The Flyers are once again on their way to a double digit losing streak with another loss on back to back nights, dragging the winless streak to six. While they played some good hockey, the Blues just dominated most of the game and just played like the better team.
The tell of the tape once again is giving up a goal shortly after scoring one themselves. The effort level and over all hustle was there but tired legs also played a factor. Martin Jones played a great game, giving the Flyers a chance to win this game tonight. But the GWG for Tarasenko, finding a hole in the middle of the slot, is all you need to know.
Missing empty nets, hitting crossbars and overall being snakebitten has just been the Flyers issue and finishing for them has been a chore. The only thing they can do at this point is to keep firing away and putting in the work to try to keep up in games.
1st Period
Early on the period the Blues were controlling most of the possession time. The Flyers had three great chances early. Mayhew got the puck into the zone with numbers but blew a tire going in. Willman had a great chance going with the power move from backhand to forehand but Binnington made a great pad save.
They also had a breakaway attempt by Scott Laughton who just missed putting it through the five hole of Binnginton. The Flyers had a 4-on-1 chance but Lindblom coughed up the puck at the blue line leading to a 3-on-1 for the Blues and Jones had to make a great save to keep the Flyers in this early.
With 8:10 remaining in the first period, Brayden Schenn crashed the net and found the loose puck. He smacked it home with the backhand to get the first goal of the game against his former team for his 15th of the season.
The Flyers had maybe one more dangerous chance by Travis Sanheim from a sweet pass by JVR but he missed the net in its entirety. Overall, the Blues dominated the period and controlled the pace of the game. It wasn’t so much the Flyers playing bad but more the Blues being rested and ready to go. It was clear that the Flyers played the night before and it seemed like their legs were having some issues moving all together.
The stats for the period were pretty evened out. The Blues and Flyers each had 10 shots on net. The Flyers had an edge in the faceoff circle, winning 56.5% of the draws. The Blues out hit the Flyers 6-5 but the Flyers had an edge in blocks with 6-3. The Flyers also had 5 giveaways and 1 takeaway with the Blues having 3 giveaways and 2 takeaways in a sloppy not so sloppy period.
Period 2
For the most part of this period, the Flyers had a lot of fast break chances but could not finish. They had trouble setting up as the Blues once again just dominated the pace the of the game. It was back of forth more but the Blues still seemed to posses the puck more, but the Flyers were much more active with their sticks.
With 6:28 remaining in the second period, Sanheim gets called for hooking penalty. While it appeared that Perron held his stick, it was a veteran move to draw the first penalty of the game to put the Blues on the power play. We saw shades of the Flyers PK from early on in the season, disrupting the passing lanes, having good body position and overall anticipating where the puck was going to end up.
The Flyers got a power play for their first of the game with 1:30 remaining in the period. They got some really good looks and really good passing on the power play. In what seems to be the tale of the season, Claude Giroux had an empty net on a beautiful cross crease pass from Konecny with a little less then 12 seconds remaining in the period and just missed the open net.
The stats for the second period were a little more in the Flyers favor outside of shots on net. They were outshot 11-7, but bumped up their faceoff percentage to 61.1%. They threw 11 hits to the Blues 5 and the Flyers also had 6 more blocks to the Blues 3 in that period. They had 2 giveaways to the Blues 3 and the Blues had 2 takeaways to the Flyers 1.
Period 3
To no lack of effort once again by the Flyers, they were just absolutely snake bitten. Crossbars, missing the net, bad bounces. It just doesn’t seem to end. They played extremely well early on in the third.
With 11:43 remaining in the period, all their effort and hard work paid off with a beautiful snipe by Oskar Lindblom to put it through traffic. It was a confident shot by a confident player. In typical Flyers fashion, though, they got scored on 42 seconds later on a goal by Tarasenko.
MacEwen drew a tripping call in front of the net for the team to go on their second power play of the game. They seemed to be buzzing at this moment and had some decent looks but the Blues PK had an answer and took the air out of the sails of the Flyers power play as well.
With 52 seconds left, the Blues put home the empty netter after JVR lost the puck after taking a high hit against the boards. They had some chances with Jones pulled and again pulled Jones to try to get one more goal. However, Provorov made an absolutely lazy pass that was picked off and the woes continue for the Flyers, dragging this to six straight losses.
The big players have absolutely been invisible and tonight it was Provorov and Atkinson. Provorov looked tired and may need to get less time. It is time for the pairing of Ristolainen and Sanheim to take the next step for the Flyers to help give Braun and Provorov some time off.
The process that Mike Yeo keeps talking about seems to be coming but it is just going to come too late as the season at this point is out of hand. This homestand was a big turnaround for the Flyers if they could have won at least 10 or 11 of these 14 games before March came running, but this losing streak is the nail in the coffin.
They’ll have some time off and can maybe put something together but meaningless hockey is being played once more here in Philadelphia.