitely playing better. They're playing with a system. They put a lot of pressure in overtime and it was just because we just couldn't finish. We just couldn't finish. I think we had what? Two power plays, three power plays in overtime and we couldn't finish, couldn't get a shot. You know, I think I saw a stat and don't hold me to this, but what do they have like six power plays or something like that? And we were out shot shorthanded. The power play, we were out shot more. By the Carolina Hurricanes on our power play then we had shots on that I think we had three shots on that to like Hurricane six shots on our net during our power plays It's nuts. Like it just can't happen that way. They have to figure this out Going over to Trevor's egress Man, this is a subject that, you you start talking about and some people are going to say, you're nuts or you're crazy or this, that, the other thing. And it's okay, man. I'm okay with any feedback you all have. But Zegarus to me right now is not a playoff player. He is not built, in my opinion, to be a playoff player based on what we've seen so far. Zegras is afraid to get hit He's afraid to throw a hard check He has thrown his body a little bit you but you see he'll skin the poor go in the corner right into somebody and like a little guy like TK or bark eater like bang They'll smoke the guy and then Zegras goes in and then like last me just cuz like oh like a little nudge and that's it and he skates away He's definitely scared to get hit. You can see him trying to like jump around, not to get hit. And when he gets hit, he loses his temper. I don't know, man. Like, Zegras has not many points. He's not living up to the hype. He's definitely, he got moved off his center. He got moved to wing because he's not strong enough. I don't know if ever be like this guy. I like him. I do. like him. Regular season. He did great. But when it gets tough, There's less ice and you have to fight for everything you have. I just do not see Zegras anywhere near the player he was during the regular season. And I don't think he has it in him because it's not like a... You're either tough or you're not, if that makes sense. You either have the fight in you, like a Denver Barkey, or you don't. Size doesn't matter. TK. Even Bobby Brink, right? He was little too. And Zekris is big, he's not little. But he don't have any of that fight that those three guys have in him. Like none of it. None of it. So I don't know. I'm calling Zekris out as my observation of a guy that we really need to produce, especially when Tipit's not in the lineup. And he's been very, very soft and very, very invisible. We need to see more from Zegras that the Flyers. Shouldn't be paying him a ton of money. ⁓ If is what they're going to do in the postseason, because my my ⁓ expectation I think everybody's expectation moving forward now from this year forward is the Flyers will make the playoffs every year. I think in the offseason they're going to tweak the lineup a little bit more, get a little bit better, and the expectation is that these Flyers are going to hit the playoffs every year. and if Zegras can't play in the playoffs. He's just a liability then for us, right? Like he needs to get stronger. So I don't know if he can even beef up and if his brain will let him feel that he's bigger, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Like there are big guys who are still soft because they're just soft players. They just don't have that guts. know, beefing Zebra Grosso up. I still think he's soft. He hasn't showed me anything that would make me think otherwise to this point. So I hope he realizes this. I hope it's being addressed. hope Toc gets talking with him, trying to show him some tape. I watched him pull off guys all day yesterday. I watched him going to the corner thinking, all right, he's going to smoke this dude and take the puck. And he did, and he little nudged, or he bounced off the guy, and he got knocked out of the play. He got knocked. down like he just he just is soft. It's so soft and it's sad. So I I don't know here guys like everyone likes Egress. I do too. But I just wish he was some something different. Definitely wish he was something different. And I wish he had some guts like Barkie and Brink and TK had because he's got so much skill that if he had just a little of that he'd have some points. He'd have a lot more points in these playoffs. So Anyhow, the Carolina Hurricanes, they were three stars in the game, man. They Taylor Hall was the first star and Nikolai Ehlers was the second star. Seth Jarvis was the third star. ⁓ Flyers get any stars in the top three for this game. Vladdy played well. know, Vladdy played really good. I think he had a really good game. I wouldn't say he was like, superstar material, but he definitely was close. He kept the Flyers in it. The ⁓ Carolina Hurricanes had a lot of opportunities and Vlad made some really, really good saves down throughout those four periods of hockey. I wish he could have made that last one and I'm sure he did too. next game is going to be Thursday night. My son and I will be down there again watching this one. So hopefully we can get a win at home. What do they say? you're something about the season ain't over until you win a game, a win away game. So the fires are still in this thing. first game was a fluke. second game I think could have went either way. I'm hoping the third game the Flyers play just as hard and maybe tip it's back in the lineup and he can give us a little boost on offense. So until Friday probably because I'll be down that game on Thursday night. We'll do another show on Friday. If you have anything you want to talk about if you have any feedback on what your thoughts are on this game on that young that young barkey bump and Marton line or the comments that I made about Zika's, you send me an email. Patrick's podcast 99 at gmail.com. Please like and subscribe. Find us on YouTube. Subscribe. Give us a listen. If you're listening. I see there's a lot of people listening, but you know, like and subscribe, please give us a like and subscribe. We'd love to see everybody do that for us. You can find us on Spotify, YouTube, Apple and ⁓ Facebook. So until Thursday night. Let's go Flyers. Let's pull off a win at home and get this series two to one.