By the time the final horn sounded at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night, the somewhat empty feeling in the air wasn't just about the 3-0 scoreline—it was about missed chances, old habits rearing their heads, and a frustrating night where no matter how much effort was given, a breakthrough just wouldn't come.
For a team that had been enjoying more freedom, more pop, and more energy since interim head coach Brad Shaw took over, the Philadelphia Flyers were stifled in this game. And that stung.
With the Columbus Blue Jackets still mathematically alive in the post season hunt and desperate for a regulation win, they brought urgency. The Flyers had a decent start, but not enough pushback once the game began to tilt.
It wasn't lack of effort, as Shaw emphasized—it was a lack of the resilience that fans have become so accustomed to seeing with the Flyers (case and point: the 22 games that have gone to overtime this season).
"It's too bad because for the first eight, ten minutes, I thought we were going to have a real good hockey game," Shaw said. "And it just didn't finish that way for us."
1. Too Much Fancy, Not Enough Filthy
There’s a time for highlight-reel passes and silky toe-drags. And then there’s a time to keep it ugly, park yourself in the crease, and bang in a rebound.
Tuesday night called for the latter, and the Flyers, by their own admission, leaned too hard into the former.
“I think we’re trying to play a little too skillful,” Sean Couturier said postgame. “There’s not really much traffic, or we’re trying to be on the outside and everyone is trying to make plays, but sometimes we’ve just got to simplify it and get some dirty goals. We can’t always just expect to make highlight reel goals.”
That self-assessment checks out. The Flyers had moments of offensive pressure, but rarely tested Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves with any sustained, high-danger traffic. Greaves is not a towering goalie, and Shaw admitted the team didn’t do nearly enough to make his night miserable.
“From a traffic point of view, we certainly didn’t get in front of [Greaves] enough,” Shaw said. “As much as you talk about it, it’s just sometimes hard to get there… I thought we were a little easier to play against than what we have been recently.”
When the team needed to grind out a goal—just one, to flip the narrative and breathe life into the building—they looked for the perfect play instead.
2. Earning the Bounces
There’s nothing more maddening in hockey than when the effort doesn’t match the result. The Flyers had looks. They had zone time. They had sequences that looked like they were building toward something. But the finish never came.
Meanwhile, Columbus—disciplined, opportunistic, and fighting for their playoff lives—got the breaks.
“In a game like this, the first goal is pretty important, and they got that,” Sam Ersson said. “They got a couple bounces, and a little unlucky for us.”
You could feel the air come out of the Flyers’ sails once the Blue Jackets got that first goal and gained the confidence to keep scoring. From there, the structure started to slip. Defensive gaps widened. Transition defense slowed. Second efforts on pucks weren’t quite as urgent.
“I didn’t think we had the resilience,” Shaw said. “I didn’t think we had the ability to stay with it… I just thought they played better at the puck and I thought they were rewarded.”
He’s not wrong. The Flyers weren’t outworked. They just didn’t rise to meet the desperation Columbus brought.
3. An Honest Reflection and a Stark Reality
This wasn’t just the final home game of the year—it was a reflection of how far the Flyers still have to go. And the locker room knows it.
“It’s obviously very disappointing for us,” said Ersson. “We want to be in the playoffs; that’s the situation we want to be in. That’s why you work so hard in the summer… it stings not being there.
“I think we have some lessons to learn from this year, myself included. I think we have to remember how much this sucks and use that as fuel and let it motivate [us] to work even harder to get to where we want to be.”
Couturier echoed that sentiment, pointing to a dangerous tendency that can creep in once the stakes are no longer immediate: regression.
“Maybe it’s human nature, at this time of year and [with] the situation we’re in,” he said. “But at the same time, I think we’ve got to learn and improve our game, maybe mature our game, too… It’s easy to kind of get away from playing the right way, but I think it’s just good habits that you want to build and make it natural for all the time.”
That kind of self-awareness, both individually and collectively, is valuable. But it has to translate into action—not just in training camp next year, but in these final games. There’s still hockey left to be played, and every shift is an opportunity to shape the team’s culture.
Final Thoughts
In the end, it was a frustrating night with few consolations—except, perhaps, for fans inclined to track draft lottery odds. If there’s a silver lining in being shut out at home to end the season, it’s a slightly better pick in what promises to be an interesting draft year.
But don’t mistake acceptance for satisfaction. The Flyers are still building. Still learning. Still figuring out who they are and who they want to be. Tuesday’s loss wasn’t an indictment—it was a checkpoint. One that left a bitter taste, but maybe that’s the point.
You’ve got to taste the bitterness before you can really appreciate the sweetness of success.