Flyers Lose to Wild Extending Streak to 4 Games

Thursday night’s festivities at the Wells Fargo started with a wonderful ceremony inducting two great players, Eric Lindros and John LeClair, into the Flyers Hall of Fame. Fans of the Black & Orange were hoping this emotional beginning would provide their squad with the momentum to put forth an effort worthy of breaking their current losing 3-game losing streak. Unfortunately, this would not take place as the Flyers fell to the Minnesota Wild in heartbreaking fashion 3-2.

The entire game was a hard-fought battle that the Flyers seemed to have the upper hand in terms of style of play. Philadelphia heavily outshot the Wild for most the game, and won the shot battle 39-29 when the final horn sounded. Sadly, the amount of shots a team takes does not guarantee them a positive increase in the win column. Philadelphia played the catch-up game all night long; first, being down 1-0 and tying it up, and then making things even again later on when the Wild were leading 2-1. With 46 seconds left to play in the 3^rd period, it looked as if the Flyers were all ready to settle this contest in overtime; however, Minnesota did not share the same mindset. With a little help from Ryan Sutter and lack of intelligence from the Flyers, Jason Zucker scored his 6^th goal of the season and gave the Wild a 3-2 lead. Giving up a go-ahead goal with less than one minute in the third is as detrimental as getting your throat sliced open. All hope was lost for the Flyers as they lost their fourth straight game, making their record 7-9-2 on the season.

So far, things are not going the way the Flyers or their fans imagined. There have been spurts when you might think “okay, now we are moving”, and then the team does something like lose four straight. I am starting to think that this team just is not that good. Yes there are some amazing pieces; but there are a lot of question marks as well. As a community, Flyers fans need to start asking themselves whether or not the playoffs are a realistic expectation for this team. Right now my answer is no; but I am open to having my opinion changed. The Flyers look to give their fans some hope as they face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.