The Flyers’ playoff hopes are a numbers game, and other takeaways from an OT loss to the Blues

Eagles center Jason Kelce repeated this quote from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland’s father in his retirement speech on Monday. A quote that can be interpreted in a few ways.

“More often than not, the easy way is the wrong way.”

For the Flyers it’s a reminder that if they want to make the last stretch of games meaningful, if they want to make the postseason for the first time since 2020, it’ll make it that much sweeter if it’s hard.

The Flyers made it a smidge harder by grabbing just a point with a 2-1 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Monday night. Compared to the gauntlet they’re about to face beginning on Thursday in Sunrise, Fla., two points from this one would have been more than ideal.

“This is where we want to be,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “This is the stretch that we want to be in where we’ve got a chance to make the playoffs. We’re going to take it day by day, game by game, and continue to get better.”

Here are four numbers to know from the Flyers’ defeat.

Forty-one shots. That’s how many the Flyers poured onto Jordan Binnington. And according to Natural Stat Trick, 16 of those were high-danger chances.

The netminder was looking like the guy who backstopped the Blues to a Stanley Cup in 2019. Unfortunately, it came at the Flyers’ expense as they are now 6-4-5 when they tally at least 40 shots on goal.

» READ MORE: Ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline, the Flyers plan to stand firm on their asking price for players

“In the middle of the game, I leaned over to [assistant coach Darryl Williams] and said, ‘I don’t think he’s gonna let another one in,’” coach John Tortorella said. “That’s how solid he looked. Then I looked down the other end, ‘I don’t think [Sam Ersson’s] going to let another one in.’ And there we have the game. Both goalies were outstanding.”

Binnington made several key saves, none more so than a stop on Sanheim with 12 seconds to go in overtime. Sanheim acknowledged that maybe if he had waited a second longer he probably had the far side open to score.

Ersson stopped 24 of the 25 shots he saw, including a big save on a Justin Faulk slapshot from the point in the third period and back-to-back shots from in tight by Brayden Schenn and Kevin Hayes during a Blues power play with under 3 minutes to go.

The last time Nick Seeler played in the game was a 33-second shift in the middle of the third period. Yikes.

It seemed like all the air got sucked out of the Wells Fargo Center when Seeler was down on the ice and was unable to get up. The defenseman had earlier blocked a shot by Colton Parayko off the outside of his left ankle with 3 minutes to go in the second period. His stick was sent flying as he hit the ice in pain and he struggled to get to it.

» READ MORE: Now with the Blues, Kevin Hayes is glad to square off against the Flyers: ‘I loved my time here’

The play was up the ice but when it came back down towards Ersson, Seeler tried to get back into position. Finally, the whistle blew as the puck went into the netting thanks to his buddy Sean Walker blocking a shot by former Flyer Schenn. Seeler went straight down the tunnel but did return for six shifts in the third period. He finished with three blocked shots. The Flyers had 29 total.

“Seels blocks a lot of shots,” Sanheim said. “He puts the team first every shift. Does a lot of dirty work and a lot of things that guys maybe don’t necessarily enjoy doing and he’s a key part of this team.”

Part of trade rumors, if Seeler cannot be moved at the deadline — whether due to the Flyers’ asking price not being met or now due to injury — and he is out, it leaves a huge hole on the blue line.

The Flyers won four straight coming out of the All-Star break. Since then, they’ve won just three of nine games.

» READ MORE: The road to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Flyers

Of those games, the Flyers have scored the first goal seven times. Not a bad start. Unfortunately, the record is 3-2-2 when they strike first. So what changes?

The Flyers do come out hot more often than not — see Friday night when they led 2-0 after the first period against the Washington Capitals. But that game ended in a 5-2 loss, much like the others, after the opposition made a push in the second period. The Capitals outscored the Flyers 3-0 in the period.

In the past nine games, the Flyers’ goal differential in second periods is minus-5, forcing them to have to chase the game. Against the Toronto Maple Leafs, they were outscored 3-0 in the second period but came back to push the game to overtime. The Ottawa Senators tied things up early in the second period Saturday night and controlled play until Tyson Foerster scored two goals in 45 seconds — in the last 47 seconds of the period.

On Monday, per Natural Stat Trick, the Blues had 61.7% of the shot attempts in the second period across all strengths, and seven were high-danger chances.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Sanheim said when asked what can be attributed to the mid-frame dip. “I mean, something that obviously we got to work on. There’s going to be swings. It’s about coming back and answering and not letting those dips last too long. I just thought tonight wasn’t our best game and yet you get a point out of it. So we’ll move on.”

Scott Laughton potted his 10th goal of the season on Monday.

Of his 10, five came before the All-Star break and five have come after. The first five goals before the break came in 50 games. The five since in 13.

» READ MORE: Danny Brière says Matvei Michkov is ready for the NHL but won’t ‘sit here and cry’ as he waits for the Russian prospect

“I’m starting to feel the puck a little bit better,” he said after scoring two against the Penguins on Feb. 25. “Since the break, I think I’ve kind of shifted my mindset of what I want to do here and who I want to be. So that’s kind of been my focus here, to not only try and be the best teammate but contribute positively on the ice.”

But what does that mean exactly? How did he shift his mindset?

“I won’t get into it too much, but I think just not letting some outside noise affect me — not so much outside noise but my own noise,” he said. “I think [I was] thinking way too much throughout and just not playing to my capabilities that I think are pretty free and kind of going after guys and making it hard on opponents. So I think getting back to that and being physical and creating my own luck. I think it’s gone a long way.”

Like Seeler, Laughton’s name has also floated through the trade rumor sphere. A lifelong Flyer, he wants to stay in Philly but notes he can only control what he can control. And that’s his play on the ice.

“I think you stop thinking about the mistakes you made and things like that,” he said. “And, obviously, I think confidence goes a long way in this league and you start getting some looks on the power play and things like that, it starts building your confidence up a little bit.”