Flyers takeaways: Trevor Zegras sparks to life, but penalties continue to doom the Orange and Black

The Flyers lost their eighth straight game to start the season, falling 3-2 in a shootout to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.

Here are our positives and negatives.

» READ MORE: Flyers battle back to force a shootout, but lose eighth straight game in 3-2 defeat vs. Kraken

Trailing 2-0, the Flyers finally got it together and tied the game in the third period. Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras notched their second and first goals of the season, respectively, within 73 seconds of one another.

“Yeah, honestly, throughout the whole game, I thought we had better energy,” said defenseman Travis Sanheim, who set up the streaking Zegras for the tying goal. “Just seemed like we had some more jump playing ... the style that we need to play to win in this league. And it was nice to get rewarded in the third. Would have been nice to finish it off in the shootout.”

Less than two minutes in, Zegras sent a shot just wide, but it had a zing to it that seemed to send a message. Across his 21 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time, he was easily one of the Flyers’ best players, registering a team-high five shots on goal and a takeaway. Aside from his goal, he played a gritty game — he went at it with Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer twice, which Sanheim said gave the bench and the building energy — and was moving his feet to create time and space and put pressure on the opposition.

“This is the best I’ve seen Trevor play [this season],” coach Rick Tocchet said. “This is what we need from Trevor, this type of game where he wanted the puck. He wanted to be in situations. He was in the corners digging, taking a hit to make a play. That’s what he has to do.”

After a rough first game on Sunday, Oliver Bonk played the kind of game expected from the highly-touted prospect. He logged 20 minutes and registered five shot attempts, one hit, and one blocked shot. But nothing was more impressive than how he showcased his calmness with the puck to get away from Ryan Winterton, skate up the ice — he even stumbled in the neutral zone but stayed with it — and send a pass to Dvorak for an assist on the Flyers’ first goal of the night.

“I was just doing my best to keep my feet moving,” the 21-year-old defenseman said. “It’s a big thing to like not throw pucks away at this level, so just keep going till I can make a play.”

Penalties continued to plague the Flyers, with Bobby McMann scoring on the first man-advantage of the night. The Kraken had five power plays — Philly went 0-for-3 — and while Seattle got one past Dan Vladař on a broken play, it was held to six shot attempts, with the Flyers getting three while shorthanded. The worst penalty of the night came in overtime on a bad line change.

“I think I’d have to look at it again. I was supporting [Denver Barkey], so I was still on the ice,” said winger Owen Tippett, who was one of four guys going to the bench with Sanheim getting a pass. “But obviously, one of our guys jumped a little too early.”

After tying the game up and seizing momentum, the Flyers only got two more shots on goal — with none coming after Simon Benoit’s shot with 10:43 left in the third period and a big zero in overtime. They had just five shot attempts, with Bonk missing the net twice and shots by David Jiříček, Tyson Foerster, and Nick Seeler getting blocked. Zegras tied the game with 12:40 left, and the Kraken had 21 shot attempts, including 14 shots on goal the rest of the way.

“It’s not strategic,” Tocchet said when asked. “We’re not trying to play soccer.”

“Ran some guys pretty heavy in minutes. I don’t know why. Maybe they went tight; it could be. Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. Got to ask the guys,” Tocchet added. “There’s some good energy on the bench. Yeah, you do want some guys to kind of grab that puck and make a play — I agree with that. There are a couple of times [when] we did have it where, if we got to the middle, the weak side was wide open, and we did chip it in. But that comes with experience, and continue to learn from it.”

» READ MORE: Flyers say their winless start hasn’t fractured the locker room ‘one ounce’: ‘We’re all in this together’