S2:Ep8 - FLYERS' MISSED CHANCES HURT - Nov 4th, 2026

Rick Mullen: Hey everybody, welcome to Hat Trick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast. I'm Rick Mullen, and we are going to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers. since the last time we spoke, the Flyers have had two games. They played the Utah Mammoth a few days ago, and they just recently finished up with the Minnesota Wild. And both games were the opposites of each other from a Point standpoint, the Flyers won against the Utah Mammoth. They had a really good game. TK contributed. Flyers came back with a couple other vets, and you could tell that vet presence made a little bit of a difference on the on the team. Just whatever it was showing up in the locker room, giving guys a little more confidence. they took it to Utah. They ended up winning, I believe, six to three. could have easily won that game six to one. They gave up two really late penalties and Utah made them pay. but all in all, it was a good game. Flyers got a nice win from from a pretty good team against a pretty good team. And then the Flyers go in to play the Minnesota Wild. And that that that crushes me. I I was at this game and the Thought process in my head, and I'm sure probably all of us was the, Minnesota Wild's great team. really good team. Stanley Cup contender for sure. They should have chalked this up as a loss for the Flyers almost immediately. You know, you look at that on the schedule and you think Flyers aren't gonna aren't gonna do it this time. But when the game starts, the Flyers look pretty good, you know, from the beginning. And I was at this game. I I was down like four rows off the ice. I was ver Very much involved in the game because I was able to actually see some of the things that were happening that you know sometimes when you're a little higher or you're watching on TV, maybe you don't notice as much. I I don't know. But for some reason, last night there were so many things that I noticed during this game that you know I want to talk about. And first off, the Flyers came out, I think, playing pretty strong for the first couple minutes of that game. I think they looked really well and they were skating with Minnesota, who is a really fast. team, really fast team. And then all of a sudden it kind of fell off the rouse. You know, they had a goal go in, two goals go in. They scored three goals, you know, into the second period. They're like in the beginning of the second period. So the Flyers at the end of the first are down two to nothing. They go into the second. Now they're down three to nothing. Trevor Ziegress gets a a misconduct, a 10-minute misconduct because one of the goals hit the referee or linesman and it didn't go out and apparently Ziegers was tapping his ice and talking to the ref. God knows what he said, but whatever he said, the the refs didn't like that. They put him in the box for a 10 minute misconduct. So Flyers played without Zegers for a while. And this is where it kind of gets interesting. The Flyers then, you know, I guess two-thirds of the way through this game played really well. They they really did. The Second half of that second period, the third period, the Flyers really, really looked good. They ended up scoring two goals. The game was three to two. Their power play scored. Barkey got on the board. TK, I'm sorry, Forster got on the board. Mishkoff got another assist. three-two. You know, Flyers are losing by just one. And you know, you didn't think that was gonna happen. You thought this team, the way it started, the Minnesota Wild were gonna walk away with this game and And they didn't. the Flyers came back, just like they've always seemed to be able to do for some reason. And they got really close. They really got close. And then this is where things get a little messy. I I noticed so many things last night on this ice. And when when Ziegers got the penalty, something something looked like it happened between Sealer and Mishkoff. It looked like Sealer was pissed off and he said something to Mishkoff. And Mishkoff looked at him and Seeler said something. And Mishkoff shrugged his shoulders and smiled and Sealer didn't look happy and he went to the bench. God knows I could be misreading it, but that's exactly what it looked like. It it didn't look like things were good between the two of them. it sounded it looked like Sealer said something to him and maybe Mishkoff didn't do what he said or I'm not sure, but it was between periods, it's right I'm sorry, it was between plays, it was when Zegris went over to the box and you know, it looked like there was a little Problem there between those two guys. Then when you look at the overall game, and this is where I was telling my son Sean, who was with me there, the the Flyers absolutely could have blown the doors off that team last night. No doubt about it. The Flyers hold held the Minnesota Wild, I think, to four shots in the third period. And the Flyers had a lot of shots. And here's where it gets worse. So so mind boggling. It's just mind boggling. I don't know how else to say it. The the Flyers had so many shots. And I'm talking not like just from the point. I'm talking like point blank, either side of the net, high slot. They were around the net. They had point blank shots and they missed the net completely over and over and over again. They shot wide. They hit the outside of the net. They hit the glass. I I never seen a team miss the net so many times. And I said to my son, I'm like, dear God, like the Flyers could be winning this game like six to three right now, easily with the chances that they had. If they could just hit the net. So it's frustrating. It's really frustrating to see the Flyers go out there and you know. They have to play a really good game. They have to play over their their head and capabilities, right? They have to for check card, which they did. They have to move around, which later in the game they did. They started cycling and not just going straight down the ice and straight back. And then you have them have all this hard work to try to create a shot. And when they finally get that shot, the either the receiver of the pass misses it, the receiver of the pass and the shooter of the shot. shoots high and wide, and it happened over and over and over and over and over again. I I I honestly think a juniors hockey club could have put more shots on net than the Flyers did last night. The the Flyers missed the net in close 23 times last night. 