Photo Credit: Jeff Roberson/The Associated Press
The Flyers came into the night having lost five straight games. That losing streak has now reached six games after a frustrating 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues
“I think we’re very frustrated,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. ” We played a good game tonight most of the time. Some lines played very well but again in the third (period) we just couldn’t get it done.”
Flyers head coach Mike Yeo made some line changes ahead of their matchup with the Blues. The most noticeable change was forward Isaac Ratcliffe being bumped up to the top line with Claude Giroux and Cam Atkinson after a strong performance yesterday afternoon versus the Hurricanes.
Here’s how the Flyers lined up tonight ahead of puck drop:
Forward Lines:
1st Line: Ratcliffe-Giroux-Atkinson
2nd Line: Lindblom-Laughton-Konecny
3rd Line: van Riemsdyk-Frost-Mayhew
4th line: Willman-Brown-MacEwen
Defensive Pairings:
Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Seeler
Martin Jones got the start in net for the Flyers for the second consecutive night with Carter Hart remaining out due to an eye infection. Jones stopped 27 of 31 shots fired his way in yesterday afternoons 4-3 overtime loss to the Hurricanes. Kirill Ustimenko was the backup for the second straight night.
It was a pretty even start for both teams despite the Flyers looking a bit sluggish early on. Scott Laughton had a chance early on in the period but was denied after Travis Konecny intercepted a pass in the defensive zone before sending Laughton in all alone on the Blues netminder.
Former Flyer Brayden Schenn opened the scoring a little over midway through the first period when he found the loose puck in front after a flurry of chances for St. Louis. It all started off the rush when forward Jordan Kyrou used defenseman Ivan Provorov as a screen before ringing a shot off the post. A scramble in front ensued before Schenn picked up the garbage scoring his 15th goal of the season.
Coming into the game, Schenn had at least a goal in three of his last five games. He now has goals in four of his last six games and has 28 points in 34 games this season for St. Louis.
The Flyers lacked communication in the first period. They looked discombobulated in the defensive zone and their forecheck was for the most part nonexistent. They once again found themselves defending more often than not.
Flyers netminder Martin Jones, who got the start between the pipes for the second time in as many days, was forced to make quite a few quality saves. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blues had seven high danger scoring chances in the first period.
Travis Sanheim had a quality scoring chance off the rush late in the period when James van Riemsdyk set him up for a chance from the slot. Binnington, who stopped all ten shots fired his way in the opening period, got just enough of it to make the save.
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After controlling much of the period, the Blues took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period was more of the same for the Flyers. They found themselves defending and creating the majority of their own scoring chances off the rush. Like much of the first, they failed to sustain time in the offensive zone.
Early on in the period, St. Louis had a nice breakout of their defensive zone after winning a face-off. It took only one pass before the Blues were skating the other way. It’s something the Flyers have struggled with all year long.
St. Louis got a dangerous scoring chance early on in the period when Vladimir Tarasenko caught iron off of a shot from the slot that all started off of the rush.
Martin Jones was once again stellar in net. He’s the reason the Flyers were only down 1-0 headed into the third period. St. Louis had an expected goals-for of 1.50 xGF in the second period. Jones stopped all 11 shots fired his way to keep the Flyers within striking distance.
While their weren’t many positives in the period for the Orange and Black aside from Martin Jones, Isaac Ratcliffe made a nice play that turned defense into offense. After making a solid effort on the backcheck, the Flyers went the other way and created another chance in transition when Claude Giroux elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 and rang it off the post.
The Blues got a power play a little over midway through the second period when Travis Sanheim was called for hooking. The Blues registered one shot on net despite good puck movement. Flyers defenseman Justin Braun and forward Scott Laughton made good plays with their sticks to disrupt St. Louis on the man-advantage. That was their only power play of the game.
