Flyers takeaways: Matvei Michkov scores again, but offense fails to fire in OT loss to Oilers

It’s never easy facing a team like the Edmonton Oilers.

Despite dealing with injuries and a slow start, they still have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — and have reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons. Wednesday’s game was a good measuring stick for a Flyers organization building with the aspiration of achieving the ultimate goal.

Here are two reasons to be optimistic and two reasons to be pessimistic after the 2-1 overtime loss.

» READ MORE: Matvei Michkov scores for a third straight game, but Flyers lose to Oilers in overtime, 2-1

After one goal in the first 13 games of the season, Wednesday marked the third straight game that Michkov found the back of the net. Michkov now has 30 goals in his young NHL career and is the sixth player in franchise history, behind Eric Lindros (76), Simon Gagné (47), Mike Ricci (41), Peter Zezel (32), and Bill Barber (30), to hit that mark at age 20 or younger. He turns 21 in early December.

The goal came one game after Michkov said through a team translator that he did not train well this offseason and, because of it, he “lost concentration” at the beginning of the season. Coach Rick Tocchet revealed in mid-October that Michkov dealt with an ankle injury in the summer.

“I like to score, and I cannot live without that feeling. When I scored, I felt lifted, and I was light on the ice,” Michkov said Saturday after scoring vs. Ottawa.

“When you think about it too much, the body feels heavy, everything feels heavy, and it builds up game after game,” he added. “When you score, you come in with a light head and ready to go, and the body feels a lot better.”

There was a big reaction by Michkov against the Oilers, as it was also his first power-play goal of the season.

“Mitch has been working on that downhill shot,” Tocchet said. “He shoots a million pucks, and that was designed. From the bench, I watched it, [there] was a little bit of an opening, and [Oilers goalie Stuart] Skinner couldn’t see it. It was a great shot, but it was a great placement, and he works on that every day. So give the kid credit, [heck] of a goal.”

There have been really bad starts — i.e. the game against Nashville last week — and games the Flyers have started really well — like in Montreal. Both times the Flyers had to rally for wins.

On Wednesday, the Flyers started out pretty even with the Oilers, until Nick Seeler was called for hooking with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the first period.

That’s when the wheels came off. Between the start of the power play and the horn to end the first period, the Oilers had 12 shot attempts and seven shots on goal. The Flyers had zilch — in both categories.

Things didn’t get any better with a clean sheet of ice, as the Flyers’ first shot of the second period came 8:43 into the frame from defenseman Emil Andrae. The Oilers? They had 14 shot attempts and nine shots on goal during that frame.

Philly finished the second period with six shots on goal and a tied hockey game. Things started tilting back to even as the period wore on, and in the third period the Flyers controlled more of the play.

According to Natural Stat Trick, they had 13 shot attempts to the Oilers six, five more scoring chances, and outshot them nine to five.

“There’s positives,” Tocchet said. “Every game, it seems it’s tight. We’ve just got to learn, we have the puck in overtime and we’re throwing it away. Hold on to it, make a play. We want to make plays. And that’s their learning process, playing through pressure. It’s hard to play playoff hockey 82 games, but we’re in these games where it’s almost like a playoff game, so we want to kind of really learn from these moments. It’s good for our guys.”

Speaking of offense. Woof. The Flyers are tied with Nashville for third-worst in the NHL in average goals per game (2.56).

It does go hand-in-hand with the fact that they’re just not putting shots on goal; the Flyers are tied for last in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks, averaging just 24.6 shots on goal per game.

On Wednesday, the Flyers managed just 21 shots on goal and scored once.

“There’s some stretches where I liked our game,” said Tocchet. “Obviously, the first 10 [minutes] where we had four point blank shots wide, like we got to hit the net, right?”

They also had what would have been a late game-winning goal wiped off after a review showed Owen Tippett went offside earlier in the sequence.

“It hurts,” Tippett said of the play that negated Travis Konecny’s tipped goal. “I think you stick with it with a team like that, I think with 20 seconds left you win the game. Nobody knows on the ice it’s offside. Definitely stings.”

Added Cam York: “Oh yeah, it [stunk]. Obviously, one or two points there. We were fine; things happen in a hockey game. … But, yeah, pretty devastating to get that and call back.”

Maybe the limited chances offensively are because the Flyers just get pinned in so much in their own end.

At the start of the second period, Travis Sanheim had a shift that lasted 1:44. His defensive partner, York, who plays on the left side, had a shift of 1:04. It’s a little easier for the left side defenseman to make a change during the second period; the right side defenseman has to go all the way across.

Well, on that shift, the Oilers had four shots on goal, with another blocked by Bobby Brink.

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“It’s just tough with our D zone, and in the second, long change, you’re hemmed in, you’re tired, you’ve just got to stick to structure, stick to your details, and do your job,” said Noah Cates, who was on the ice at the same time for 64 seconds. “ … You’ve just got to stick with it, do your job, and not run too far. And if you do get a little messed up, just come back to the middle. So I feel like it wasn’t too many Grade A chances. So that’s kind of a good thing to take away from it. But if we can limit zone time, and play in their end, that’s obviously the goal.”

While the Flyers do get hemmed in, the chances are definitely more often than not, kept to the outside. A positive? The reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goal scorer, Draisaitl, didn’t have a shot on goal, and McDavid was limited to just one.

“I thought we had the puck a couple of times on our stick, and we were flipping pucks out when there’s a guy open — give it to him and we’re flipping pucks," Tocchet said. “But then we started coming in the second half, I thought we were coming and coming.”