The Flyers are thankful they are done with the Colorado Avalanche this season.
The Avs completed a season sweep against the orange and black with a 4-1 win Monday night. Colorado outscored the Flyers 9-3 in the two-game sweep.
The Flyers' power play continues to struggle as Dave Hakstol's team lost another forward to injury.
Here are my observations from the Wells Fargo Center:
• Two things I didn't like on the Avs' PP marker as the Flyers allowed the first goal for the eighth time in nine games:
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1. Nathan MacKinnon worked the puck away from both Ivan Provorov and Robert Hagg along the boards.
2. The Flyers were outnumbered below the dots - four attackers to three PKers. Mikko Rantanen had an easy slam dunk goal as Sean Couturier appeared to be a tad late in helping out down low.
• Jake Voracek said the media didn't pay attention during the Devils' game when he said he played like "horse----" in the first two periods before finishing with a three-point game.
Voracek had his pocket picked early in the first period and forced a pass that led to a turnover later in the first. You won't see it reflected on a scoresheet, which is why the NHL needs to come up with something like forced errors and unforced errors. Giveaways and takeaways don't reflect some of the poor play on the ice.
• I like how Brian Elliott's game has calmed down after his poor effort against the Florida Panthers a week ago. Elliott was the Flyers' best player in the first 30 minutes as he made some big saves to keep the deficit to 1-0. I can't fault Elliott for the power-play rebounds as those shots came from just outside the goal mouth at close range.
• The Flyers weren't very hard on pucks in the opening period as the Avs outworked them and outshot them 14-11. However, the Flyers didn't concede anything to the MacKinnon line at 5-on-5 as they kept Colorado's top line on the perimeter and gave the unit very little from close range. The Flyers controlled play and were the better team in the second half of the game.
• Colorado came into this game with the third-ranked penalty kill in the NHL despite having to kill off more two-minute minors than any other team in the league. To their credit, the Avalanche clog up the middle of the ice for all entries to the outside and then create havoc by aggressively playing the puck and not conceding any space. The Flyers had six shots with their power play but very little from the high-danger areas.
• The Avalanche's third line, which consisted of Matt Nieto and Matt Calvert, simply outworked the Flyers' top line and the defensive pairing of Provorov and Hagg to score Colorado's second goal. The unfortunate aspect of the goal is that the Flyers had their longest sustained pressure in the Avalanche zone with some prime scoring chances just prior to Colorado extending its lead to 2-0. It was Hagg who gave up the puck in the neutral zone.
• The Flyers lost another forward as Michael Raffl was decked hard into the boards by Avs defenseman Patrik Nemeth. He left the game with a lower-body injury and didn't return to the game.
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