Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / Episode 8: Flyers vs Ducks ReCap - March 18th,2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Hatrix unofficial Flyers podcast. My name is Rick Mullen. I'll be your host today. And we are going to talk about the Flyers versus the Anaheim Ducks, which played the two teams play last night. And game. Good game. ⁓ know, I was really looking forward to this game. My son and I went down to the ⁓ and saw. Cutter's first game here when we booed him and cursed him out of the building. And it was a really good game, one of the best games I've seen in a long time. And we're excited to see this game. unfortunately, it wasn't at home, it was out in Anaheim. it was not something we could attend, but definitely this was on the calendar ⁓ ⁓ had it marked off and we were gonna watch it. So ⁓ mean, was a really good first. period for the Flyers. The Flyers came out really hard and they looked good. I mean, they really did. They were skating up the ice. They were making plays. They were sharp on like their tic-tac-toe shots. ⁓ were absolutely you know, past the corner, past the middle, fire the puck. And, so they must have been practicing, moving that puck to that slot and then just getting some, high-slot shots. ⁓ And it was good to see their play was... ⁓ ineffective. I don't believe they scored on it last night, but they looked a lot better on the power play. They moved the puck, they got shots. They moved the puck, they got shots. And they did it ⁓ not just once or twice, they did it a lot. They were moving that puck and they were making things happen. And it was really good to see. know, fires were winning two to nothing. And ⁓ think Rilanin ⁓ went the corner with the puck. And lo and behold, he had a brain fart. ⁓ I don't think he knew what to do with the puck. He was facing the boards. He put his chest against the boards and somehow he loses the puck and lo and behold, cutter goth, yeah, he skates out of that corner across the slot and he does a backhand top shelf on Vlad and puts them up, puts one on the board for Adaheim, making it two to one. ⁓ You always know that someone's going to score eventually, you know, last night you just hope it wasn't Cutter and you know, Cutter did Cutter scored. the Anaheim Ducks had 36 shots last night to the Flyers 28. They threw 20 hits to the Flyers 19. Penalty minutes were pretty even. Each team had 15. Flyers won, you know, 58 to 42 on face-offs and 58 % to 42 % on the faceoff. it was a good faceoff night for us. The little surprising thing, you know, we had a line out there, a fourth line of Glenn Denning in the center with Koutourier on a wing and Hathaway on a wing. And when it first started, I was thinking like, wow, that's, we're running with this line all night long, this is going to be terrible. And guess what? They looked good. You know, they did. They looked They looked really good last night. Kudos where kudos is due. We were talking about Glenn Denning being super slow and Kutz being super slow in the last game and how it didn't look well. But last night it clicked and it worked well for them. Glenn Denning got a goal from a nice feed from Yurk from behind the net. Yurk threw it in front and Glenn Denning was there. He top shelfed it and it was a really good goal. I think it was his first goal in like a very long time. So it was good to see him get some points on the board for us. it was overall a really good game for like either first, maybe even the second period. And then going into the third, this is where I had some issues. The Flyers, for some reason, whenever they're ahead in the game, they turn around and no matter what the score is, and this is where I guess I differ in my mentality here. If you're up by one goal, I don't think you should sit back. I think you still need to take it at these teams. You just need to take it at these teams no matter what and keep going. You you're up a goal, you're playing hard, things are working in the first period, things are working in the second period. Just keep at it. You know, the longer that you have control of the puck and you're in their zone, the less time the other team has to try to score on you. But for some reason, the Flyers get into that third period and I don't know if it's a target thing or if it's a player thing, but They tend to sit back and the whole game was different. Like it was a totally different team in the third period for the Flyers. You know, they went into the third period looking good, came out in the third period like a dumping team. Like as soon as they touched the puck, they just dump it. It was terrible. We had no possession. We didn't really do well. And, you you just sat there the whole time thinking like, man, we spent this whole period down in the Flyers defensive zone. And it's just a matter of time before they score. And ⁓ they did. I think they scored with like two minutes left in the game, tied the game two to two. And here we go into overtime. And it ⁓ was a bad decision if it was a decision on talk to sit back and play D. If it wasn't a decision by talk it, then these players have to realize that they had this game