Coming off a five-game winning streak that was ended by a loss in their last game, the Philadelphia Flyers doubled down with a 5-3 defeat against the Ottawa Senators. Losing the game off a goal with under five minutes remaining in the third period, they probably should have lost well before that. Outplayed from start to finish, it was a disappointing effort for them. What were some takeaways from the loss?
Zamula Saved the Flyers… Momentarily
After the Flyers were being outplayed early in the game, they needed something to get them going. A penalty and the subsequent kill of it stopped the bleeding for a bit, but then the Senators took a penalty that put the Flyers on the man advantage. From there, the Egor Zamula show started. His play was only enough to save his team for a bit, as their eventual loss was all but inevitable. Still, he nearly coasted them to a victory.
On that power play, Zamula took advantage of a weird bounce that fooled everyone on the Senators. A puck went high in the air back to the point, but nobody on the penalty kill had any idea where the puck was, with some assuming a whistle had blown. That’s where Zamula came in, and he fired a shot from long range into a wide-open cage.
After that lucky play, Zamula pulled off a pretty skilled one with a snipe that put the Flyers up 2-0 just a few minutes after his first tally. Even though the Flyers were nowhere near the better team, he gave his team a multi-goal lead that they frankly didn’t deserve at all. Still, the scoreboard is the only thing that matters in the end. He helped mask some of the Flyers’ issues, but that couldn’t last forever as the pucks started going in for the Senators. Regardless of the result, he deserves praise for his effort.
Again, the Flyers didn’t deserve to be in this game, but Sam Ersson had other plans. Despite a very poor .879 save percentage (SV%) with 29 saves on 33 shots, the eye test shows he had another fantastic game. The Flyers were hemmed in their zone frequently, meaning he had to make several tough saves. Ironically, some goals were scored in a way that gave him no chance — opportunities where he was outmanned. A breakaway and 2-on-1 chance made a phenomenal contest for him look pretty miserable, but that wasn’t the case. The Flyers did not play for their goaltender here, as he was one of the only reasons why they had a shot to begin with.
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