5 Observations from Philadelphia Flyers 8-2 loss to San Jose Sharks

Offense fails to truly test Dell

What is it with the Flyers and backup goaltenders? This team has such a strange propensity for making backup goalies look like the second coming of Dominik Hasek. It’s just bizarre. It’s almost to the point where you hear that the Flyers’ opponents are not dressing their starter, and fans fear the worst. It’s unexplainable.

The truth is that while San Jose’s backup goaltender Aaron Dell was actually pretty solid in net, the Flyers really didn’t provide much of a test for him. Flyer forwards struggled to finish chances, overpassed, and got caught too deep in the zone at times, leading to odd man rushes the other way. Overall, it was a forgettable performance offensively.

The Flyers did hurl 31 shots at Dell, but he was up to the task, ending with a .939 SV percentage and 2 GA. Overall, it was a pretty solid outing from Dell, who got enough help from his team and made enough saves that the Flyers were never really threatening to chase him from the game.

It seems like the lines thus far just haven’t clicked, and it might be fair to say that the Flyers are missing the presence of James van Riemsdyk, who we just learned will miss time with a lower body injury. But van Riemsdyk has only played two games and wasn’t with the Flyers last year, so it’s not like he was a huge piece of their offense last year that the Flyers will suddenly be without.

The Flyers top line of Giroux-Couturier-Voracek was completely manhandled by the San Jose unit of Pavelski-Kane-Leblanc, getting scored on three times and losing the shot battle and high danger chance opportunity. It was not a pretty night for anyone on the offense, but on a night when you needed your best players to be just that, they were buried by the better team.