Flyers-Rangers takeaways: Flyers can compete with upper-echelon teams, but need to find ways to score

Saturday was a test and the Flyers passed.

Yes, the Orange and Black lost 2-1, but it certainly wasn’t for the lack of trying. As coach John Tortorella said, “We did some really good things.”

Facing the red-hot New York Rangers, the hometown team came out flying and owned the shot attempts at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, finishing with 25 more than the Rangers across the game. The loss can be attributed to a single dual-sided reason: finish and Igor Shesterkin. The Flyers poured 40 shots on the Rangers goalie, including 18 each in the bookend periods with 12 being high-danger chances.

“Since we came out of the break, I think we’ve really stepped up a level and we’ve shown here that we can play with all the good teams,” said Flyers goalie Sam Ersson. “It gives us more confidence and we’ve just got to keep building here. We know it’s going to be stepped up, even one more notch, so we gotta keep pushing our level here.”

Here are four takeaways from Saturday’s matchup:

Tortorella didn’t want to say it. He actually didn’t want to say much, as the team was leaving quickly after the game for another matinee on Sunday in Pittsburgh (3:30 p.m. on TNT). But when you’re facing one of the NHL’s elite teams — a team that took over the top spot in the league with the win, and one you could see in the playoffs — it’s a good test of where your own team is.

Considering how the Flyers played against the Rangers back in a 3-1 loss on Black Friday, this game emphasized not only where the Flyers are today, but how much they’ve grown. After that game in late November, where it was the Rangers who dominated with their speed and had countless odd-man rushes, the Flyers were 10-9-1. After this loss, and a game where it was the opposite for the majority of the time, they have a 30-21-7 record and are third in the Metropolitan Division.

“I think [we] controlled most of the play. The second period a little lull but, honestly, we came out hard, we finished hard,” Scott Laughton said. “Needed a bounce here or there and it’s a tie game. Guys battled hard for each other and I take a lot of positives out of it. Obviously, you want two points, but we stuck with it.”

What the game on Saturday showed was a team that has developed the ability to shut down the offense of its opponents, capitalize on turnovers, and use its speed to put the opposition on their heels. The first six shot attempts of the game, which included four shots on goal, were all by the Flyers. The Rangers didn’t get their first shot on Ersson until 3 minutes, 58 seconds of the game had elapsed, and it was an easy shot from 39 feet out by Chris Kreider.

The game was a good measuring stick and showed that the Flyers could compete with the upper-echelon teams. But they could not finish.

Despite 83 shot attempts, they put just one behind Shesterkin. Yikes. Yes, the 2022 Vezina Trophy was on, but there were several times the Flyers missed an open net, or couldn’t get good wood on the puck.

The Flyers missed the net 23 times, including one crossbar by Laughton in the second period while on the penalty kill after Noah Cates created a turnover. But the heartbreaker was Sean Couturier, in his first home game since being named captain, hitting the post despite having a wide-open net with 6 seconds on the clock.

“We know they’re a really good hockey team and we proved that we can compete with them,” Nic Deslauriers said. “Unlucky at the end, I think Coots had an almost open net there. We played well. We learned how to play those games. Those are the games that you want to be in and it’s been fun. This group never gives up.”

The Flyers did hit the net 40 times — 10 by Owen Tippett, who did not score. One of the best chances of the game was a two-on-zero short-handed breakaway, in which Travis Sanheim kept the puck but was stopped. He did have Laughton trailing the play all alone.

Then there are the plays that don’t pop up on the play-by-play, like Ryan Poehling unable to get his stick loose at the side of the net after a Cates shot in the third period. That was followed up by Sean Walker being unable to control the rebound off a Tippett shot that popped out to his backhand.

It probably doesn’t help that the Flyers have a few guys who are doing everything right but scoring. Joel Farabee is probably the most snakebitten, as he is creating chances for his teammates and put three shots on goal but extended his goal drought to a season-high 11 games.

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The fact that the team was able to generate chances despite missing a key component to the offense in Travis Konecny, who is out day to day with a minor upper-body injury, is crucial. But they need to find more guys to finish if the team’s top goal scorer is out for a chunk of games.

One of those guys is Tyson Foerster, who returned to the lineup after missing four games due to an injury to his right foot. Tortorella likes his players to be involved and the 22-year-old did just that. He may not have played since Feb. 10, but you wouldn’t have known that watching his game on Saturday.

Foerster played 21:01, third most on the Flyers, and was on a line with Farabee and Couturier. He finished with four shots on goal, two missed shots, one hit, and one blocked shot, and had a good scoring chance in the first period off a centering pass from Tippett.

A guy whom Tortorella missed having on the bench due to his versatility, Foerster also got some time with Laughton and Deslauriers as the Flyers once again went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. In the third period, he cashed in after a fantastic individual effort by Laughton to center the puck as he was falling down.

“He’s been good for us all year. He’s got a great stick, is great in his own zone, great 200-foot player,” Laughton said. “So we’re going to need him to be good coming up here, especially if TK is out and guys need to step up.”

Before Deslauriers suited up against the Seattle Kraken on Feb. 10, Tortorella said: “I just want [him] to play, play his game, play hard, finish his checks. It’s all the obvious stuff that DeLo brings.”

Deslauriers played his game against the Rangers, which included a heavyweight tilt with 6-foot-7 rookie Matt Rempe that left both guys bloodied. The Flyers forward got a bunch of haymakers in before Rempe’s jersey went over his head leading to a disadvantage. Deslauriers skated around and appeared to yell at the fans to get the half-blue, half-orange crowd going, and when he was shown on the big screen in the penalty box, the hometown fans went wild.

“I saw him kind of lurking in the warmup and I’m a guy that doesn’t take no for an answer often. So, I just went politely and said, ‘Are we going to do this?’” Deslauriers said.

The long tilt that saw punch after punch land, left everyone impressed.

“He’s an absolute animal, a warrior for us out there. I wouldn’t want to fight him,” Ersson said about Deslauriers. “You could feel the atmosphere in the building and for us as a team. It just provides us with so much energy.”

Laughton added: “I got a front-row seat to it, I was right there. I was trying to gas him up but you know what, that stuff goes a long way throughout a room. I don’t know if I played with a tougher guy than that. Him and [Wayne Simmonds] were neck-and-neck there but D-Lo’s all about the boys and I’ve got so much respect for him.”

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One of the Flyers’ better players at the outdoor game, and a guy who dropped the gloves against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Thursday that sparked a comeback, Deslauriers has had an up-and-down season. He was a healthy scratch for five of the Flyers’ 14 games in January and three of the eight games this month.

“I know at the age I am that there’s going to be some nights that I’m not in. But it’s easy when you win and have a good group of guys like this,” Deslauriers said. “Not lying, it sucks not playing, but at the same time when you have success and the ultimate goal is to push ourselves to make the playoffs and whatever it takes, I’m always ready.”