Banged-up Flyers relying on depth: Who should be in and who shouldn't be?

PHILADELPHIA The effort, as its been with the Philadelphia Flyers for most of the past season-plus, was there again Monday against the Colorado Avalanche at Wells Fargo Center.

But the mistakes they could get away with in recent wins over teams like the San Jose Sharks , Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres , they couldnt this time.

Travis Konecny lost Cale Makar near the midpoint of regulation, resulting in Colorados first goal to open the scoring, and on two separate occasions the Flyers negated power plays by taking careless penalties, including high-sticking minors by Tyson Foerster in the first period and Bobby Brink in the third.

Advertisement Down 3-0, a late push to get back to within a goal before eventually falling 3-2 was admirable.

But the avoidable mental errors still frustrated coach John Tortorella.

A lot of the game I liked as we kept on going, Tortorella said.

But goddamn we do stupid stuff.

Its so aggravating, the stuff that we do that should be out of our game.

Thats what aggravates me.

To be fair to the Flyers, who saw a five-game point streak come to an end in falling to 8-9-2, theyve been dealing with several players coming in and out of the lineup lately.

No.

1 goalie Samuel Ersson remains out for at least another game or two, his second absence this month.

Defensemen Jamie Drysdale (upper body), Cam York (upper body) and Emil Andrae (mid-body) missed Mondays game, with Andrae the latest casualty late in Saturdays game.

Captain Sean Couturier came out a couple of games ago with a minor injury, and rookie Matvei Michkov was a healthy scratch for two games two weeks ago.

The moving parts have likely made things a bit more complicated for everyone.

But its also given the Flyers a chance to further evaluate players they have on the NHL roster and in the system.

Lets take a closer look at whats going on.

Richard getting his chance Recalling Anthony Richard so soon isnt surprising because of his strong preseason and subsequent hot start with the Phantoms.

Hes making the most of his chance now, too, with 6 points in his first six games with the Flyers.

A four-game point streak came to an end Monday.

Theres no question the Flyers welcome Richards speed most of all, as theyre not an overly fast team up front otherwise.

Tortorella mentioned, too, that he has liked Richard with Michkov the Flyers have outscored their opponents 3-0 at five-on-five when the two are on the ice together although they were split up Monday when the Flyers were struggling to create offense.

Advertisement As we keep building here, were going to have to get faster as a team, Tortorella said Monday morning.

He brings that.

I just like his willingness to make plays.

...

Makes some mistakes and maybe leaves (the defensive zone) early or whatever it may be offensively; Id rather have him play that way than worry about being absolutely perfect defensively.

We need offense.

He deserves to be in the lineup and deserves to get the ice time that hes getting.

Richard played just 10:04 on Monday, the lowest total of his six games, and spent some long stretches on the bench.

At nearly 28 years old, hes not really in prospect territory anymore.

Still, having him up allows the Flyers younger players to remain in Lehigh Valley to marinate, and Richard has probably earned the opportunity to stay in the lineup for now anyway, even after he wasnt used much against the Avalanche.

Defense banged up No timetable has been given on Andraes return after he left Saturdays game against the Buffalo Sabres hunched over and holding his left side.

He didnt take part in Mondays morning skate, suggesting he needs some time to recover.

Found Emil Andrae's injury.

Non-contact.

You can see he makes a move behind the net to start the breakout, and then immediately skates off holding his left side pic.twitter.com/9rTh1REY3X Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) November 18, 2024 Its a potentially big loss, which is something no one could have predicted before training camp.

Franky, Andrae has been doing the things Drysdale is supposed to be doing.

Andrae looked much more decisive, aware and unafraid to make plays compared to Drysdale, who has yet to make much of an impact.

Hes played very well, Tortorella said Monday morning.

I think hes helped our transition game.

I think hes defended better than we thought he would.

Hes had a good run here since hes been called up, so well miss him.

Advertisement Tortorella was forced to ice a patchwork group on the blue line Monday.

Travis Sanheim skated for more than half the game (31:07), mostly with Rasmus Ristolainen .

Nick Seeler and Erik Johnson comprised the second pair, and Egor Zamula and Helge Grans , making his NHL debut, made up the third pair.

Grans made a good account of himself.

He had a couple of good scoring chances and notched his first career assist on Foersters goal with 6 1/2 minutes to go in regulation.

Grans ended up with 16:11 of playing time, third among Flyers defensemen, seemingly gaining the trust of the coaching staff as the game moved along.

He was tied for the team lead in shot attempt share, too (62.5 percent).

You can tell hes pretty poised and in control back there, Owen Tippett said.

Obviously, a big guy.

He was solid.

Zamula was decent against Colorado, although he left the bench at one point for unclear reasons.

He had a three-game point streak heading into Monday, and assistant coach Brad Shaw, in charge of the defense, has seen a more effective player lately after Zamula came out of the lineup for four games in late October.

Hes got a real ability to offer poise on the puck, Shaw said.

When most guys would offload it, he holds on to it for another split second; then, things really open up.

I just think when he plays with that in his game, hes a hard guy to predict.

If you dont play honest and play through him and try to guess where hes going, hes got great deception.

That the defense has remained generally strong after Yorks Oct.

23 injury is a testament to the group as a whole, led, of course, by Sanheim, who is arguably playing the best hockey of his career.

Goaltending steadies Full marks to Ivan Fedotov , who has gone from looking like someone who had no business being anywhere near the NHL to posting a 3-0-0 record, a 2.22 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage in his last three starts.

Advertisement After the win over Buffalo, Fedotov mentioned he needed to work on his small details and also indicated hes a little more in control of himself now.

The biggest key? Be ready for everything, he said.

Players here play a lot of east-west, and you have to be ready for one-timers or (cross-ice passes).

I like how he stepped up, Shaw said.

Hes taken the challenge and met it head-on.

Not to be outdone, Aleksei Kolosov played the best game of his young career Monday with 26 saves.

Hes still looking for his first win he dropped to 0-4-0 but he made all the saves he was supposed to make against some of the leagues most dangerous offensive players.

Frost the odd man out Is Morgan Frost out of opportunities? Its starting to feel that way.

Frost was scratched for the third time in four games Monday, and the only reason he played on the road against the Ottawa Senators last Thursday was because Couturier was a late scratch due to injury.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Frost coming out now is that Tortorella suggested hes not trying to make any points to the player, like perhaps some previous times when the two disagreed.

With just one goal and five assists in 16 games, Frost simply has struggled.

Im not coaching him the way I did the past two years; I dont think he deserves that, Tortorella said last week.

Hasnt played well enough.

The Flyers have gotten hardly any offense from the center position, Frost or otherwise.

Five of Couturiers 9 points and all three of his goals came in a single game against the Minnesota Wild on Oct.

26.

Scott Laughton has two goals, both in Seattle on Oct.

17.

Ryan Poehling hasnt scored yet in 16 games.

Noah Cates , who has played center and wing, has no goals in 15 games.

While those other guys are also relied on for defense and to kill penalties, its still telling that Frost cant crack the lineup ahead of them.

Considering hes a pending restricted free agent, it might be best for both parties to move on from each other sooner rather than later.

(Top photo of Anthony Richard: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images).

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