The Philadelphia Flyers looked to snap a two-game losing streak as they faced the Arizona Coyotes on the road.
Playing in their second-to-last game on this six-game road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers traveled to Arizona to face the Coyotes at the Gila River Arena. This also marked the final time these two teams would meeting during the 2019-20 campaign, and the Flyers hoped to salvage the season-series with to the Yotes while aiming to avoid a three-game losing skid. Carter Hart got the start for Philadelphia in-net and opposed Antti Raanta on the other end of the ice. Head Coach Alain Vigneault made some lineup changes, as well, putting Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Andy Andreoff in for Mikhail Vorobyev and Chris Stewart on the forward lines.
The Flyers were having a pretty solid first period until around the eight-minute mark, nearly matching Arizona in both shots and scoring chances while playing with an extra jump in their step. Then, well, crap hit the fan. Hart had a bouncing puck get passed him for the game’s first goal and allowed another just seconds later after a shot deflected off of Matt Niskanen to gift Arizona with a 2-0 lead. Clayton Keller would go on to score the Yotes’ third tally of the period on the power-play to put his side up 3-0 following the first 20 minutes. AV replaced Hart with Brian Elliott towards the end of the frame, and I couldn’t disagree with him as the young goaltender should’ve, at the very least, stopped the initial goal.
Both teams saw a decent amount of time on each special teams unit during the second, with Philly and Arizona combining for five man-advantage chances in the period. Neither side converted on any of their opportunities, but that didn’t stop the Flyers from letting up another goal in a typical Flyers fashion, no sir! Lawson Crouse netted his ninth goal of the year with 0.3, yes three-tenths of the second left in the period to give Arizona a 4-0 lead heading into the third. Crouse put an absolutely perfect backhander on the net, finding the small seem between Elliott’s glove and the pipe for the horn-beating, top-shelf tally. You just can’t make this kind of stuff up.
I’ll save you the trouble of having to hear any more about this game and just say the Flyers lost to the Coyotes, 6-2 as Tyler Pitlick, Keller, Justin Braun, and Derek Stepan (ENG) all lit the lamp in the stanza. I don’t really have anything else to say. It really seems like this team can’t clear a mental hurdle when playing on the road. I can’t think of any other reason why they’d play so well at home then turn around and look nothing short of putrid as the visitor. Whatever the case may be, it obviously has to change fast as Philly won’t get far in the playoffs or could miss the postseason altogether if they don’t improve on road-ice.
The Flyers are now 22-15-5 on the year. They’ll close out this roadie by taking on the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.