Flyers Game
Flyers End Brutal Road Trip Without Regulation or Overtime Win

The Philadelphia Flyers ended their four-game season-opening road trip with a 1-2-1 record following Thursday night’s soul-crushing 6-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
The lone win of the road trip, of course, was the 3-2 shootout win over Vancouver in Game 1. A fluke, a skill competition, or whatever you want to call it. And even that game was not pretty.
Admittedly, the Flyers had to perform under challenging circumstances. They went from Philadelphia to British Columbia, then to Alberta and back west to Seattle. That is a considerable amount of time changes.
After a long travel day heading home on Friday, the Flyers will have to stand before the home crowd at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night and rematch the Canucks.
Between then and now, head coach John Tortorella and his crew will have a number of questions to sort out, and who knows who has all the answers?
After an especially dismal performance on Thursday night, Flyers backup goalie Ivan Fedotov has allowed a whopping 10 goals in two starts. Sam Ersson, who had just allowed four goals to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, was forced to relieve his Russian counterpart for the third period.
Are the Flyers really back to square one at the backup goalie position?
Fedotov has not been alone in his exploits, either. Veteran defenseman Travis Sanheim has turned in two appalling defensive performances in a row, and, including Thursday’s loss to Seattle, Sanheim has already played north of 24 minutes in two games.
If the Flyers cannot figure out a solution on defense, Tortorella will end up running an already underperforming defense core into the ground, as was the case at the end of last season.
Egor Zamula, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Erik Johnson all played 14:30 or fewer against the Kraken as Fedotov and the Flyers self-destructed.
Top defense prospect Emil Andrae was called up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to replace the injured Nick Seeler, but never played. That decision is fine in the sense that six days separated the Phantoms’ Oct. 12 opener, which Andrae missed, and their next game, which is on Friday, Oct. 18.
On the other hand, it is very hard to argue that Andrae would not have been of use to the Flyers during this taxing road trip.
Tortorella does not seem intent on giving Erik Johnson a considerable amount of minutes, and Zamula has not separated himself from the pack in the early goings, either.