Philadelphia fans wanted a regulation loss Tuesday night: clean and quick, no overtime, no shootout theater. Instead, Rick Tocchet's team ground out a standings point in a 3-2 shootout loss to Seattle, and that point is exactly what's wrong with this season.
The Flyers were 0-5-2 and sitting last in the Eastern Conference heading into this game. They're now winless in eight straight to open the year, already a franchise record for futility. Grinding out an overtime point against a Kraken team that improved to 5-2-0 hurts more than it helps a team with nothing to play for but draft position.
A team this far outclassed shouldn't be finding ways to stretch games into extra hockey. Every minute Tocchet spends coaching for a loser point is a minute he's chasing the illusion of competitiveness instead of the only thing that matters in November for a team outscored this badly through seven games: banking losses. You don't need overtime drama to develop Matvei Michkov. He scored a filthy shootout goal on a triple deke through Philipp Grubauer's five-hole, and that skill is real whether the final digit in the standings column reads a win, a loss, or a loser point. Coaching to survive overtime muddies the final score without making Michkov any better.
The goaltending tells the real story. Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots through overtime and turned away three of five shooters in the shootout, behind a lineup that can't generate much beyond Michkov and Trevor Zegras, who scored the Flyers' other goal and then picked up two penalties in the second period after tangling with Grubauer, at one point gifting Seattle a two-man advantage that Philadelphia's defense somehow survived. A goalie playing this well for a team buried this badly says the roster around him is thin, and that the only reason these games stay close is that Vladar won't let them get ugly.
Any point matters if it comes with signs of growth, and Michkov scoring highlight-reel goals in real NHL games is exactly that. Development and tanking can coexist: Michkov's game improves regardless of the final score. Tocchet doesn't need to treat every third period like a playoff push. Insiders are split on whether his job is safe, and fans are already chanting for his firing. The real issue is a coach managing a lottery-bound roster like he's trying to make the postseason.
Tocchet picked up a point Tuesday night. For this Flyers team, that's a mistake.
