Finally, in the last game of their hockey season, the Flyers had something to play for.
Namely, toss in the towel at Buffalo and improve their chances in this year’s NHL Draft.
By losing this game in regulation time by a 5-4 margin at KeyBank Center, the Flyers finish the season last in the Metropolitan Division and have the fourth-best odds (9.5 percent) of getting the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft Lottery. Their lowest possible draft position is sixth.
The Flyers, who compiled a record of 33-39-10 this season, finished their nine-game stretch under interim coach Brad Shaw with a 5-3-1 mark.
This was the fifth straight season the Flyers will not make the postseason, tying a franchise record for futility.
The only real bright spot for the Flyers in this game was the play of Matvei Michkov.
He scored a pair of goals, his 25th and 26th of the season, to give him the NHL rookie goal-scoring crown.
Michkov scored on a power play at 15:09 of the first period and 7:11 of the second. The second goal moved him past San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini, who has already completed his season with the Sharks.
Flyers interim coach Brad Shaw knows there’s work to be done in the offseason but agreed the Flyers showed resolve right down to the last minute of the season.
“I think all year long we’ve had a resilience and a tenacity,” he said in a televised interview. “It showed again as the game wound down.”
A number of the Flyers’ young players showed improvement this season, including Bobby Brink, Tyson Foerster and Noah Cates among others.
“Got some really good young pieces,” Shaw said with an eye to next season. “They’re going to be part of the organization for a long time. It’s exciting. We have a lot of holes to fill but the development of some of those guys’ games has been substantial and a great signal going forward. These guys should be excited about the future. They’ve taken a huge step this year.”
Captain Sean Couturier also saw reason for optimism. Especially these last nine games under Shaw.
“I think we stuck together as a group,” he said. “Tried to play the right way and finish strong. It’s unfortunate these last two losses (including a 3-0 defeat by Columbus on Tuesday). Overall, we were making more plays. Seemed to have a little more confidence in our game. Big summer coming and we have to bring that into next year.”
If the Flyers’ plan for this game was to win a wide-open shootout against the skate-happy Sabres, it didn’t go well in the first period.
Buffalo scored three times basically off the rush to take a 3-1 lead. The Flyers even gave up a shorthanded goal to make matters worse.
Alex Tuch kicked things off by converting a Jason Zucker pass beyond the reach of Flyers goaltender Aleksei Kolosov at 4:35. Then the Sabres’ Peyton Krebs embarrassed the Flyers when Buffalo was down a man. There must have been a defensive mixup because there was no defender within 25 feet of Krebs as he roared in on Kolosov and deked to his backhand at 13:49.
Then, after Michkov’s goal, Jack Quinn raced in and finished off a Ryan McLeod pass at 16:11.
In the second period, it was more of the same. JJ Peterka completed a two-on-one at 1:24. Michkov’s second goal got the Flyers closer and then things really tightened up when Tyson Foerster scored with a shot past goalie James Reimer just 15 seconds into the third period.
Buffalo wrapped it up with just 48 seconds to play on an empty-netter from McLeod. Brink scored with 18 seconds to play to provide the final score.
Without question, Michkov was trying for his first NHL career hat trick. He finished with seven shots on goal but only two managed to find the mark.
“Wanted to score a hat trick for sure,” he said through an interpreter. “But I wanted to win first.”
>Kaplan’s debut
Flyers rookie Devin Kaplan made his NHL debut on Thursday night. The 2022 third-round (69th overall) draft pick was coming off an appearance with Boston University in last week’s NCAA championship game against title-winner Western Michigan.
What was he expecting going into his professional game?
“A lot of emotions,” he said after the morning skate in Buffalo. “A lot of gratitude, excitement. I just want to thank the people who got me here.”
Kaplan said almost his entire family was going to be in attendance. In addition, the complete Boston University roster made the trip to upstate New York.
>Short shots
The Flyers players will begin exit interviews on Friday and those will continue through Saturday. Interim coach Brad Shaw will make his end-of-season comments on Friday and general manager Daniel Briere will speak on Saturday.
The other Flyers to have won the rookie goal title: Bill Barber, Mikael Renberg and Matt Read.
As for the NHL Draft, the Flyers have chosen No. 1 in the NHL Draft only once in their history. That came in 1975 and they used that pick on Mel Bridgman.