23 times. Twenty three times. And then we wonder why we don't score. Now You're gonna have some podcasters, because I already listened to a couple, turn around and say, Well, when you're playing a really good goalie like Wallstadt, you really gotta pick your spot. You really have to aim for that little tiny piece sized hole, because that's the only way you're gonna beat these goalies. And again, I was a center. I understand that philosophy, but I also know My shot was never like super high and wide all the time over and over and over again. Now I'm not a pro. I'm not pretending I'm a pro or ever was a pro, but I knew I had to at least hit the net or hit the goalie. And there are times when you're going to shoot and if you don't have anything but that little piece size hole where you're trying to slip that puck through, then you got to be smart and think, okay, if if I shoot it through his glove hand, he's going to catch it. If I put it in his chest, he's probably going to smother it. So let me let me take a higher rebound shot here and hit his pads. hit his stick. Make the goalie take make make the goalie make the save and control the rebound. And the fires weren't doing that. They they weren't doing that at all. They were shooting for those top corners and they just kept blowing that puck over the net or high and wide. And and I felt bad for them. I I really I really did. I think they played a great game. I think they skated really hard with one of the best teams out there right now. And and sadly, the reward didn't come at the end because they couldn't they just couldn't hit the net. They couldn't hit the net. I was listening to another guy say at the end of practice, was it Bill Metz? At the end of practice, the Flyers, Rick Tocket should tie on the shooter tutor. on the net and tell all the guys that they have to shoot pucks and hit every one of those holes before they're allowed to leave the practice rink. And I I laugh because in all honesty, it's it it seems like it's the same thing over and over for this Flyers team. And if you remember, God like all the way back in the day with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, I I think they put like the shooter tutor in net then to try to teach that team how to shoot. John Stevens, I think, did that. And then if they did it, I guess he made a cake. So maybe maybe Tocket needs to go out there and start baking cakes because 23 missed shots from high potential, you know, opportunities is just it's absolutely horrible. There's no NHL team, there's no pro that should be doing this that many times over and over and over again. And I really hope they get this together because again, it's it feels like It feels like they did everything they had to do to get into that game. They skated hard. They hit. They started creating plays. They outshot Minnesota and they just couldn't hit the net, which is what is infuriating. So let's let's hope, because there's many, many different media outlets posting this and they're the rightfully so about the flyers missing the Mets so many. the net so many times. And let let's hope they can figure that out because it's just not something that should be happening. And these guys should have a a lot more control on their shots. And they need to. They they need to hit the goalie, get a rebound. You know, if he if he's got the upstairs open, sure, take that shot. Take the opportunity to try to sink one. You're, you know, the best shooters out there are are going to try. I mean, I I I get it. You know, again, I was a center and I I love the top shelf and I shot for the top shelf most of the time. but if you're having struggles hitting the top shelf and you keep shooting wide, you you you have to know that as a pro and you gotta readjust and figure out a a different way because you you you need to hit that net. When it goes high and wide, a lot of times it leaves the zone, you know, and it's not something that's conducive for a team to continue to miss that many chances. So that's what I noticed. Mostly all the night. And and that's what I was complaining about to my son. He probably got tired of hearing me. because I couldn't believe it. They would take a shot, be like, boom, hitting glass. I was like, You gotta be kidding me. That's like 10 point blank shots. We just hit the glass. And then by the end of the night, it was 23. 23. Can't have that. Can't have that if you're gonna be a good team. this this topic never seems to go away. And I guess it's just gonna keep getting worse if the if it doesn't get better, But the another thing that happened tonight was, Mishk Mat Matfe Mishkov's ice time. And and this is like beating a dead horse here, okay. I didn't say anything about the mammoth game at all. You know, he played the minutes he was supposed to play, but when you go back into this game, this this one's a head scratcher, right? So Ziegers gets this 10-minute misconduct. And he is actually on the in the box for I think like 14 minutes. So he served his 10, but then there was no stoppages. So he ended up staying in there, I think, for like another four minutes. So he missed 14 minutes of the second period, I believe. And by the end of the night, you know, if you look at ice time, you have Ziegress that did about 20 minutes. Of you know what, hold on second, let me give you an exact here because I I don't want to just estimate. But Zegers had 20 minutes and one second of ice time, and and this is while sitting in the box for 14 minutes of that game. Mavvey Mishkov had 16 minutes and 20 seconds, the entire game. Travis Keneckney had 20 minutes and 56 seconds. Christian Devorek had 19 minutes and 22 seconds. I don't like