Philadelphia Flyers shutout by Kinkaid, New Jersey Devils 3-0

The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New Jersey Devils looking for their tenth victory of the 2018-19 season.

Coming off a disappointing 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New Jersey Devils looking to bounce back from the failed comeback attempt on Tuesday night.

James van Riemsdyk returned to the Flyers lineup for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on October 6th. He replaced Jori Lehtera, who was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. Radko Gudas was also a late healthy scratch before puck-drop, as Head Coach Dave Hakstol inserted Andrew MacDonald into the teams’ defensive line-up. The team later announced that Gudas was out of the game due to an illness.

Brian Elliott received his fourth straight start in-net for Philadelphia. He opposed Keith Kinkaid for the Devils. Kinkaid had a 7-5-1 record coming into the match-up with a 2.80 Goals-Against-Average and a .911 save percentage.

The game kicked off with Travis Sanheim catching iron with a point shot that may have deflected off van Riemsdyk, but the puck stayed out of the net. The same couldn’t be said for forward Joey Anderson, who beat Elliott for his first NHL goal and gave the Devils an early 1-0 lead. Scott Laughton nearly tied the game up after hitting the second post of the period for the Flyers. Kinkaid didn’t look very confident to start, and was lucky to get bailed out by the goalpost twice.

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Pavel Zacha took the games’ first penalty with a hooking minor, giving Philadelphia their first power-play. Shayne Gostisbehere seemingly scored on a shot from the point, but the goal was waived off due to “incidental contact” on the goalkeeper. New Jersey eventually killed the penalty off and play returned to even-strength. Sami Vatanen took a tripping penalty later on, and put the Flyers on their second power-play of the opening period.

Nolan Patrick and Travis Konecny both caught iron on the man advantage but couldn’t get the puck passed Kinkaid as New Jersey killed the Vatanen penalty off. That was the fourth time the Flyers caught the post in the opening stanza, as they entered the second period down 1-0. Christian Folin took a tripping penalty with just 3.7 seconds to go, leaving Philadelphia shorthanded for 1:57 minutes to start the second.

The Flyers started the second killing off the remaining power-play time from the Folin penalty. Folin almost scored on a breakaway coming out of the box, but Kinkaid stood tall and made the save. Ivan Provorov took a high sticking penalty soon after, putting Philadelphia back on the kill. Elliott made three big saves and kept the deficit at one as the Flyers killed the penalty off.

Mirco Mueller took a tripping call, providing the Flyers with their third man advantage of the game. The team was 0-for-2 to start and hoped they would finally earn that first goal on the night. Those hopes were crushed with the power-play unit again struggling to find the back of the net and the game stayed at 1-0. Konecny created two scoring chances on the following shift but Kinkaid said no, keeping Philadelphia goal-less through two periods of play.

Play returned to even-strength to begin the third after Patrick and Jesper Bratt each took penalties late in the second, which put the teams on 4-on-4 hockey for two minutes. Dale Weise drew a tripping penalty and once again gave the Flyers a chance to even things up on the power-play. That didn’t happen, as Philadelphia struggled to get set-up in the offensive zone and couldn’t convert the 5-on-4 opportunity.

Hakstol tried to get the offense going by changing up the line combinations, placing JvR with Patrick and Jakub Voracek on the second line. This worked to some degree, but wasn’t what the Flyers were looking for as Oskar Lindblom hit the fifth post of the game for the Orange-and-Black. Not being able to score in this game came back to haunt the Flyers, as Kyle Palmieri netted his 11th goal of the year and put New Jersey up 2-0.

Elliott appeared to injure himself attempting to make the save, and Calvin Pickard entered the game with just under six minutes to go. The Flyers pulled their goaltender with 3:40 to go, but allowed an empty net goal to Blake Coleman to win the game for New Jersey at 3-0.

This is the third time the Flyers have been shutout this season and the second time at home. They must find a way to score consistently on their home ice if they want to have a successful year.

The Flyers are now 9-9-1 on the season. Next game is Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.