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Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart: Flyers 5, Blackhawks 1

The Blackhawks didn’t play quite as well in Boisvert’s debut as they did in Frondell’s.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

In a sloppy, turnover-filled mess from start to finish, the Chicago Blackhawks fell 5-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday.

The Flyers opened the scoring just 48 seconds into the game. Spencer Knight tried to play the puck to Artyom Levshunov, but Christian Dvorak hustled to intercept the pass and fed Alex Bump in front for an easy tap-in, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead.

Sean Couturier doubled the Flyers’ lead to 2-0 less than two minutes later after another Blackhawks turnover — this time by Andre Burakovsky — led to Couturier tapping in Travis Konecny’s shot-pass.

The Flyers scoring continued in the second period, with Denver Barkey putting them 3-0 about five minutes in. A give-and-go rush between Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippet ends with Zegras’ shot trickling past Knight and Barkey knocking in the rebound.

The Blackhawks got one back at 11:11 in the second. Anton Frondell tried to score a wrap-around with a nifty move from behind the net, and his rebound slid to Connor Bedard, who snapped it in from the circle to make it 3-1.

Unfortunately, there was little time to celebrate, as the Flyers answered about a minute later to make it 4-1. Noah Cates took Matvei Michkov’s feed from near the wall, skated in alone, and lifted it past Knight.

Dvorak extended the Flyers’ lead to 5-1 with 25 seconds left in the second period, redirecting a centering pass from Tippett.

Notes

Well, that was ugly.

In the last game, the Blackhawks played respectable hockey for about 40 minutes and then barely held on through a messy final frame to get the win. This one? It was that third period, but on crack — and worse, it felt like the Blackhawks basically waved the white flag by the time the third rolled around.

The first period was a disaster right out of the gate: turnovers, unforced errors, and two quick goals against before anyone could really settle in. Things calmed down a bit after that, but not in any meaningful way because the Flyers still controlled most of the play, and the Blackhawks made it far too easy for that to happen. There was a brief stretch early in the second where things looked… fine. Not good, but at least functional. Special teams broke up the rhythm a bit, and the Blackhawks eventually capitalized with a goal after some actual sustained offensive-zone time. Progress, theoretically.

But then, for whatever reason, the Blackhawks decided that was enough, and the Flyers completely caved them in over the final 7-8 minutes of the second period. The volume and quality of chances thrown at Knight during that stretch was absurd. It wasn’t just a bad stretch; it was one of those sequences where the ice is tilted so hard you’re just waiting for the next one to go in. Honestly, a little embarrassing. By the third period, the Blackhawks didn’t have much life left. They managed to avoid getting scored on despite the continued barrage, but that had far more to do with the puck not going in than any real improvement in how they were playing.

At 5-on-5, the Blackhawks’ shot attempt share somehow went from 42.86 percent to 40.54 percent to a downright offensive 27.59 percent. Which is quite offensive, just not in the way you’d hope. The third period was the most lopsided because, again, the Blackhawks were dead by then and were out-attempted 21-8. And if that feels bad, the scoring chance discrepancy is even worse: the Blackhawks didn’t crack 30 percent expected goals in any period — topping out at 26.16 percent in the third after scraping together just 17.33 percent in the second. Overall scoring chances finished at a heavily tilted 41 (!!) to 18. High-danger looks for the Blackhawks? Five. Total. That’s including power plays. Gross. This is the kind of game you’d wish you could delete from your brain.

Now, yes, this is a young Blackhawks team, and games like this are going to happen, where nothing seems to be going right, and the mistakes just keep compounding. Development isn’t linear, and sometimes it looks like whatever this game was. But it’s a little more annoying when it comes against a team like Philadelphia — if this happens against the Colorado Avalanche or the Carolina Hurricanes, you shrug and move on. The Flyers aren’t particularly good, and they’re not much older either: the Blackhawks have an average age of 26.14 after the trade deadline (youngest in the league), while the Flyers sit at 27.64 (sixth youngest). Like obviously the youth context matters, but this one still lands firmly in the “burn the tape and pretend it never happened” category.

I’m going to keep the observations section short-ish tonight because, frankly, this one wasn’t worth lingering on.

The turnovers, the turnover, the turnovers… It was like the Blackhawks were playing hot potato out there, forcing blind passes like the puck had an expiration date. The official count had them at 14 giveaways with the Flyers credited for six takeaways, but that honestly felt generous.

This is now two straight games with a goal against in the opening minute. Not great, Bob. The Blackhawks had issues with slow starts earlier in the season but had cleaned that up for a while — so, naturally, it’s back.

Also second game in a row with 40+ shots against. Woof.

Coach Jeff Blashill pointed to the team playing too fast as part of the issue, and that checks out. Way too many rushed decisions, plays made a half-second too early (or too late), and very little composure anywhere on the ice.

The entire team finished with a negative Game Score. Which… yeah, that tracks.

Anton Frondell had another individually solid outing, all things considered. He finished with six shot attempts, four on goal, and three scoring chances in 16:18 of ice time. There were some genuinely nice transition passes in there, too — encouraging given that play-driving hasn’t really been his calling card elsewhere. The skating still looks powerful more than explosive, as advertised, but he also flashed some strong puck protection and nearly picked up his first goal.

Here’s another moment of Frondell using his size well to maintain possession and get the puck to a teammate for a chance:

Sacha Boisvert was fine in his debut, which is about what you’d expect in 9:03 of ice time. Three attempts, two on goal, and one scoring chance. Boisvert had a possible goal-scoring moment too, but his shot was kind of weak and from too far out to be particularly dangerous.

Nick Lardis led the team with three hits, which… is certainly a stat. That’s also about all you can say about about his game tonight. Same with his linemates, Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar, the trio was just kind of neutered tonight after a few great games together. Hopefully they bounce back.

I’m not sure who was more at fault on the first goal against, but Knight was definitely upset with Levshunov for not getting there to the puck quicker. Honestly, Levshunov does drift away from the puck a bit, which is weird, but Knight probably should have seen the streaking Flyers player coming as well. Here is the play again:

Bedard was hard on himself post-game, claiming he hasn’t liked how he’s played the last couple of outings, but it’s hard to blame him much for anything. It obviously wasn’t his best game, but he was still alright: he scored, had five attempts with four on goal and one scoring chance.

Scary moment at the end of the game: Louis Crevier took a skate to the face and went off the ice immediately.

Luckily, both Bedard and Blashill confirmed that Crevier is fine. We’ll fine out tomorrow the extent of the damage, but it doesn’t sound too serious or like Crevier will miss any time.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Christian Dvorak (PHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Alex Bump (PHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  3. Noah Cates (PHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks head straight to New York Friday night to face the Rangers at 6 p.m.

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