that at all. I don't like that at all. Jason Martitas had said, you have to look at stats. And Jason's a good guy. he's right on his game. He's a he is an analytics kind of guy. He always pulls out stats because that's, you know, the facts that he wants to. argue his case in point with, which is okay. Right. and I guess I should look at some more of these stats because what I'm about to say I could probably prove or disprove, but I haven't looked at it yet. So maybe for the next episode I will. But when when you look at this game and what Mave Mishkov brings to the table, Mave had a very good game. He had made some really good plays. He was one of the only guys really out there creating a lot. And while those 14 minutes of Ziegress in the box, I I think he I think he got a shift on that line to fill in for Zegris's spot. But he ended up with such low, low minutes for one of your best creative play producing players, which makes no sense whatsoever. This kid needs to get those 17, 18, 19 minutes of time, especially when. Ziegress is out off the ice for 14 minutes, but yet somehow he gets 20 by the end of the game. It's crazy. It it's it's crazy. You know, Mishkoff did get an assist tonight. the power play scored. so that's rolling. The power play looks really good. So hopefully we're past the problems that we've had for years with the power play. And in all in all honesty, the power play is being run by mainly rookies. the young guys, Ziegress is out there, but you're not seeing T Kang on the top line or Coots or Tippett or any of those guys. It's being run by the kids really. Yet a successful line that's doing well in creating things. Yet when we go back to regular strength, for some reason, Mishkoff is not out on the ice as much as he should be, which I think hurts this team. Now, last night, if the Flyers didn't miss the net 23 times. There's a really good chance the Flyers win this game. A very good chance that they win this game. And not not just by like one goal, by a couple of goals. And you know, if Mishkoff still has sixteen minutes, you know, we wouldn't be so upset about it. I guess I would say, you know, the team did what they had to do and they got through and they got the win. But what when the the team loses, it's a hard pill to swallow because you know, Mavvey, Mavvey has that opportunity to Create something out of nothing a lot of times. And here's something else I noticed. So Mavy's out on the ice and I'm like, I'm like staring right at him. He's like right across from me. I'm I'm literally the fourth row off the ice. And you as he's got the puck and he's wheeling around the zone, like you can you can see his eyes and everything that being that far down there or that close to the glass. And he's got his, he's got No help from the defensive end. And I guess this is where like I didn't pay attention to it enough and games passed, but I I noticed it tonight. So when when Mave was out there, he's kind of the guy that like he tries to go in and maybe go to the net or see if he has one of his wingers to pass to. But if he doesn't, he's doing like a a like a kind of a circle down deep, and he's looking for those trailers to come into the play so he can get a pass off. Or he's looking for that. Other winger, right, to open up so he has something to pass to. Almost 90% of the time, he's probably throwing it back to the point, right? To that guy coming in late. Lo and behold, he's got this three or two or three guys on him. He's in the corner. Everyone's in deep. Some of our our wingers are in front of the net. You know, Kate's our center's in front of the net. And the high slots wide open. And he's like about to throw a pass, and you see him hesitate for a second. And then he looks a little bit deeper, and then and then he finally throws it up the ice because he was waiting for the defenseman to come in, and the defenseman wouldn't come in, and there was nobody there. The defenseman could have easily came in. And then I realized who was out there with him, and it was Sealer and Benoit. Sealer and Benoit are out with Matve Mishkov's line. I don't I and again, I I didn't pay attention to it, I guess, enough in in these other games, but. He's got no one to pass to. His whole system of what he does relies on like a a good late person coming into the play. And with Sealer and Benoit on that line with him, it does it that it doesn't help. It doesn't help at all. It's actually taking away from that line. And I think it was a bad decision by by Tocket to put them out there with them. Tac also has a lot of issues still. we're gonna kind of go on to that now. talk doesn't seem to run a bench well. I don't I don't know if it's him running the bench, if it's somebody else calling the shots on the bench, but the flyers are down three to two. I think there's like under three minutes left in the game. I'm I'm sitting right by Dan Vladar, who's trying to get out of the net, but he don't know if he should. And he's like a couple of feet out of the net. He's got his arms up looking at the bench like, is it time? Is it time? And there was no communication from the bench whatsoever. He half went, half stopped. He wasn't sure if he should go or stay. And finally, I I I don't know if Toc realized he was supposed to call him or Vladar just was like, I'm just going. But he finally went over and it was a little scary. they were coming down the ice. I think they almost scored. They didn't. Flyers then finally go back up the ice and they Minnesota Wild come down and score and get an open netter because the Flyers look totally discombobulated that whole that whole two, three minutes left in the game. So there's mistakes being made by the players missing the net. There's mistakes being made by the bench. I saw Zegers go back over to the bench a little later in that game, and Tokett and him were going at it. Tockets over there. yelling at him and trying to trying to I know if he's yelling but he looked like he was upset and he was shaking his hand at him and then he would walk away and a couple and I sc I he figured I didn't get