Flyers Struggle on Western Swing

Jan 3, 2024

The Pacific Northwest

The Flyers ended 2023 and began 2024 with a four game roundtrip in the Western Conference. Matching up against Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary, and Edmonton. In their first game was against the Canucks on the 28th. Vancouver has been one of the biggest surprises this season. After struggling for years they are now the top team in the Pacific division. Sam Errson started the game for the Flyers but left in the third period due to dehydration issues. Carter Hart came into relief and the Flyers won 4-1. This would be the only win of the roundtrip. The next nigh Philadelphia went south of the boarder to Seattle. Carter Hart would start and the team lost 2-1 in a shootout. This would be Seattle’s fourth win in a row and their last game of the calendar year before hosting the Winter Classic. On New Years Eve the Flyers traveled to play Calgary were the Flames would win 4-3 thanks to two empty net goals. This time Sam Errson would once again start. The road trip would end in Edmonton in a 5-2 lost to the Oilers. Connor McDavid would record five points for Edmonton as they would win their sixth game in a row, this time against Carter Hart.

The take away from this roundtrip is that the Flyers only got three points out of a possible eight. This led to the Flyers falling from second in the metropolitan division to fourth as the first wild card team. This was not a season ending trip for the Flyers as they did beat of the best teams in the league. But ran into two very hot teams that are making a charge in the standings. The main question coming out of this trip would be who is the starting goalie going forward. Sam Errson been playing amazing this year. While Carter Hart who started the year hot has been dealing with a lingering illness. Now that it looks like Hart is over the illness bug the question is who do we go with moving forward. Would they share the net like they did over this road trip. Or does coach Tortorella go with the hot hand in Errson or the steady hand in Hart.

The Flyers will now go on a four game home stand with games against Columbus, Calgary, Pittsburgh, and Montreal.

Flyers Struggle on Western Swing

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