Flyers allow two shorthanded goals in fifth straight loss

The Flyers have sure looked like a team in the midst of a rebuild. 

Falling to the Capitals 4-1 on Tuesday night, the Flyers have now dropped five straight after winning their season-opener. They’ve scored one goal on home ice, getting shut out by Vancouver in their home opener.

Sam Ersson hasn’t been the issue as he looks like the goaltender from the beginning of last season. The stats may not show it, but he’s a large reason this team isn’t getting completely blown out each night. 

The penalty kill has also been a bright spot and was again on Tuesday night. The unit went 5-for-5 on the kill. They are currently third in the league with a 88.5% effective rate.

The power play, at times, has also produced early in the season. But on Tuesday night, it did everything but help the Flyers.

Capitals score two shorthanded goals 

It wasn’t a good night for a majority of the Flyers skaters, but Egor Zamula had one of the roughest nights of all. Philadelphia went on the power play a little over two minutes into the game, a good chance to take momentum right away. It ended up giving the Capitals momentum instead.

Zamula couldn’t control a bouncing puck at the line as Nic Dowd poked the puck away. Skating in on the breakaway, he was able to get a backhander around Ersson for the first goal of the game. A goaltender isn’t exactly expecting to face high-danger shots on their own power plays.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only shorthanded goal that Washington was able to score. As Pierre-Luc Dubois’ slashing penalty was winding down, Bobby Brink turned the puck over in the Capitals zone. With Zamula on the wrong side of the ice Andrew Mangiapane was able to score the second shorthanded goal of the evening.

It was a hole the Flyers would not be able to dig themselves out of. Brink was benched during the third, finishing with the second lowest ice time. Zamula had the third highest ice time for defensemen so despite his rough plays, he survived.

Travis Sanheim scores first home goal

It took a long time for Flyers’ fans to hear if the team had a new goal song for the season. Getting shutout in Vancouver and through two periods against the Capitals, it was fair to wonder if another game would go by without scoring.

Travis Sanheim decided to change that. 34 seconds into the third period, Sanheim gave the Flyers momentum and cut the deficit to 2-1. Off a pass from Cam York at the blue line, Sanheim skated into open ice and fired a shot from the face off dot. 

And by the way, the goal song has not changed.

With newfound energy, the Flyers had a shot to get right back into the game. Unfortunately, John Carlson had something to say about it. Jamie Drysdale carried the puck behind the Washington net and all the way out to the point before Dylan Strome poked it off his stick. Drysdale did a nice job in recovering, not allowing the Capitals to transition quickly.

But a Carlson shot deflected off the skate of Zamula and past Ersson to completely deflate both the crowd and the Flyers’ bench.

The Capitals added one more goal in the third by Jakob Chychrun to ice the game.

No rest for Philadelphia though as they are right back at it against these same Capitals on Wednesday night. Game time is scheduled for 7:30.