The Flyers got their first of two power plays late in the second period when Niko Mikkola was called for holding on Scott Laughton. The Flyers only registered one shot on goal but moved the puck around well. Claude Giroux missed a wide open net and was left looking skyward. They finished the night 0-for-2 on the man-advantage.
Through two periods of play, thanks in large part to Martin Jones, the Flyers were still within striking distance trailing only 1-0.
Headed into the third period, the Flyers had :30 seconds remaining on the man-advantage but failed to generate a shot.
Oskar Lindblom had a chance to tie the game up on a chance off of the rush but missed the net. That wasn’t Lindblom’s last scoring chance of the game though.
Shortly after, Lindblom tied the game up at 1-1 with his eighth goal of the season off of a seeing eye shot from out near the blue line. Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny provided traffic in front of Binnington. However, that lead didn’t last very long.
Just :42 seconds later, Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko gave the Blues the lead off of a nice feed from Robert Thomas from behind the net. The play all started off of a beautiful feed from Niko Mikkola on a no-look backhand pass off the boards. Just like that the Flyers found themselves trailing once again after giving up a goal less than a minute after scoring one of their own.
Ivan Barbashev and Brandon Saad capped things off with empty net goals late to seal the deal in what resulted in the Flyers sixth straight loss.
The main theme of the night for the Flyers was missed opportunities off of the rush and the inability to sustain pressure in the offensive zone for most of the game. In goal, Martin Jones did all he could to keep his team in the game stopping 22 of 24 shots fired his way. The Flyers netminder said his preparation didn’t really change in regards to preparing for his second start between the pipes in as many days.
“I’ve done it a few times in my career,” said Jones when asked about the effects of the back-to-back. “It doesn’t come up too often anymore. It helps having a 3 p.m. game yesterday. You can get to bed at a reasonable hour and feel a little better today, so it wasn’t too bad.”
The Flyers have had only one winning streak of three games this season. That was all the way back in December when they won three straight games against the New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights, and Arizona Coyotes. On the other hand, they have losing streaks of 13 games, 10 games, and are currently in the midst of a six game losing streak.
“Obviously it’s difficult”, Yeo said when explaining the lack of a response in the third period. “That’s what we’ve got to get to. Winning teams do what they did tonight. You respond after a situation like that. We have to get to the point, [and] we’ve talked about this a number of times, there’s been a number of times this season and even in these last couple weeks where we’ve been giving up goals just after a goal. Those are critical moments in the game. You’ve got the momentum. You have to reestablish it right away and get back on your horse and get back on the attack. Obviously we got on our heels right away and it ended up in the back of our net.”
Next Up: vs. WSH (2/26/22) at 12:30 p.m. ET
The Flyers are off until Saturday afternoon when they welcome the Washington Capitals (28-15-9) to town for the second time this month. Last week, the Capitals came into Philadelphia and defeated the Flyers by a final score of 5-3 thanks to a two-goal performance from forward Garnet Hathaway.
This will mark the third of four meetings between these two teams with the season series tied at 1-1. The Flyers pulled out a 2-1 win in Washington back in November.
In the season series against Washington, Flyers forward Gerry Mayhew has potted two goals. He scored both of those goals in last weeks matchup between the two teams. Forward Claude Giroux also has two assists and has registered a point in both games.
In their matchup this past November, forwards Derick Brassard and Sean Couturier netted goals for the Flyers. Both will be out due to injury when the two teams battle again this weekend.
As previously mentioned, Garnet Hathaway caused the Flyers quite a bit of trouble last Thursday night when he registered a three point night netting two goals and assisting on another. He has 19 points in 47 games for Washington this season.
It’s an obvious choice but one guy to watch out for Saturday afternoon is Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin, who is playing in his 17th season in the NHL, has 71 points in 65 regular season games against the Flyers throughout his career. In 2021-22, Ovechkin leads the Capitals in goals (31) and points (62).
Puck drop is slated for 12:30 p.m. ET from the Wells Fargo Center.
