Promise followed by drop, Flyers’ 2023-24 season ends on final day originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Needing three scenarios to fall in their favor, the Flyers couldn’t get the rebounds.
They lost 2-1 to the Capitals on Tuesday night in the 2023-24 regular season finale at the Wells Fargo Center.
Erik Johnson even tied the Flyers at 1-1 with a redirect in the second period.
TJ Oshie got the win for Washington with an empty-netter with three minutes left. The Flyers had to pull the goaltender because they couldn’t allow the Capitals to earn a point after regulation if they wanted to have a chance to finish with the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Not long before the final decision in Philadelphia, the Red Wings eliminated the Flyers by forcing overtime in Montreal and picking up a point.
The Flyers gave themselves a chance to play a meaningful Game 82. But an ill-timed, dizzying eight-game skid and a brutal Monday night of scoreboard watching left their playoff hopes barely flickering on Tuesday.
To make the dance, John Tortorella’s club had to win in regulation and needed regulation losses to the Red Wings tonight and the Penguins on Wednesday. It turns out Wednesday doesn’t matter.
With 3.3 seconds left in regulation, Detroit scored to tie the game against the Canadiens, ending the Flyers’ hopes.
The Flyers finished the regular season 38-33-11. The 87 points marked a 12-point jump from last season, when the Flyers went 31-38-13 in Year 1 under Tortorella.
To the surprise of just about everyone, the Flyers defied the rebuild tag for a significant portion of this season. They held third place in the Metropolitan Division for over two months before falling into their worst eight-game losing streak of the season.
They stopped the spiral last week with a win over the NHL-leading Rangers and then defeated the Devils to keep things interesting until the finals. But it was the first time in almost two months that they won consecutive games.
The Flyers have lost 19 of their last 28 games (9-14-5) and nine of their last 11 (2-7-2).
“I’m proud of the team,” Tortorella said Tuesday morning. “That was my message before the Rangers game: Let’s just be proud of ourselves and get this into Tuesday and see where we go. I’m proud of the team, how they handled themselves, even through some of the bumps. ” we’ve had the end of the year, they’ve stuck together, they’ve tried to figure it out and now they get to have a Game 82 that means something.
The Flyers have missed the playoffs in four consecutive years, the longest drought since 1989-90 to 1993-94, when they were without a postseason berth for five straight seasons.
A passionate Tortorella desperately tried to stop the bleeding and get the Flyers to the playoffs. But during the morning skate on Tuesday, he didn’t lose sight of the big picture with this season.
“No matter what happens tonight, I’m excited about how they handled themselves,” he said. “I’m excited about some of the growth, I’m excited about the fact that hopefully I’ll get an opportunity, but if not, where we go in the future.”
The Flyers went 1-2-0 against the Capitals (40-31-11) in their three-game regular season series. Washington clinched the East’s final playoff spot with the win.
• Some will see the glass half full with the Flyers and some will see it half empty. Both sides are justified.
The Flyers had a forward-looking offseason after publicly embracing a rebuild in May. The reconstruction sometimes seemed accelerated. The fact that the Flyers have been in a playoff race all season is a nice feather in the cap of the new regime.
But given the way the season ended, the Flyers clearly still have a lot of questions and work to do.
Moving Sean Walker before the March 8 trade deadline to fill their futures didn’t help their chances this season. During that time they also had to deal with a slew of injuries to their back end. A younger team became even younger and in a crucial position.
“Even when things were going really well this year, we haven’t gotten away from rebuilding here,” Tortorella said. “The deadline showed everyone that we’re rebuilding. So if they have to take some hits here and there, some ebbs and flows and momentum swings, and just stay true to themselves, they should feel good about that.”
Tortorella was asked if learning to deal with expectations and pressure is part of the Flyers’ process.
“That’s good for them,” the head coach said. “Some of the criticism was leveled at the team, and it wasn’t in a good light.”
After the ugly 9-3 loss to the Canadiens a week ago, Tortorella said he heard outside noise that the Flyers had quit.
Tuesday morning he didn’t have it.
“Not a chance,” Tortorella said. “I’ll tell you right now: There hasn’t been a damn second when those guys stopped doing it. You have to be very careful how you use that word. It doesn’t matter what context you want to put it in – who, whatever .” – they didn’t stop for a second.
“But that they hear it, that they are questioned, all of us. That’s part of the process. You don’t complain about it. You do your thing, but you learn how to deal with those kinds of situations. Really.” important for actually a fairly young group out there.”
• Samuel Ersson made 16 saves on 17 shots in the final.
Alex Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead with 1:52 minutes left in the first period. The future Hall of Famer, who was headed for the blue paint, had a pass taken from him.
The 24-year-old rookie Ersson has played in 51 games and 32 of the Flyers’ last 38. Tortorella said the Flyers originally projected Ersson to play 18 to 22 games.
The Flyers played with five goaltenders this season. They lost Carter Hart on Jan. 23 when the No. 1 goalie requested a personal leave of absence due to a sexual assault case. The Flyers ended up with two rookies in net: Ersson and 27-year-old Ivan Fedotov, who arrived two and a half weeks ago.
Ersson was a big reason why the Flyers stayed in it all season and didn’t struggle without Hart. But along the way, the Flyers struggled to get saves from their goaltenders. They entered the finals with the league’s second-lowest save percentage (.884).
“Let’s face it, things got into a very strange situation when we lost Carter,” Tortorella said a little more than a week ago. “But having said that, we had discussions in the summer about the situation with Carter and thought there might be something going on, right? We have to be honest about it, it’s not a great situation for our team when we lost him. ” But it showed me a lot of good things about a specific man in Ers, how he dealt with it. But it’s been a lot. I made the decision – I made the decision – that I’m going to live or die with Ers when I played him all those games.”
Capitals netminder Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 of the Flyers’ 28 shots.
With the score tied at 1-1 and the Flyers threatening to take their first lead, Lindgren robbed Travis Konecny up front. The save came with 2:11 minutes left in the second period.
• When Ovechkin scored, it all but ended a frustrating first period for the Flyers.
The Tortorella club thought they had a 1-0 lead on their own after a crazy move.
Joel Farabee fired a shot that deflected off Lindgren and went straight into the air. Referee Kelly Sutherland thought Lindgren had swallowed it and blew the whistle. In Sutherland’s defense, no one else saw the puck. Then it came down and ricocheted into the net of Farabee’s leg.
A lengthy video review confirmed that this was not a goal. After the whistle, a continuous shot cannot hit anyone, making it a good goal.
• A big storyline heading into the offseason will be the Flyers’ worst power play in the league. The man advantage issues preceded assistant coach Rocky Thompson, who oversees the units and is in his second season.
But the Flyers’ inability to rarely change momentum on the power play cost them dearly.
An interesting offseason begins for the Flyers, who must decipher what the next steps are in their rebuild.
The Flyers have two first-round selections in the June 28-29 NHL entry draft. Free agency opens on July 1 at noon ET.
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