Philadelphia Flyers lose to the Ducks in ugly fashion

The Philadelphia Flyers played like butt tonight. Except for the first line, nobody looked good, or even decent. It was a collective butt effort by the Orange and Black tonight and it showed in the box score.

1st Period

You wouldn’t be able to guess that the Philadelphia Flyers held a 12-6 shot edge at the end of the period. Except for the 1st line, the Flyers had a hell of a time getting the puck out of their end. Too many times the Flyers were forced to dump the puck into the neutral zone, with the result of the Ducks bringing it right back into the Flyers end.

Sean Couturier continued his strong play, making a nice move in close against Ducks’ goalie John Gibson to score the opening the goal.

Other than that there weren’t a lot of positives in that period.

2nd Period

The second period was more of the same from the Flyers, with many failed zone exits and sloppy play in the neutral zone. But the most important story of the 2nd period was the injury to Nolan Patrick.

As you can see in the video above, Patrick’s head violently hit the boards. He struggled to get back up and was eventually helped to the locker room. He didn’t return and his status for Thursday’s game is up in the air. Really hoping the kid is okay.

The Ducks second goal came courtesy of a Brandon Manning brain fart and Travis Konecny getting caught flat-footed. Witness the carnage below.

Giroux, clearly frustrated, committed a nasty trip that led to a powerplay goal for the Ducks, their third.

And the hits kept on coming as Robert Hagg lost Rickard Rekell at the far side of the net leading to the Ducks fourth goal of the evening.

The bloodshed finally ended as the Flyers were served up a five on three power play which they failed to score on. Then, thankfully, the second period came to a close.

3rd Period

The Ducks scored again. Their fifth of the night.

Couturier, Voracek, and Travis Sanheim linked up for the Flyers second goal, which happened to be Couturier’s 200th point and Voracek’s 500th. It also was Sanheim’s first NHL point.

The Ducks got a goal right back though after Provorov had his shot blocked and then committed a penalty – albeit a weak one – that led to a penalty shot. Of course, the Ducks converted it. 6-2.

Closing thoughts

Woof. There isn’t much to say that would express how piss-poor this team looked tonight. The Flyers were a disaster in the neutral zone, constantly fumbling the puck, leading to Ducks chances.

This recap wouldn’t be complete though without mentioning how bad the Flyers were at exiting their own zone tonight. Good grief, it was hard to watch. Maybe you could chalk some of the failed exits to the Flyers new-look defensive pairings, but there were just too many to count. The Flyers simply could not figure out the Ducks forecheck. They were suffocated in their own end.

Next: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Ducks Preview: No AMac, no problem?

The Flyers will look to regroup Thursday when they take the ice against the Ottawa Senators.