Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / Episode 28: Flyers Fall to Hurricanes Game 1| May 03, 2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Hatrix on official Flyers podcast. I'm Rick Mullin. I'll be your host tonight. Hey, we're going to talk about the Flyers Carolina round two, the playoffs game one. And it did not go very well for the our Philadelphia Flyers. Tough game. Tough game for sure. It was not. Don't get me wrong. I think the Flyers are a huge underdog in this series. I do think that Carolina is gonna win, but I just thought the games would be closer and this game was, the Flyers weren't ready for it. They weren't ready for it or they're just not skilled enough yet to play when Carolina's on the top of their game. But let's go into the game a little bit. We'll talk about stats. This will be a pretty quick episode, but at least I think it will, unless I get sidetracked. It should be pretty quick, but the stats for The game Carolina had 23 shots to Phillies 19. That was, think Carolina just slowed down towards the end there. I think in the first period, if my memory serves me right, I think Carolina had like 11 shots in the first period to like Phillies two or three, something like that. It was pretty crazy. They were getting outworked out hustled. Hits went 49 for the Flyers, 30 Carolina. Pedaling minutes were even at 34 minutes for both teams. Flyers actually wanted to face off that 55.6 % to 44.4 % with Carolina and Right away the start of this game The Carolina Hurricanes came out flying they were all over the Flyers the Flyers had zero answers for them the Flyers were Out there skating for their lives. Just trying to touch the puck Just touch the puck so they could try to get it out of their zone and they struggled even just touching the puck. The Carolina Hurricanes score at the 131 mark of the first period by Logan Stankovin from Mike Riley and Jason Jackson Blake. At the 730 mark of the first period, Jackson Blake scores from Taylor Hall or Mike Riley. And it's two nothing first period ends. We're going into the second. Second period comes around at the 1616 mark. Logan Stankovin. Scores again from Seth Jarvis and Andre Svechnikov. It's 3-0 Carolina. Third period comes and goes and that's the final, 3-0 Carolina. Hard game for the Flyers. ⁓ I know Vlad was probably not very happy with that second goal that went in. It was ⁓ kind of a fluke. It just was weird, weird fluke. I believe Jackson Blake skated through Matt Vamishka for that goal and kind of burned Travis Sandheim a little bit. Blad was a little far out of his net. I think he stopped the first original shot. It's kind like a pseudo breakaway with Sandheim on his back, but he kind of, think, threw it to the net, kind of bounced back to him. We went behind little R and then he stuffed it in. Hard game, hard game. It's just a really hard game. You look at this game and you just see how good that... How good that they the Carolina Hurricanes are it's crazy. It's just they played such a strong game such a strong game. They had control mostly all the game that that team can skate. I mean they can skate our our team looked. Terrible compared to them. I don't know how else to say it. they just look slow. They look super slow when we did get the puck. I'm like sitting there like you know thinking go go go go move your feet move feet and they weren't. It took them like a couple seconds to figure out do I skate, do I pass, what do I do here? And then when they start skating, it's not like they're like going crazy trying to get down the ice. They—they're—they're slow. You know, I don't know if they're looking for a play but they just did not have the speed. I—I do not believe this team has the speed to keep up with Carolina. They—they can't skate with this team. And even when they're in their—when the fires were in Carolina's end, what— The hard thing was when the pass came to somebody within like a half a second, Carolina's on you. They're for checking you. You get rid of the pass to somebody else, there are some who's on that real quick. There's not much time. The puck has to be moved really fast, really fast. Before you even accept the pass from your other player, you've got to have to already know where you're going with it because that's how fast Carolina was on top of you that game. And it took the Flyers a little bit. I mean, honestly, I think it took them until the third period where they did do that. Like the puck would hear a stick and then they would like pass to the bumper and then the bumper would go back to the point or the bumper would go to the corner. But it was was faster passes towards the end of the game. But by that time, it was way too late. The shots were tough because, the puck went to the corner. The corner would throw it to the point. The point would hold it for a second, run out of time and space and throw it back to the corner or the bumper. When really in reality with this Carolina team, as soon as that puck gets out to the point that they just got to rip those shots, like they can't slow it down. They can't stop it. They just got to start ripping shots. And that's it. I mean, this team gives you no room to do anything. The only thing that you may be able to do if you can skate. And I wish, I wish Jamie Drysdale may, might try this. I know it's hard to say because You don't want the puck coming out to him and him being the last guy back and he loses the puck. But in this scenario, they come at you so hard. You gotta like... What's the word I'm looking for you? got to you got to be tricky. You got to be tricky You got to make them believe you're gonna throw that pass but instead Make a move and go around them. They're coming at you fast and hot and hard use that momentum of that player Coming at you to step around them and skate the puck past them and get a shot off behind their their for checking defender But things like that is what this team needs, they really need somebody who can skate Jamie Drysdale has some wheels. Sandheim has some wheels. Having Owen Tippett missed this game, like not healthy, you hurt. Yeah, he's the only one on the team that can skate with the Carolina Hurricanes at this point. ⁓ It was was it was difficult game. I don't see. