The Flyers ran out of time.
Aleksei Kolosov's first start in goal was going okay, up until it wasn't, and then the team was scrambling to climb out of another hole late.
And they did press after it.
Travis Sanheim fired home his second goal of the night, and then Travis Konecny put away a slick Owen Tippett pass from behind the net with just under two minutes left to suddenly make it a one-goal game on Sunday night against the visiting Montreal Canadiens.
But they couldn't get that last one to tie it up after pinning the puck in Montreal's end for the last minute and a half. A Hab swatted a rebound away and over through center ice as the final seconds ticked away at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers lost 4-3, their seventh of the last eight, and dropped to 2-6-1 on the season.
They ran out of time on Sunday night, and while it's still early into the season, they don't have much of it to turn things around before they're fully sunk.
They're scoring a few more goals now at least after falling completely flat in their first two home games against Vancouver and Washington, rookie star Matvei Michkov also has nine points through the first nine games, and the Flyers did pull out a win from Saturday's chaos against Minnesota behind captain Sean Couturier's hat trick – to break from those frantic rallies that eventually hit a wall against the Capitals again on Wednesday and the Habs on Sunday night.
But largely, something hasn't been clicking so far – not like it did last season.
Part of it might be that the Flyers aren't taking anyone by surprise anymore. They fell just short of sneaking into the playoffs last season, and now no one is being fooled: They do have to be played seriously.
But another part: Last year, as the Flyers were putting together that unexpected push, their offense dominated in transition.
As a team, they excelled at picking away pucks and immediately flipping them the other way into scoring chances.
That largely carried them in the picture all the way into March until they stalled out and fell apart.
Now, nine games into a new season that has them with nearly the same roster plus Michkov, they just haven't been able to recapture that same downhill momentum.
"The part of it for me is I'd like to see us play faster," head coach John Tortorella said after Sunday night's loss. "It just doesn't seem like we're playing fast, and that's hurt us a little bit.
"We're not sneaking up on teams. Last year I think we felt that we snuck up on teams a little bit with our transition game. The neutral zone has been a little bit tough for us to get through. It has to do with people being aware, and I do think that's not coming up together."
And the players feel that, though they haven't quite figured out the solution yet.
During the locker room media scrums from the Montreal loss postgame, "disconnect" was a commonly shared sentiment.
"Disconnected in our game. We gotta start supporting pucks better, go back to what made us successful last year," veteran forward Scott Laughton said, calling back to the way the Flyers tried to claw back against Washington a few nights ago in D.C. "That third period in Washington, it's simple. Getting in on the forecheck, winning battles, getting it up high, and putting pucks on net. Then we recover from there."
But the Flyers just haven't been putting themselves in a position to.
Through their nine games so far, they've given up the first goal in six of them to immediately set themselves behind, and in the second period over the past three games in particular, they've been crushed for nine goals – three in each across the Capitals on Wednesday, the Wild on Saturday, and then the Canadiens on Sunday.
Those types of frequent setbacks lead a team to grip the stick tighter and try to force things to happen instead of letting the game come naturally.
That's where the Flyers are caught right now, which isn't anywhere near a dependable way to win, nor an enjoyable way to play.
"I think you could see last year that we just had that flow from our own zone," winger Garnet Hathaway said. "It was guys playing roles, identities, and understanding how that worked together.
"I think the disconnection comes when you're trying to create something instantly. You want something to work right away. When I think last game [against Minnesota], it was a process. We built our game, we closed in the D zone, everyone was connected, and then you move up through the zones. That's our identity. It's very great on the rush, but I think we wore teams down with offensive possession versus probably this year, where it's probably the other way. I'd say that's the disconnection."
And the issue the Flyers are fighting to solve sooner rather than later, before they're out of time.
"No one coming, no one to dig us out of this," Laughton said. "It's the guys in the room. So we gotta figure this out quick.
"And yeah, maybe not the best time for it to happen, but it's happening right now. We've got a lot of runway left, but we got to figure it out."
The next chance will be Tuesday night in Boston, for a matchup against David Pastrnak and the ever-dangerous Bruins.
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
