Philadelphia Flyers Put on Embarrassing Performance in Loss vs Stars

The Philadelphia Flyers hoped to avoid a second consecutive shutout as they traveled to Dallas to take on the Stars.

Looking to snap a three game losing streak coming in, the Philadelphia Flyers hit the road to face a Dallas Stars team who were hoping to clinch themselves a playoff spot in the Western Conference with a win.

Cam Talbot received the start and opposed Anton Khudobin in-net. Khudobin came into the game playing lights out, with a 2.49 Goals-Against Average and a .925 save percentage. The Flyers needed to bring a better effort on both sides of the puck if they wanted to achieve victory over Dallas.

The first period could not have started any worse for the Orange and Black. Talbot gave up the game’s first goal less than two minutes in, on the first shot he saw no less. Shortly after the goal from Jason Dickenson, Samuel Morin took a penalty and put Philadelphia on the penalty-kill. The Stars took advantage, as Esa Lindell netted his 11th tally of the year to put his team up 2-0. Talbot really shouldn’t take the blame for these goals, even though they came on the first tow shoots he faced. They were both impressive shots and the Flyers defense did him no favors with their coverage in front of him.

Oskar Lindblom helped the team avoid another shutout early on in the second, cashing in on a lone puck in front to put the Flyers within one. Philadelphia received a man advantage later on and Shayne Gostisbehere tied the game at two with his famous one-time blast from the point. The Flyers comeback hopes would be short lived, though, with two horrible defensive displays that gave the Stars a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes of work.

The Flyers opened the period taking not one, but two penalties within five minutes of the puck dropping. Thankfully, the penalty killing unit was able to kill off both power-play opportunities to keep the deficit at two. What happened after that, you might ask? A lot of pain and suffering. Dallas completely blew the game open and eventually won, 6-2.

It’s more than clear the Flyers have phoned this season in. I get that some of the bounces didn’t go their way but goodness gracious do they need work defensively. I said in my preview article that if the Flyers mimicked their performance from the matchup with New York, they’d get blown out, and that’s almost exactly how things went. I can’t really say anything else about this contest. It was just bad. Put it in rice.

The Flyers are now 37-35-8 on the year. Next game is Thursday against the St. Louis Blues in Craig Berube’s return to Philadelphia as Head Coach of the team.