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel here. I think this is just who Carolina is. Yes, they were on their A game. No, the Flyers were not on their A game. Could the Flyers make some changes? Yeah, yeah. the fires could make some changes to structure and ⁓ how skate to maybe you ⁓ steal game or two. But ⁓ this probably, in my opinion, going to be like ⁓ five or one in five. It's going to be one in five. Maybe they might lose one game, Carolina. But ⁓ I their team is very deep. ⁓ I they very well effectively shut down offense on their goalie. So ⁓ their not even seeing quality shots because We can't get near them and Ottawa really didn't get near them either. So, you you figure there's five straight games here where the Carolina Hurricanes just dominated all five games. So it's going to be it's going to be a hard one for the Flyers. But again, this was a learning year. We weren't supposed to be here. having the Flyers beat Pittsburgh was that's that was what I wanted. I needed them to get through the first round, beat the Penguins, get to this second round, learn as much as they can. and know what we have, what we have. And I think they're seeing it. They're seeing where they're a little slower. you know, next year, ⁓ it's to be a little different. you look at this team and you think, What are we lacking? We're lacking speed. So if we could tip it back in the lineup healthy, he could skate with this team. ⁓ Jet Lochenko has some wheels, but is he producing? No, no, but he's got wheels. So we gotta kinda hope that maybe he develops into something that we can use in the big club because we need his wheels. And if we can't get his wheels going because the rest of his game's terrible, The Flyers are going to have to try to figure out ways to get some fast players, faster players on this team. And it's hard to do, know, speed is something everybody wants, know, speed and size. how we're constructed right now is a little hard. Going into this next game, I know this might not be something that everyone's going to agree with, but I don't foresee us winning it. In all reality, I know it's like, don't give up. Always try to play through. You never know hockey's fluky. A bounce here, a bounce there, and you know, you could win. But I would love to see them ⁓ sit Juleson and Andre. I would really like to see them put Bonk in. I think Bonk is younger and faster. He's a bigger body. I think now's the time to do it. He's going to run out of time to play. Don't wait until like the very last game of this series. Put him in. It can't be any worse than, and I'm going to say this for the record, I just don't think Bonk is going to be worse than Juleson or Andre. I don't. I don't. I think they have to have some faith in Bonk and get him in the lineup and let him play in this series and see what he's got. Give him two games, see what he's got. If he's good, just keep rolling with him. But I think right now is the time to throw Bonk in for next game and hopefully get Tippett back. And just try to be respectable next game. Try to start off stronger than what we did this game. Try to figure it out. Now we figured out a little bit what's coming and how fast this game has to be played. So we kind of know going into the first period of next game how they have to start the game and how they have to play. know, Mishkov, he had a little bit of offensive going, not much like last game. You did see Sean Couturier though throw a little curve ball at this team, Carolina Hurricanes. know, Sean Keturia, if he got that puck down low, he kept some distance between himself and the boards and he was actually able to ⁓ use his back and butt to block off some of these Carolina Hurricane defenders with his butt, with his bigger body. And he was actually able to do some damage, not damage from like a points perspective, but damage from the fact that like that line actually was able to hold the puck in a little bit. Like they were actually able to keep it little deeper, get the puck in front of the net. ⁓ You know, I Takhi jumbled some lines out there together. I think if I remember correctly, think Katori was on the ice like with Marton and like the two of them had ⁓ some really nice setups in front where, you know, they were shielding pucks and passing back and forth like backhand passes to each other. If my memory serves me right, maybe it wasn't Katori and Marton, but I do remember Marton in the slot. I do remember Katori a Being able to fight off the park driving the net And you know going through it going through the stats you see that ⁓ I Think a Toria had what five shots on that last night. He had four me say real quick Yeah, Sean Kottori. I had five shots on that last night the next two people who had three was Risto and Actually, I think it's it. It was just Risto. Yeah, just Risto had three and then you had Garnet Hathaway with two Kinectne with two, Sandheim with two, I'm gonna read this off, Yurk with one, Forster with one, Cates with one, Bump with one, Denver Barkey with one. That's it. That's it. Everyone else was goose egged. Martone had zero, Mishkov had zero, Zegras had zero, Drysdale had zero, Jolson had zero, Nick Seeler had zero. I mean, that's horrible, Horrible like you got it. You got to be able to bring more to a playoff game. So bad game for us. We got our butts handed to us like badly