Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / Episode 13: Flyers vs Stars Recap| Mar 29, 2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Hatrix unofficial flyers podcast. I'm Rick Mullen. I'll be your host today. And we are going to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers versus the Dallas Stars, the game played last night at the Xfinity Mobile Center. ⁓ Great game. My son, Sean, and I were down there watching it. And, you know, I think everyone thought about this game when the calendar as a chalked up loss. And, I think the only people that didn't think it was going to be a loss were the Philadelphia Flyers. it was a great game to be at. It was a tight game, an exciting game, an albiter. And you know, we're going to talk about it here for a little bit. So let's go over the team stats here. know, Philly had 30 shots on net at Dallas' 18. 30 shots to the 18 for the Dallas Stars. That was pretty lopsided. I'm surprised that they got that many more shots. I know the league shot totals are down and Dallas is a ⁓ quality shot team, not a quantity. But 18 shots for Dallas from a team that has like ranting in on it and Wyatt Johnson and Robertson. That's really limiting a really good team's potential to score goals. So I think the Flyers defense really, really did well last night in limited Dallas' chances. We talked about this other stat, these hit stat last game, you know, that hits dictate play and hits do, hits dictate play. You know, when you hit somebody in their own end, if they hear you coming, you know, they're pressured to get rid of that puck faster. And, you know, that causes a lot of problems sometimes. You sometimes they can't get off that great pass to get out of their zone. You know, and they throw the pass away or they can't find the pass and they're nervous. So they just chuck it down the ice for an icing or they don't see a pass or a lane or anything. And they try to take that one or two extra steps to open up space so they can create something. And here, you know, you get hit and you get knocked off the puck and it's a turnover in your own end. And, so hits dictate play, just like we said last time on this podcast. So the Flyers had 31 hits. to Dallas is 14. They doubled them up, doubled them up. And it was a good game. And you you could tell they were hitting me, my son were watching that game. And there were some really good hits and board battles going in there. And you know, when the flyers stopped hitting, the Dallas stars were coming off the boards and they were skating through the ice. ⁓ And all of sudden, I think they would remember like, ⁓ God, we got a hit here. And you know, Sean Kitorio is like, go out there and smoke somebody and ⁓ slowed down. And we start creating plays again for the Flyers. So I think if the Flyers can stay hitting, just hit, dictate the game, hit. If you lose, you lose. But if you're not hitting, you have more of a chance to lose and you're not going to create as many opportunities for your team. So it was really good to see the Flyers continue hitting again in last night's game. Penalty minutes, the Flyers had four, Dallas Stars had six. Me and my son were screaming a lot last night. know, we saw so many ⁓ trips and hits and some things that were illegal holding the sticks like cross checks to the back when the players were down, know that Dallas did and you know, the refs put away the whistle. They didn't call much last night at all in Dallas and I think the Flyers could have had at least two or three more power plays but those refs just decided now we're not going to call anything here and they let them get away with a lot the Dallas Stars. That's my opinion. ⁓ Faceoff percentage, the Flyers actually were at 56.3 % to Dallas is 43.8%. Flyers dominating in the faceoff circle again, looked really good. They won a lot of ⁓ faceoffs. They had some strong opportunities there because they were able to win faceoffs. And ⁓ that was good to see because that's huge. You know, if we lose all the faceoffs and we can't get the puck out of our end or If we get limited time down in the offensive zone and we can't win a faceoff, they get some pressure on the net. You don't score goals. ⁓ but last night, the Flyers absolutely did well in all statistics all around. It was a really, really good game. ⁓ first period was pretty tight. You know, there was zip, zip going into the second. ⁓ but you felt that, the Flyers are in this, you know, you never felt the Flyers were not in this game. So it was a good, good first period. You know, going into the second, ⁓ we were halfway through the second period before anybody scored a goal. And Travis Koneckny, from a pass from Matt ⁓ Mishkov ⁓ Risto, came out of the corner and drove the front of the net and stuffed it, along the ice on the far ⁓ side of the net. It was a great, great pressure to the crease and to the net. And that's what you have to do to be a goal scorer. You know, you can't be staying on the outside. You got to be willing to get across that center slot area and get a higher chance, higher angle opportunity. you know, Travis Koneckni did just that. He wasn't he wasn't afraid. He put his shoulder down and bore his way through that middle of that slot and stuff that on the far side. So good to see Travis get a goal. Same period, second period, 17, six, what, 53 mark. It looks like R2 here. He actually got a shorthanded breakaway goal. you know, it was sad to see, you know, the Flyers, if they could have just kept things under control, you know, they're going up into the third period probably with a one-nothing lead, but, you know, a little mistake there and it's Internet shorthanded. So, you know, that took a little wind out of the fan sales and you kind of feel the mood change a little bit, you know, at the mobile arena, whatever they call it nowadays. ⁓ but we still felt, you know, this, this was a game that was still winnable. was still winnable. You know, they had a score on a shorthanded goal and, ⁓ to tie this game, but going into the third period, this, there's a lot of penalties that again were missed, ⁓ early in the third. ⁓ I think Dallas created or caused, or, did a lot of penalties that were not called. The Flyers should have had some, ⁓ some power plays in the third. Late in the third with about two, what, two some minutes left in the game. Trevor's egress gets his stick stuck in one of the Dallas stars skates and the Dallas star guy goes down and the ref obviously has to put his hand up ⁓ and was it. I mean, I thought, man, I think it was like two, I don't even know the exact time. I think it was like two minutes and 43 seconds left in the game. ⁓ And the best power play or the top two or three power play in the league is going. The score goal here and this game just like normal and the Flyers are going to lose after all that hard work. But that is not what happened because Sam Erson played phenomenal last night. Sam Erson stood on his head. He made some fantastic saves. There was a power play here where the puck went across the Wyatt Johnson who had an wide open net and Erson flashed a pad out took away the bottom half of the ⁓ side of the net and stopped me to pad save on Wyatt Johnson. think Wyatt Johnson couldn't even believe he did it. And it was an incredible save. You heard this big boom hit the pad, the puck popped over into the corner and the place went crazy. And anyhow, the the Flyers got through that power play or penalty kill and did not give up a goal. And the game goes into overtime. 327 into overtime, were trading chances through the power ⁓ overtime. think both teams were pretty open. They weren't just sitting back and playing defense. Both teams were pretty open. And Trevor Zygres goes up the ice with 327 left, or at the 327 mark, I'm sorry, from a pass from Cam York and Sam Erson. Sam Erson and Trevor absolutely stuffs one five hole through. ⁓ The Smith Casey to Smith and wins the game in overtime place went crazy. Everyone's cheering. It was really great to see the Flyers get a win on Dallas. You know, I don't, don't think anyone saw it coming. I really don't like even me. I went down there to really just get a look at the Flyers and see what they could do against a good team. And I was pleasantly surprised how well this team played against the Dallas stars. And it was really good to see us win was great to see us not go to overtime. I'm sorry to shoot out, know, we got two points. It was really nice. So great job by the Flyers. it was a fantastic game. You know, I'm looking forward to Tuesday night. I think we're playing the capitals on Tuesday and there is a really darn good chance that we're going to get a peek at a Porter Marton that night. I'm hoping I'm really hoping we see him. I hope he comes in and he plays well. ⁓ there's some thought process out there. I, Somebody had said, you know, not to mess up this team's chemistry right now by bringing in somebody like Marton and it's, ⁓ this, this is just me. I understand. I know people are trying to get them into the playoffs and I get that, but I don't really think pulling say a Grunstrom out of the lineup and sticking Marton in is going to mess up the chemistry of this team. I just don't, you know, I don't. I think you could pull Grunström out and put Grubbanken in. You could pull Grunström out and put anybody in that spot. And I just don't think that's going to affect the chemistry of this team with pulling one person. I don't. Now, if you pull that one person and you play that one person in all kinds of minutes that he shouldn't be getting, know, juggling lines and messing things up, OK, that makes sense. But I really do think Marton's going to be easily slated into Grunström's spot. And he's going to bring a different level of competitiveness to this team. You he has some hands, he can score goals. I know we haven't seen him yet at the NHL level. I know he's going to have some time to try to adjust and I get that. get that. But as long as he can, you know, get some time under his belt, skate with this team, get some experience. This is this is a good thing for us. the flyers moving forward into the future. Porter Morton needs to see where he's at right now. He needs as many games as we can get him. He has to figure out what his weaknesses are and what he's got to work on. And