Losing Streak Extends To Four As Philadelphia Flyers Lose To Stars

The Philadelphia Flyers kicked off a two-game homestand against the Dallas Stars.

Following a blow out loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the Philadelphia Flyers played host to the Dallas Stars hoping to right the ship and snap a three-game losing skid. Carter Hart received the start from Head Coach Alain Vigneault, opposing Ben Bishop in-net for Dallas. Hart was looking to regain some confidence after allowing four goals on 16 shots against Edmonton and not let the poor showing in front of his hometown crowd get the best of him.

The Flyers got off to a quick start, as Sean Couturier scored just 43 seconds into the first period to give his team a 1-0 lead. The top-line combination of Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, and Couturier put on a beautiful passing display on the rush and into the offensive zone, leading to Coots’ second goal of the season. Philadelphia started gaining momentum as they applied more pressure in the Stars zone, but Roope Hintz put a stop to it, dangling his way passed Matt Niskanen and tying the game at one. Hart was able to make the initial save on Hintz, but the Finnish Forward stuck with the play, corraled the rebound, and found the back of the net.

Dallas went on to take a 2-1 lead thanks to a power-play goal from Esa Lindell, who took a tremendous shot-pass from Denis Gurianov and deflected it by Hart for his first on the year. There wasn’t much Hart could do on the deflection given how perfectly placed Gurianov’s pass was, even seeming surprised when he saw that the puck was behind him. Chris Stewart dropped the gloves with Jamie Oleksiak to try and provide a spark to the Flyers offense but failed in his efforts as the score stayed at 2-1 after 20 minutes of action.

The second period was borrrrrriiiiinnnngggggg. While the Flyers held the Stars to just one, yes, one (1) shot on goal through the entire frame; they put only eight on net themselves, which isn’t the best type of production you want from your offense, who also had a power-play to work with. I liked seeing the defense tighten up a bit, but man, it was a hard period of hockey to get through.

Corey Perry doubled the Dallas lead to begin the third, netting his first goal as a Star with a backhand shot from the slot to make it a 3-1 affair. Perry out-skated Oskar Lindblom to get himself into position and roofed the puck off of a pass from Hintz. Philadelphia kind of tried to get back into the game? I mean, they were putting a lot of shots on goal, but not a whole lot of them were very dangerous. Dallas eventually put the game away with an empty-netter, snapping their five-game losing streak in the process.

I really don’t know what to say about this one. The Flyers once again out-shot their opponent and even held Dallas to five freaking shots in the final 40 minutes, but still found themselves on the losing end of things. Players have to start finishing on their chances sooner rather than later because they’re essentially meaningless if the puck doesn’t eventually find twine, though most of those chances weren’t in the threatening areas of the ice tonight.

The Flyers are now 2-3-1 on the season. Next game is Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights.