Philadelphia Flyers' Winless Drought Extends To Eight Games, But Losing Is Not In Team's DNA

PHILADELPHIA – All losses are not created equal.

Just ask the Philadelphia Flyers, who have become experts at losing.

They have played eight times this season and are still looking for their first win. The Flyers' latest defeat – Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken at a surprisingly upbeat Xfinity Mobile Arena – had a different feel to it, however.

The Flyers competed hard, which has not always been the case in the young season, and created enough quality scoring chances to win. But the terrific goaltending from the Kraken's Philipp Grubauer prevented the Flyers from winning in regulation.

So Philadelphia (0-5-3), which overcame a 2-0 deficit on third-period goals by Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras, will take the point and build off of it.

"The energy was there. I saw a lot of guys digging a little bit harder," coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. "It's got to come natural to this team. It's got to be part of your DNA. It can't be once in a while."

In other words, the Flyers took a baby step on Tuesday night. 

"Our execution was a better tonight," Zegras said. "We had a little bit different game plan."

The Flyers' plan was to be more aggressive on the attack. And for a large portion of the game, they were aggressive, outhitting the Kraken, 31-13, and winning 55.4 percent of the faceoffs. But it was in the final 10 minutes or so that the winless team went into a familiar defensive shell.

"I think once guys got that confidence that this works and we got space and we could make plays — and we didn’t have to sit back and defend the whole game,” Zegras said.

The Flyers have spent an inordinate amount of time in their defensive zone this season. That wasn’t the case Tuesday as Tocchet again mixed up the lines. The top unit had Noah Cates centering the future of the team, Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov, and after a so-so first period, the Flyers got better as the game progressed.

Zegras finally hit the scoring column, depositing his first goal of the season while playing on a line with Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett.

Late in the second period, Zegras got into a spat with Grubauer and it seemed to ignite the Flyers. Grubauer made a glove save on Zegras and then held out his glove for effect. Zegras jawed with the goalie, who shoved at the forward. Both got penalties.

"When stuff happens like that on the ice, the fans get into a little more and the guys respond from that," defenseman Travis Sanheim said. "I think we need just a little more of that from our team moving forward."

There was cautious optimism from the Flyers after the game.

They realize there are plenty of areas that need work. They know their power play (tied for last in the NHL with an 8.3 percent success rate) is still miserable. They know they are averaging a league-worst 1.25 goals per game. And they know they went the final 10-plus minutes of regulation Tuesday without getting even a shot on net.

They also know that when they played well in a 2-1 loss in Ottawa against the Senators last week, they struggled in their next game, losing 5-1 to Boston.

With a game against the lowly Red Wings on Thursday, the Flyers cannot afford that to happen again.

"I liked the way we played tonight," Zegras said. “We played hard, got pucks to the net, bodies to the net. It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t get it done in the shootout.”

The Flyers still haven’t won since joy-struck defenseman Cam York heaved his stick into the stands following his series-clinching overtime goal in last spring's playoffs.

That was 167 days ago. Right now, it feels longer.

Clearly, the fans remember last year's strong finish and still believe in this team. The booing was reserved for the 0-for-3 power play, and they were cheering and chanting throughout the game, trying to inspire victory No. 1.

They applauded loudly as the overtime ended and the game went to a shootout after the Flyers killed an ill-timed, too-many-men penalty late in the extra period.

It seemed like the fans sensed a victory. Unfortunately for the Flyers' faithful, the Kraken won in a five-round shootout as Bobby McMann beat Dan Vladar, who stopped 29 shots and had a strong game.

And while the winless streak continues, there was a positive vibe in the Flyers’ dressing room for one of the few times this season.

"I thought from a game aspect, tonight was kind of our best in the sense of how we want to play and the energy,” said Sanheim after playing a staggering 31:04. "I know we didn’t score until the third, but there was some other good stuff that went on through the first two periods and we’re just trying to build off that."

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