enough of this so he'd go back and he'd do it again. And you see Ziegress trying to talk and throw his head up. So there was a problem last night between Zegris and Tocket. there was a problem between Matt Vemishkov and Sealer. it wasn't pretty it was it was one of those games where all this stuff's happening behind the scenes Yet on the ice, the Flyers did really well. They really did. They did really well. They absolutely could have had that game. If they could just shoot better, that game was theirs. And they didn't shoot better. Thus, they lost four to two. So take that review of the game in heart because again, the season started terrible. The Flyers are four, what four nine and four. They lost so many games in the beginning of the year that if they would have won half the games in the beginning of the year, this game last night wouldn't have felt so bad. It wouldn't have hurt as much as it did. But this was one of those games where they had an opportunity to, you know, knock off one of the best teams in the league. And the reason they didn't was because they couldn't shoot. It had nothing to do with skating, it had nothing to do with heart, it had nothing to do with them trying because they did. They they They figured out a way to skate with that team and they took it to them. And the only reason they lost that game was because they couldn't shoot. They couldn't hit the net. So it would feel a lot better if again, if the Flyers had a more of a winning record than what they do, because in all honesty, I don't think many of us thought they were gonna beat the wild, but being where we're at. And our record that we are right now, every game counts. And when you play that wild team and you play them that good, this one hurts when you lose it because it was right there for their taking, and none of them could hit the net. None of them. So let's hope they work on these shoot these shooting drills. They have to. They got to get better at hitting hitting that goalie or hitting that net. They have to. They have to create Rebounds. They have to force that goalie to try to control the rebound and crash the net. But all right. So we will have another episode coming up after our next game. You know, right now there's a lot of rumors out there, floating around. The Flyers are trying to be a third team to help Detroit with Dylan Larkin. there's Flyers going after Strommel. There's so many things out there, and it probably most of it is just, BS, the more Beneers trade. They just traded Shane Wright to Nashville. So more than likely they're not going to get rid of Beneers. there are other centermen that can come up and to and fill that role if they were to get rid of Beneers, but in reality, it's just all I think reporters, local reporters, just Grabbing at straws right now, trying to figure out who the Flyers are trying to target, if they're trying to target anyone at all. The Flyers have a lot of money right now, a lot of cap space that some podcasts are talking about. take a chance, sign somebody, get somebody in here, make a trade, use the money. I don't know. Do you want to use the money just to use the money? You know, some people will say, yeah, they should do something just to do something because sitting still makes no sense. Well, well, he did. He got butting. Right. How did that work out? So unless he's getting somebody decent that's really gonna help. Why spend the money? In all honesty, why spend the money? I'm hoping some way, shape, shape, or form, they can pick up a defenseman that can help this team, a defenseman that can play on that line with Matt Vay Mishkov and them who actually can skate like a Bonk or a Sandheim, somebody who can actually contribute to them and give them a threat when Matt Vay pulls up and circles and looks for that trailer. Yeah, they they need that. And Sealer and Benoit are not gonna fill that role. On that line whatsoever. So I think right now, if the Flyers can't land a center that can help the Matt Vay Mishka Porter Martin line, then the next best thing they could do is just get that defenseman who can help that line because that line needs help. You know, that's one of your most creative lines, and you're putting like two of the most uncreative defensemen out on that line with them. And Cates is Cates. He's a good third line, checking forward. He'll contribute here and there. He's sound defensively, but he's not that creative playmaker and he's not that, goals goal scoring sniper center that this team desperately needs. I I think if they can find anyone, like if they can find a number two center anywhere that Matt Vay Mishkov and Martone line would take off and do better than what it's doing now. And in reality, you have, you know, in Tox mind, his number one line is Dvorak, TK, and Zegris. And it's a good line, no doubt about it. But are they producing like like that much more than you know a Mishkov's line? No, they they really aren't, you know. So the this time here should be used to try to improve Mishkov's line to see if Mishkov and Martone's line with a better center. Could supplant that Dvorak line. And I really do think that they can. You know, Mishkov has looked really, really good. Really good. He's the he's he is sending sending passes through like tiny little holes like between guys' legs or between the stick and the foot. these other teams are noticing it too because they're giving them space. Like they know if they push him here that he's going to possibly create something. So you can see they're giving them a little more respect and space than they used to. They used to just rush them and and now he can actually get away from them and, create some things. So I I'm I'm really anxious to see a good center with these guys. And I'm really hoping it's going to be this year. But as of right now, I don't I don't know if it will be. I think it they need to do it. They know they need to do it. But can they do it or not is is what's up in the air right now. So anyhow, we'll do another episode before our our, I'm sorry, after the Flyers next game. So until then, go Flyers.