Philadelphia Flyers: Looking to start a new winning streak

After seeing their five-game winning streak end with Thursday’s loss to Arizona, the Philadelphia Flyers look to get back on track Saturday afternoon at home against Ottawa.

Well, that was certainly fun while it lasted.

But deep down, we all knew that the party would eventually come to a halt for the Philadelphia Flyers, even if it didn’t end as poorly as Frank Drebin attending a “Shakespeare in the Park” production of Julius Caesar.

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Still, there were some disheartening elements in the Flyers’ 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, and it’s now up to the Orange and Black to ensure that the setback was just a blip on the radar.

The schedule serves up a supposedly tasty matchup with the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, but a bottom-of-the-standings club like Ottawa isn’t always a guaranteed two points.

The Flyers learned that the hard way against these same Senators just a few weeks ago, as Ottawa outworked them in a 2-1 victory. After nearly blowing them out of the building in the opening minutes, the Flyers couldn’t generate anything for the rest of the game. It was a frustrating loss, and one that the team should be trying to exact revenge for on Saturday.

One element of their game that could greatly help the Flyers would be to get their power play back on track against Ottawa.

After a solid start to the season, the Flyers’ man advantage unit has slipped all the way down to 17th in the NHL. It’s not a spot befitting of the talent that they can throw out on the ice. If hard work can lead to four or five power plays against the Senators and their average penalty kill, then a goal or two should be in the offing for the Flyers.

Maybe this could be just the jump start that the power play needs.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s power play is absolutely dreadful, and so it is imperative that the Flyers keep it that way. The Flyers’ PK unit has also fallen a bit, now sitting in 10th place, and it will be facing some challenges due to the absence of Michael Raffl for the next few weeks. Still, they should be able to hold the Sens in check.

The Flyers will need to defeat Ottawa on Saturday to ensure a 2-1 home stand before they head out on a three-game road trip. They aren’t back home for another ten days after this contest. It would be advisable not to come up small against an inferior opponent and then have to sit and stew on it, especially when they have three days off immediately following the game.

I know better than to proclaim that the Flyers should come out and skate circles around the Senators, but that’s really what should happen if the Flyers put in the same kind of effort that they have been recently. Then, barring any bad “puck luck”, they should score an easy two points against a rebuilding club on Saturday.

The Flyers can’t afford to squander any easy wins.

dark. Next. Hart, Flyers Shine in November

We’ve all seen enough of that around here from the Philadelphia Eagles recently.

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