the way they were playing it. and they should have played the third period the same exact way they played the first two. But they didn't and I don't know why again. So I don't know if it's coaching issue or if it was a player issue, but let's it gets fixed in the future and they learn from this. Couple things with the players tonight. Let's with Matt V. Mishkoff. Matt V. had a tough game tonight. He ⁓ didn't look good. He did make some plays, but he was very slow. He looked really, really slow out there. His typical self, think he was hard on himself and because he was hard on himself, was getting a little angry, I guess, on the ice. was going at it with what I forget the guy's name, ⁓ or something like that. They call him, it's close to his name. ⁓ two were going at it for a few times. He actually got Mishnikov, hopefully it's right, ⁓ drop his gloves and then ⁓ Mishkoff turned around and skated away. I left him standing there with no gloves. ⁓ So, you he was, he was definitely in the corners doing some dirty stuff, some dirty work and, but his game as a whole was really, really not looking so, so good last night. He did get some overtime minutes and he almost had an open net stuffer on the, on the game winner. You know, he had an open neck slid it across and for whatever reason, God knows he missed the net and he pushed it wide and He missed a wide open net and thank God, Cates was there who pushed it back in front and put it into the goalie's pad, Dostoe's pad, and Dostoe kicked it in the open net and that's how the Flyers won. know, was still Mishko, I think, got an assist on that. ⁓ He was in the right spot at the right time. But I think there was a second open net that Mishkoff missed last night. I'm almost positive. So we had two open netters that, ⁓ you know, he had missed. So his hands are... Give him a little bit of a problem lately and he looked a little slow. took some bad penalties. He was holding the stick. Usually when you see Mishkov getting these penalties, it's because he's not able to keep up most of the time. Most of the time he gets them because he's leaning and he's doing stick checks instead of working those feet a little faster and catching up to the play. He's usually not in a game when he's getting those penalties. So, you know, hopefully Mishkov missed rebounds here and gets a little better for tonight's Owen Tippett. Owen Tippett is an absolute animal. ⁓ looked fantastic last night. That was his kind of game. It was a fast game. ⁓ He had all kinds of opportunities. He was flying around the ice. He had a breakaway. did a backhand top shelf. I think he hit the crossbar. He threw his body. He ended up doing that breakaway, hitting the crossbar. And I think he got mad that he didn't score. ⁓ So he ended up turning around and one of the ducks players had the puck and he absolutely leveled him with a huge hit. know, Tip never, he never leaves his feet. Like he's just so solid. He went at the guy with a little bit of speed, kept his feet on the ground and just put his shoulder in the woman set the guy, you know, flying a couple feet towards the boards. Tip is, ⁓ like I said last time, I'd hate to see this guy go. He is our power forward, our version of a power forward with some speed. ⁓ They have to figure out a way to keep them if they can. I know they have a lot of holes on this team. know they're trying to get a center, a number one center, a number two center. I would just hope that somehow, some way it's not going to cost us a Owen Tippett because he created so much of the play last night with his speed. that you take him off this team and we lose probably half the shots we had last night because he's not there to create them. So let's hope the Flyers can figure this out. game. ⁓ was a good game. And big shout outs to Coots too. I'm really hard on Coots. I ⁓ think lot of the fans are hard on Coots. ⁓ You know, Coots is one of those players right now where you look at him and think, ⁓ my God, we're all this money on him and he's nowhere near the player we thought he was now. Coots had, you know, before it was a good player. You know, he did really well for us. He served a purpose and unfortunately he was paid a huge contract that now is biting us in the butt. And ⁓ it's hard to get him on this team and put him in a place that he's going to do well in and justify his salary. And unfortunately you can't trade him. because the salary is too high and you can't really waive them or ⁓ buy them out because you're going to pay like over $6 million, I think a year for like the next 10 years or something like along those lines. you know, really hard, you know, I've been really hard on Coots. However, last night, Coots had a fantastic game. ⁓ They had Coots on a wing last night and he had a lot of plays. Like he actually created a lot of opportunities last night. I don't think we got any goals from it. But he normally falls down or can't get to the puck and ⁓ dumps it in because he can't skate it in. But last night he was actually able to get in the corners. He was throwing pucks through the crease. He did some backhand passes that were just right there and we couldn't score on. But Kutz