18 incredible hulks…and Oettinger

Maybe it was the jerseys or just the sheer size the Stars have on the ice most of the time. But often it looked like the Flyers were giving up a few inches and quite a few pounds to Dallas. That’s not to say the effort wasn’t there for Philadelphia. It was. It just seems like Dallas should be a favorite to make a deep run in the playoffs. But considering they could be facing Colorado and then Winnipeg in the opening two rounds, it will be a hellish road to glory.

Riding the momentum until….

As they did most tof the third period against Washington, the Flyers took the same mindset into Dallas to start. Philadelphia had the first five shots, including a close-in chance by Tyson Foerster that Stars goalie Jake Oettinger stopped. When they weren’t working well on the forecheck, the blueline would keep the play going.

Of course, the good start was for not as Dallas’ fourth line outworked the Flyers’ fourth line, with Ivan Fedotov not seeing the Thomas Harley shot until it hit the twine behind him.

Minutes later Fedotov had nobody in front of him and simply blew the shot as Esa Lindell put Dallas up 2-0 with a clear wrister. Two goals on two shots. Par for the course most of the season with this goaltending lot.

Even more damning was how after one period, 11 of the 18 skaters were over 60 per cent in the five-on-five chances for category. Jakob Pelletier was leading the way with a 6-1 advantage in chances (85.71 per cent). Coach John Tortorella decided he saw enough of Fedotov after 20 minutes, replacing him with Sam Ersson (who was probably slated for the Sunday game in Chicago) to hopefully get some stops.

Complete blackout on power play

The Flyers first unit featured Jamie Drysdale, Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, Bobby Brink and Michkov. After a little bit of initial pressure, the Stars had a few chances themselves. The second unit included Olle Lycksell and Foerster but, as has been the case for March, no goal. Another chance near the end of the first — this one from a high stick which was actually Flyers friendly fire — had Konecny as the quarterback. Again the execution was non-existent. Or to those with gallows humor, they would be in favor of the Flyers’ execution on the power play.

Meanwhile penalty kills aplenty

Philadelphia battled back to tie things up 2-2, despite taking three consecutive penalties in the later minutes of period two. The Flyers narrowly avoided giving up a third goal which was fractions of an inch from fully crossing the goal line before it was batted away by Emil Andrae. Officials looked at it and determined it wasn’t a goal. Tippett took a rather foolish penalty in the offensive zone, something which didn’t rub Tortorella the right way. Fortunately a Dallas minor with 32 seconds left in the Flyers’ penalty gave the Flyers a shorter-than-usual power play.

Overtime brain cramp

To battle as well as they did and to lose in such a comical way was indicative of the Flyers season. Nine seconds in, Ersson played the puck badly. Jason Robertson got the puck and got it to Harley who put the puck between Ersson a ridiculous nine seconds in. Bad way to end it. But end it it did.