also it's going to ignite this kid. This kid's going to play and he's going to realize, I'm not as strong as I thought I was or I'm not as fast as I thought I was or. man, this is like totally different. got to work on my shot a little more, but this is going to ignite this kid to work hard in the off season to actually be something special for this team next year. So I say put them in, put them in every game, play them the rest of this year and let this kid learn, see what he's got. And I'm excited to see and hopefully see him on Tuesday. I think Jason Mertides had ⁓ broadcasted out there that he actually was walking down the hallway and he saw a Michigan State Equipment bag sitting on the floor and he knew that Marton was in the house and you know It was really good to hear his bag his equipment was here and then there were some pictures from some fans that actually called him up in the box with that Jonesy and Danny Breyer and Hilferty and you know, so he was up there he was watching the game and He was talking to the execs and you could look at them, you know, from these pictures I saw anyway. He's a big kid. He looks like he put on some muscle and I think he's bigger. ⁓ I'd to go and look and research, but he looks like he got ⁓ at another 10 pounds of muscle put on him since last time I saw him, which was at the draft. ⁓ So I'm to see this kid play. I really am. I will be watching on Tuesday night. We'll be down there again, I think what's on Thursday night when they Detroit again. I hopefully we can get to see him live. But ⁓ great, great game by the Flyers. They're exciting right now. Let's let's look at these standings real quick here too. So when we look at these standings right now for these wild card spots, it looks like Boston Bruins ⁓ have 74 games played and they have 92 points. That's wild card spot number one. Columbus Blue Jackets have 74 games played and they have 88 points. Then you go down to the next three teams. Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, and the Philadelphia Flyers all have 73 games and they're tied with 86 points. 86 points three ways across the board there. The Washington Capitals are right behind us with 83 points, but they have 74 games played. And then the Jersey Devils have 73 games played with 78 points. So it's really tight right now. You know, if Columbus can get a couple more losses in here, you know, and the Flyers don't have to be tied with them. We got to be up by at least one point because we don't have as many regulation time wins. This could go either way. So this is huge here. The Flyers have to beat these Red Wings. They have to beat Washington. They got to go on a tear here like they've been. and keep winning. you know what? There is a chance. There is a really good chance we might see some playoff hockey in Philadelphia this year. This year, I'm excited. You know, I, I, you can listen to other podcasts we had other episodes and you know, I wasn't feeling good about it. I, know, I mathematically said there was a good chance for them to be eliminated. But they, know, but mathematically they were still in it, but would they, were they going to win? Where are they going to get there? Probably not. You know, it's still too far out. they got to, they got to go on a run here and continue this run that they're on, but they're looking better. if we had talked about this a week ago, I'd say they probably were going to lose out. But now after these few games, ⁓ of winning ⁓ and actually Dallas, that probably penciled in, like I said, as a loss. This is a totally different outlook here. know, the fires have a chance. I just hope that they keep playing hard. They don't have a fallback game like they did when they played Columbus, that they can stay focused. They can keep coming out with the energy that they had last night and the previous games and just keep going at these teams. You know, this team looks really, really good right now. Tocket system last night was great. His defensive system was really good. He really shut down Dallas from getting into zone and having some clean plays. When you look at Dallas, they look to get in that zone and do some cycles and move defensemen around so they can open up some ice for one of their guys to fill that open ice and get a really quality chance. Our defensive structure was pristine last night. blocked or stopped or got a sticking away on almost every cross ice pass. For the one or two that may have gotten through, Erson was there. He knew that that was where the shot was coming from and he was there before that shot was there at the net and he was there to stop that puck. So the team as a whole between the defensive structure, clogging the lanes, getting sticks in the passing lanes, we looked, the flyers looked fantastic. So I'm excited to see the next game. ⁓ We will do another episode when they're done playing the Capitals on Tuesday. So stay tuned. Please like, follow, and subscribe to us on YouTube and our website. Send us any ⁓ ideas through our mailbag. Our email address is hatrexpodcast99 at gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you. So until Tuesday night. Go Flyers!