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Flyers Grades: Michkov Strong, Defensemen Abysmal vs. Flames

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Ivan Fedotov, Philadelphia Flyers
(Photo: AP)

Following up a so-so season-opening 3-2 shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, fatigue caught up with the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night, as the Calgary Flames put up a handful of goals in a 6-3 defeat of the Orange and Black.



Ultimately, it was poor defending and bad decision-making that played parts in most of those six goals.

Egor Zamula, one of the standouts from training camp, has been among the Flyers who have struggled the most through two games.

Egor Zamula: D

I was tempted to go even lower than this, but it’s still very early in the season and Zamula is playing in a larger role with a different partner. This is as challenging for him as it is for Jamie Drysdale, who has also flattered to deceive in the first two games of his first full season in Philadelphia.

Zamula lost positioning to Martin Pospisil, who set up the Flames’ first goal, and it was a cheap one to give up as the Flyers were dominating the game leading up to that point.

Period by period, the Flyers slowly waned and lost momentum at an exponential rate.

That culminated in the Flames’ fifth goal, as Huberdeau beat Zamula to the far post for an easy tap-in.

Additionally, Zamula has been tasked with quarterbacking the second power play unit again this year.

While that unit has been strong so far, it’s been more about the development of Bobby Brink, Joel Farabee, and Tyson Foerster than it has about Zamula’s development.

With power play maven Emil Andrae waiting in the wings backfilling for the injured Nick Seeler, I wonder how much rope Zamula has after two consecutive poor showings.

Remember, Andrae made the Flyers outright last year, and nearly did so again last week.

Ivan Fedotov: C+

Ivan Fedotov made his first start of the 2024-25 season, spelling Sam Ersson for the second half of this season-opening away back-to-back.

And, although the negatives were pretty detrimental to the outcome of the game, I found that Fedotov played well more often than not.

However, it’s abundantly clear that he’s not a finished product, either.

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