Backdoor blues: Flyers chronic errors in their own zone have left them in a world of hurt

Dan Vladar returned after six games out of the lineup with a lower body injury.

And as good as he was in a game the Flyers lost 5-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, even he couldn't save the day, though he tried.

That's because the team he remembered before he got hurt is not the team he came back to on Wednesday. 

This version of the Flyers is lost at times in its own end. A team that was so strong structurally, defending the middle of the ice, has gotten scrambly. 

They struggle to get pucks out of the zone - often times because they seem unwilling to take one more stride before passing the puck. They try to make plays that aren't there. They put their teammates in bad positions as the opposition forecheck hunts the puck. 

In short, they don't respond to pressure well. 

And most alarmingly, they leave too many guys open for golden opportunities on the weak side of the ice. 

Jamie Drysdale wasn't the sole reason the Flyers gave up a shorthanded goal to the Islanders on Monday - he had help from Bobby Brink and other forwards on the power play unit not getting back - but he abandoned the front of the net creating an easy goal opportunity. 

On Wednesday, after the Flyers scratched and clawed their way back to tie the game 3-3 behind the sheer will and guts of Travis Konecny who had his third career hat trick despite playing through pain in his left foot after blocking a shot - they were a mere three minutes and change from getting to overtime when another in-zone breakdown occurred leading to another weakside goal by Columbus' Sean Monahan.

Rick Tocchet explained it to reporters after the game.

"We've talked since training camp about (preventing) weakside goals and lately - since (playing) Tampa - we've been giving up too many," he said. "You can not let that weakside goal go in. A couple of guys made mistakes on it."

Here's the play.

At first glance it looks like it's completely on Matvei Michkov for not following Monahan to the net, but it's not. He bears a small part of the responsibility, but mostly in communication. It starts with Noah Cates overcommitting to one side and not getting back to his spot. Cates may have thought Michkov was covering for him, but once he gets too far to the other side of the ice, he can't get back. Travis Sanheim needs to recognize that too and not worry about his man on the strong side as much. Vladar has a much better chance at making a save on the side where the puck is then he does going post-to-post where he'd have to make a heroic stop. 

"(Sanheim) can't be tied up with his guy. He has to stay loose," Tocchet said. He's got to stay loose because there's a breakdown. Noah should have taken back ice and (Sanheim) just stayed with his guy. He should have let him loose and taken back side. It's a couple of things. Multiple things. You want to give your goalie a chance to make the save when there's a breakdown."

These are two normally reliable players in Sanheim and Cates who have seen their games dip this month.

The thing is, Tocchet is right - the amount of weakside chances the Flyers are giving up is staggering. The game Wednesday could have been over far sooner. Vladar made two absolutely incredible saves on weakside opportunities in the third period to give the Flyers a chance at a comeback. His first, when the team was down 3-1, stoned Adam Fantilli.

DAN VLADAR WITH THE ABSOLUTE ROBBERY ON ADAM FANTILLI OH MY 😵🚫 pic.twitter.com/aXsQpTFYkT

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 29, 2026

That one was while the Flyers were shorthanded. Another recent failing of the team. Their aggressive diamond structure which had them among the best penalty kills in the league early in the season, all too often isn't aggressive at all, and it's passivity creates a lot of opportunities on the back door that don't usually end with an outstanding save like that one. 

That stop by Vladar ignited the Flyers and they seemed to have more jump, specifically Konecny, who was basically skating on one leg most of the night. His foot hurt so much that Tocchet said after the game that Konecny, who now leads the Flyers in goals (20) and points (48), may have to miss Thursday's game in Boston, which would be yet another blow to a team that can not afford them at all. 

Konency scored the last two goals of his hat trick in the third period after that Vladar stop.

But Vladar wasn't done. He had another back door stop on the Blue Jackets Boone Jenner. 

DAN VLADAR DOES IT AGAIN!!!#Flyers pic.twitter.com/E4970EINBO

— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) January 29, 2026

Getting one of those in a game is fortuitous. Getting two of them is like hitting triple sevens on a slot machine. Which is why the Flyers couldn't expect Vladar to do it a third time on the Monahan goal. 

At some point, the breakdowns have to be curbed. Are they going to happen from time to time? Sure. That's hockey. It's a game of mistakes. But good teams don't have the same ones happening repeatedly - and the Flyers, who fancy themselves a good team, as evidenced by a letter to season ticket holders from chairman Dan Hilferty that went out on Wednesday afternoon that read, in part, that "we're thrilled to be in a position where our sights are firmly set on playoff contention," have far too many of them, chronically.

It has snowballed on them, considerably, this month. 

Since an impressive road win in Edmonton to start the month and a rousing victory over Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks in the first home game of the new year, the Flyers have lost nine of 11 (2-7-2) and have been outscored 49-28. Some of that has been subpar goaltending while Vladar was injured, but not all of it. Giving up 4.46 goals per game is also on the defensive structure of the team. 

Emil Andrae was a healthy scratch against Columbus, his play has been declining game-by-game. Cam York has been fighting it, and the Flyers considered dropping him to the third pair to get his game right before a Rasmus Ristolainen health issue put a kibosh on that plan. Speaking of Ristolainen, he got hurt - again - on just his second shift on Wednesday. The Flyers called this one a lower-body injury. He can't seem to stay on the ice.

This makes mistakes by normally reliable players like Sanheim stand out even more.

The forwards aren't helping. Cates' game has slowly deteriorated going back to the injury of his trusty linemate Tyson Foerster. Trevor Zegras is clearly trying to do too much and creating bad plays in the process. He's putting too much pressure on himself to try and carry an offense, that it's hurting the team in recent games. He needs to reign it back in quickly. He was always a guy who took risks to create offense, but right now the risks are heavily outweighing the rewards. 

All of this collectively has taken the Flyers from a playoff position after that Anaheim game to six points out of one with 30 games to play. Four of thier nine losses in this stretch have been, in essence, four-point games as they have come against teams the Flyers are competing with for playoff spots - Buffalo, Pittsburgh, the Islanders and Columbus. Another one arrives tonight in the Bruins. 

How important is this game in Boston? 

Well, the Flyers suddenly find themselves on the cusp of another irrelevant spring if they can't find that structure again real soon.