looked really good, really, really good last night. And maybe that line, there's a little more to it than we think. I'm not sure if they're going to run it again tonight against LA. I would think with Tuck at winning this game that he's not going to really make any changes except possibly ⁓ changing the goal-tenning, which would be Erson for tonight. ⁓ Didn't see it yet, so I'm not sure who he's starting, but more than likely I would assume the lineup is going to stay the same. Heard that ⁓ Forrester, he's back out there skating with the club. He's wearing his yellow ⁓ which is a no-contact jersey. And he's out with the team on this road trip. So really good to see Forrester coming back. Will he get back into the lineup before the end of the year? I don't know. A lot of times these guys are just coming back in and trying to skate. If they got to the playoffs, you he wants to be ready, I'm sure. So it would be good to see Tyson get back on the ice. Really going to be a heck of a lineup. Like if they can get Marton here and bring in Forrester back from this injury. That's two big bodies, that's two big shooters. It would be good to see what these fires really have going into next year. So I'm hoping he can get back, can get a couple games under his belt without hurting himself again. And Marton can get in here and we can get a little glimpse of what the future looks like. I'm not sure if anyone out there had saw the Jet Lachenko rumors. It was, I think, was it Craig Buttons, I believe? Craig Buttons had put it out there or something along the lines where the Flyers could be looking to move Jet Lachenko for the right deal. And he doesn't feel like Jet is a top six player. He's probably going to be a bottom six and he's just not going to fulfill where we thought he was going to be. And there's a good chance that that's true. There's a good chance that Jet doesn't turn out to be the player we were hoping him to be. I think there was a lot of our marbles were put in a bag. that Jet Lachenko is going to be a number one center and he's not projecting anywhere near a number one center. However, I think he's still pretty young. I think he's been bounced around from team to team. And I think, you know, if he can get up here, play a little with the Phantoms, get a little bit of more of the Flyers organization, putting them in the right spots and seeing what he could do. You know, he has the skill sets. He has really good vision and creativeness. He may not be the shooter at everybody you want it, but he does have the ability to create and make a play, a good play. So I think between his speed, his size, and his skill set, his ⁓ vision of the ice, think ⁓ Jet will be ⁓ okay. I really do. So I'm anxious to see him. Do I think he's going to make it here with us though? I don't. ⁓ Unfortunately, I think in order to get what we have to get number one, number two center, he's going to be part of some kind of package here. think teams right now are ⁓ not looking at him as like, hey, this great return. But I think if the Flyers can get him into the AHL and let him see, let them show some success down there that he could be part of a package to get that one C2C eventually. So ⁓ That's my thoughts on it anyhow. ⁓ Keith Jones was out there, went on 97.5, right? Doing an interview this week and he had some things to say. He went over just some topics, I guess we're all thinking like, what's the state of the team? What does he think of Mishkoff and Riktoket? And, you know, he talked a little bit about the team as a whole. Keith was very adamant that he thinks that the team is right on pace with where they should be. He was happy with the team and what they're doing. He did say that, like everybody else, he wishes they were progressing faster, but he thinks they're on track. They're not behind. He thinks they're on track and he's anxious to see what the future holds. ⁓ He talked about Mishkov a little bit. He said that he's 100 % committed to Mishkov. He still is excited about Mishkov as he was the day that they picked him up from the airport. He knows and he said that you know, Mishkov has some work to do and he thinks that he definitely has been getting better He looks a little better on the ice his ⁓ physical abilities are looking better. So it's starting to catch up with him his training and his Stamina have been looking better recently according to Keith and he thinks that he'll have a great offseason and he's looking forward to what Mishkov looks like next year, so Good to see him come in and actually talk about Mishkoff, him actually talk about the team. He did say that he was happy with the status ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ Ristolanin for cheap. He was kind of basically saying like, look, it was really ⁓ for Danny to actually set a price for our players ⁓ ⁓ hold to that price. And he said there's a lot of things that go into it. If ⁓ a GM knows that you say, hey, this is the price I want, and then when things start getting close to the deadline, you turn around and take less, they know going forward that you will take less and they'll wait you out. So he said it was definitely huge for Danny