badly. That was a wake up call to the Flyers like that. Now they know here's what a true playoff team top of the house playoff team a true Stanley Cup contender. This is what a team looks like in that position and the Flyers now know what they have to do going into game two. They know where they have to play. They may not be able to meet that expectation. Chances are they can't. They're just not fast enough yet, strong enough yet. If they could get a puck deep and they had some big bodies to cycle, that would probably be a way to try to ⁓ fight this team because you could see Sean Couturier doing it a little bit. But we don't have those real big bodies. We don't have those tough guys in the corners yet. Marton and... bump in them. They're bodies but they're not fully developed bodies yet at this point. So the flyers need to do a couple different things. They have to change the strategy a little bit. They have to get up that ice faster if that means longer passes or use those legs as soon as touch a puck fly. Get as much ice space under you that you can take. Whatever they give you take and Get pucks on that. Get pucks on that. Get someone in front of the net. Get pucks on that. Don't wait. Don't look. Don't hold the puck. Don't hold the puck. Don't hold the puck. And then shoot because the shot's going to get blocked. Just as soon as you get a tee off on that shot. You know, if you have opportunity, if you have space, tee off on that shot because most of the time we didn't have space. Most of the time the puck was just past the end. Someone was already on you. You couldn't shoot. So if you have that second to shoot, you have to shoot. You just have to. There's no. This team's not going to give you. much room. If you have the room, you have to shoot or you got to make a move and try to skate around them to get a better shot. But that's really it. Somebody has to realize that you're going to need to skate through center ice. You're going to need to come off the come off those boards and cut across the middle. again, we've I've talked about this before in the past. Like when you pull off the boards, usually two defenders have to play you. the guy chasing you and the guy in the middle. he's got to try to cut you off while the guy behind you has to try to catch you and when you do that, it leaves somebody open. so you can do a drop pass or pass the space and now all of a sudden, you took one guy out of the play, somebody should be open. They should be able to create something because now one of those other guys got to step up to try to take you or that player so you don't come in any further which leaves another guy open. So ⁓ when Tauke was talking about being creative, know, This is it. Some of this is trying to crawl off the boards, skate to the slot, make them play you, make them step out, make them double team you, come across the middle and create something. But not just standing in one place receiving a pass and then throwing it into the corner. And then that person standing back there and throwing it into the corner or around the net, back to the point. Like you gotta cycle, you gotta move. If you're not moving, you're not gonna get open enough to be creative. So you need to be moving, you need to be on your toes the whole game, not on your heels. Don't stand still, take it at them. But again, like I said, I don't foresee us coming out of this series. I don't, sadly, I am wishing everything in the world that they could come out of this series and maybe they do and prove me wrong. But if they don't get swept in four, I think it's over in five. So let's work on what we can work on. Let's work on trying to get a little bit better. Let's work on getting Bonk in the lineup and seeing what he's got. If we're down games and I think Bonk is our next in line, I know like Yurichek's going to need time to come up, but I don't put him in. ⁓ Bonk in my opinion is way more ready than Yurichek is at this point. Bring Bonk in, give him a game, sit Jules in, sit Andre. Let's get somebody young with some legs out there and see what he can do. And hopefully Vlad shakes this one off and goes into the next game a little stronger and keeps him in the game a little longer. Flyers had a breakdown, the first goal and not Vlad's fault. It was a really good, did I say fart? It's not Vlad's fault. Vlad can... Put that one behind him, for lack of a better term, he did everything he could, but he got beat by a really good shot. That second one was so, so that one shouldn't went in. And the third one was a good goal too. you know, he, he gives up two goals, fires, lose, two to nothing. You take away the one, it doesn't matter if it's four or nothing, five, nothing, 10, nothing. You have to, if the offense can't score, it means nothing. if it was a three, two loss, you could say, yeah, crap. You know that that one goal really mattered. But in this scenario, you can't say that because it didn't matter. You had nothing, man. You took nothing at this Carolina team. You didn't get under Anderson's skin. You didn't get pucks to that net often enough. You need to. You need to get someone in front. And as soon as you touch the puck, if no one's on you, try to get that shot on that best way you can. That's the only way you're going to compete with these Carolina Hurricanes. You got to outskate them, which I don't think we can. Or you just got to try to keep pepper in that goalie. So that means every time you're free, you're open, get a shot off and get someone in front of that net for rebounds. All right. Well, with that said, that's it for now. We're going to go into a game two on ⁓ Monday, tomorrow night. So we'll see how we, how we work out that game. Hopefully a tip it's back in that lineup and hopefully we see bonk in that lineup as well. Until then go fires.