“It’s unlucky, but that’s hockey,” said Philadelphia Flyers forward Tyson Foerster following Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss against the Minnesota Wild. “We have to find ways to get it back.”

The Flyers hung with one of the best teams in hockey on Tuesday, putting up a legitimate fight against the Wild. They grinded, played tough, and made it hard on Minnesota. With the exception of one really unfortunate/bad 31 seconds in the first period where the Wild scored twice, the Flyers matched, if not outplayed, the Wild, who are one point shy of the league lead.

Whether it was a bounce off a Flyers’ skate or even an official not getting out of the way, the Flyers were unlucky as far as bounces go on Tuesday.

“I thought we actually played a decent game. We put pucks behind them. I thought we controlled the play. It sucks. I felt like we had a chance there, a real chance. That one sucked for sure,” said Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale following the game.

Both Drysdale and Foerster contributed to the team’s first goal, the one that sparked life.

Drysdale recognized that the Flyers played well enough to win. However, he also recognized that they could’ve done more, controlling what they can, and not relying on what they can’t control.

“Bad bounces happen every night. It’s unfortunate that they directly resulted in goals against. That sucks. It’s never fun, but as I said, I felt like we had a chance.”

It has not been the ideal start to the season. The Flyers might be past moral victories. At one point, hanging with a juggernaut like the Wild could be a win, even with the loss. But not this time. The only thing the Flyers can take away from the game is knowing what they have to do moving forward.

“I think the only thing that we can take away from this right now is that when we play the right way, we’re a good team. It’s pretty obvious there. We’ve got to start winning games, obviously, and be more consistent,” said Drysdale.

One thing that Travis Konecny took away from the game was the team’s resilience. “That kind of reminded me of last year, where we’re never really out of a game. As long as we stuck to our plan, we knew we were going to give ourselves a chance.”

Like Drysdale and Foerster, Konecny also saw a team that could have won the game. “It’s frustrating, but it was like really positive at times too. Like, once we started playing, you could just see, you know, we weren’t giving them very much.”

Konecny also recognized that in any other situation, this game would be taken in a completely different light. But it was the team’s 13th loss of the season. They’re deep in the hole and need to start winning games. This being a game that they could have, and should have, won against a quality opponent, it stings a little more.

“If we’re not in the hole we’re in, I think this game looks a little different. You know, you can take a lot of positives from that. We gave up a couple bad ones, but we competed. We played hard. You know, consistent with the same way we’ve been playing, but when it’s the hole we’re in right now, you still want to take a lot of positives from it and let guys get their confidence. But also, it’s like it’s a loss. It’s unacceptable. We need to win games,” said Konecny.

At the end of the day, it was two really, really bad bounces that put the Wild in position to win the game. That is something the Flyers could hang their hat on. But it’s not. The Flyers also had plenty of chances to score, but could not execute.

Porter Martone had half of an empty net on the power play, but missed the net. Konecny himself even admitted that his breakaway that missed the net is going to haunt him, knowing that it could have been the difference. Those are just two of the Flyers’ 23 missed shots on the night. 23.

There were a ton of positives from the game. Any time you compete on the same level as a team like the Wild, it is a positive. But for a team as starved for wins as the Flyers are, this is a game that they’re going to want back.