Photo Credit: Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports
It had been eight days since the Flyers defeated the Winnipeg Jets by a final score of 3-1 in their final game before the All-Star Break. With that win, the Flyers secured their first win in regulation since Dec. 14 and gained at least a little bit of momentum headed into the break.
Last night, they took on a Detroit Red Wings team that was very much in the same boat. Detroit last played back on Feb. 2 suffering a 5-3 loss to the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.
One team was ready to play from the drop of the puck. That team wasn’t the Flyers.
“We were playing some good hockey before the break,” Flyers forward Scott Laughton said following the game when asked if he was surprised the effort wasn’t there. “It seemed like we were watching too much tonight. They were making plays around us and [we were] spending too much time in our d-zone and then you can’t get out of the zone and have energy to go on offense. Definitely frustrated”
The Flyers winning streak came to an end at just two games. They haven’t won three games in a row since December (Dec. 10 – Dec. 14) when they beat the Vegas Golden Knights, Arizona Coyotes, and New Jersey Devils.
The Red Wings had their legs early. The Flyers on the other hand didn’t. An early holding penalty on Travis Sanheim gave Detroit an early opportunity on the man-advantage.
Forward Dylan Larkin, who looked to be attempting a pass, got a lucky bounce off of defenseman Ivan Provorov that ended up past Carter Hart and in he back of the net. Not even three minutes in, Detroit had a 1-0 lead.
While the Flyers kept themselves in the game thanks to a few quick responses shortly after allowing a goal against, the Red Wings prevailed in the end hanging on to earn their first regulation win in Philadelphia since 1997.
Pretty much every area of the Flyers game was lacking execution. The result was an ugly loss in which the Flyers looked as if they lacked effort.
“We didn’t have any response all game really to be honest with you,” Flyers head coach Mike Yeo said when asked where the response was in the third period. “We were lucky to be down by one goal at that point. Hartsy [Carter Hart] obviously kept us in it there for a large portion of the game. But still, I think that was kind of the message in between periods. We recognized that we weren’t good but [that] there’s still an opportunity here and clearly we didn’t grab it. We’re going to have to regroup here. This is obviously a disappointing game. You go into the break feeling good about kind of where we were going and clearly that game did not match our expectations , so now we have to respond to that.”
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Right from the get-go the Flyers were in scramble mode. Much of the night they found themselves defending loosely in front of the net having to rely on Carter Hart to come up with big save after big save. Four of the Red Wings six goals came from the slot area in close proximity to the Flyers netminder.
Puck management was also a major issue for the Flyers. Much of the night they found themselves back on their heels defending in their own zone. In the third period, Detroit held an 8-5 shot advantage. Overall, Detroit outshot the Flyers 34-24 and recorded 29 scoring-chances-for as opposed to the Flyers 17 scoring-chances-for.
The power play was also a major issue for the Orange and Black. The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play and still looked very out of sorts at times. New assistant coach John Torchetti was in charge of the powerplay for the first time last night since joining the Flyers organization. Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider put on a clinic on the penalty kill skating around the ice with the puck killing time off of the clock.
On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers will have a chance to redeem themselves against this same Red Wings team in hopes of of evening up the season series at one win each. Puck drop is set for 12 p.m. ET time from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit
“Just respond,” Yeo said following practice when asked about what he’s looking for in Saturday afternoons rematch with the Red Wings. “I think that results are one thing. Obviously were always chasing here and winning hockey games is something that were always chasing, but one of the things we’ve been trying to build here is a consistent work ethic, a consistent game, and those things were nonexistent. Those things are always in your control. The attention to detail, just the desire to want the puck, to support the puck, to win your puck battles, and just your overall competitiveness. We have to get that back to a level that we thought it was headed in the right direction towards, so lets show that last game was not who we are.”