to keep that ask and not bend within reason. And Danny did keep that ask. He said, also what happens sometimes are like one GM will come in and offer something and Danny or another GM will turn around and say, no, that's not what we want. We want this, this and this. And then another GM will call a week or two later and offer something. And that GM turns around and takes that deal for a far less than what he told the first GM. that's where Keith had said that there's a lot of integrity there that what you tell one GM you want is the same thing that you tell all the GMs you want. And this way it looks better for Danny with his integrity in the league and how he deals with these GMs. So it was nice to hear him talk a little bit about that and what ⁓ Danny did at the deadline. They did say, or Keith did say that they were looking for ⁓ ways to make this team better. And that's just what they have to do. There's no... ⁓ Quick fix here, you know, there's not going to be a top two, top three draft for us in the near future. They're going to have to find free agents and sign them if they can, but a lot of them have already been signed. So there's going to have to be some creative ways to make this team better without hurting the club. And that's what they're working with right now. They're looking at every option they can. You know, there's a few names that keep jumping up like what McTavish on the Ducks. McTavish was scratched last night. There was a little bit of talk about it, like would the Flyers be interested in him? ⁓ We're back out to Seattle with Shane Wright. Shane was always rumored to be available. There was flyers, people saying that they weren't interested in him during the season. But then after the trade deadline, his name popped up back again and somebody out there had connected the flyers back to Shane Wright again. So, Shane Wright an option? I think so. Shane Wright's value is super high. I don't think so. And I think the flyers probably wouldn't have to give up too much to get Chainwright. And I'm okay with that. Like if they want to take a stab at Chainwright like they did with Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, know, take a stab. What's the worst thing that can happen? I think you have a short-term contract with Chainwright, maybe another year. You bring them in as long as you're not giving up the farm. You train them the way you want them trained. And you let them loose and you see what he has. either... He's way better than we all thought and we got to steal or he's terrible and we let him go or he fills in like a number three center and he's better than the other number three centers on this team. So definitely, definitely options here for the Flyers to pick up some reclamation projects. It's just a matter of who do they want to pick up and what would they have to give up for them? ⁓ Let's talk about Cutter a little bit. So Cutter is I know there's a lot of people out there, they hate Cutter. I do too. don't want to, I think he's a mental midget. I really do. I think he's a mental midget. I think he had no grounds to do what he did. He had no excuses for doing what he did. He had no reason to do what he did. And whatever reason he has in his head, he won't tell anybody. But when you stonewall, what is it, Patrick Maroon, John LeClair from going down and talking to you, they took a trip to talk to you and you wouldn't even give them two minutes of your time. That kid felt entitled. His way of thinking is ⁓ corrupt and ⁓ obviously cancer in my opinion to this team. However, reality sets in and this guy is playing for the Ducks. He is looking fantastic. I think he had what like 34 goals or something like that this year already. He's exactly what the Flyers needed. He was drafted by the Flyers to Exactly do what he's doing for the ducks to square goals. He has a heck of a shot. He plays a really good game and Am I glad he's not on this team from a personality perspective? Yes But I am upset that he's not on this team from a skill perspective if you look and think ⁓ my god, like look at what cutter is and Imagine what he would be like here with us with a Forrester and a Marton and a mishkaf You know, we are a little bit even further down the path with Cutter on this team. I'm past it. Like I am like, I'm not bringing this up just because I'm a bitter, sour, sour, you know, fan. I'm not. It's just when I look at it and you see all the media and everyone talking about the Flyers not being able to draft and the Flyers missing out, know, Brett Fair not picking the people up that he should be picking up. Cutter was a steal. He actually did really well. He did really well and he could have been a flyer and he had a lot of skill set to be a flyer. And that would have been a good pick for us. So anyhow, in closing, there's another game tonight. ⁓ LA Kings, I think it starts at 1030 Eastern Time. We'll be watching that game and then coming back probably doing another broadcast tomorrow about it. So let's hope for another big game. Flyers are still mathematically in the playoffs. They had two points last night. And let's see if they can get another two points tonight. Go Flyers.