The Philadelphia Flyers have now lost back to back games since coming out of the All-Star break, after the Detroit Red Wings completed the home and home sweep today. The Red Wings won today’s matinee 4-2 after beating the Flyers 6-3 on Wednesday.
The Flyers fired a lot of rubber towards Thomas Greiss, who was playing in his first NHL game in well over a month. The Red Wings, who were outshot 34-23, were by far the more dangerous and dominating team, which isn’t a surprise considering the injury toll that has risen in the last 24 hours for the Flyers.
Yesterday the Flyers and Chuck Fletcher announced that Sean Couturier’s season was officially over after successfully going under the knife for a season-ending back surgery. Additionally, a Kevin Hayes operation is highly likely and they are awaiting news from Ryan Ellis in the next week or so regarding an operation for his lower-body ailment. If that wasn’t bad enough, Derick Brassard and Rasmus Ristolainen missed today’s matinee; it’s the third time this season Brassard has re-injured himself the very same game he made a return to the lineup.
FIRST PERIOD
Severely shorthanded again, trying to avenge their loss on Wednesday night, and to split the home and home, the Flyers did themselves no favours as they once again sagged in the defensive zone and produced very little offense. The Red Wings’ second line of Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, and Pius Suter, who tormented the Flyers on Wednesday, opened the scoring 5:36 into the game.
In the offensive zone, Claude Giroux had his pocket picked behind the net by Danny DeKeyser. They were fighting for the loose puck but the Red Wings quickly jumped on it and with quick crisp passes got it out of the defensive zone. All 3 Wings forwards had a hand in the outlet and the goal as Bertuzzi found Suter who sent it up towards Fabbri as they exited the zone.
As they entered the offensive zone Bertuzzi passed it to Fabbri in the slot, he danced around several Flyers and sent a perfect pass from the face-off dot towards the crease to Bertuzzi, who was barely defended by Kevin Connauton. Carter Hart, who was ambushed early by the Wings offense and lack of Flyers defense, didn’t really have a chance at making the save once Bertuzzi made a beeline towards the net, coupled with Connauton’s lackadaisical effort.
The Flyers played a little better in the first period than their performance from Wednesday night, as the forecheck was much improved, which was something head coach Mike Yeo focused on in practice. However, that was about it for the Flyers even if they outshot the Red Wings 13-9. Most of their opportunities came from the outside or were very easily handled by goaltender Thomas Greiss, who played in his first game since January 9th.
The Red Wings had the better pressure, the better chances, and almost doubled their lead at the end of the period on a breakaway by Vladislav Namestnikov. Ivan Provorov pinched, Justin Braun sent a few shots well wide, and a failed jump at the blue-line aided Namestnikov’s bid for a second goal in as many games but Carter Hart shut the five-hole and kept the deficit to 1.
SECOND PERIOD
Awarded a power play because of some unnecessary roughing by Givani Smith at the end of the first period, the Flyers fired 5 shots on goal, were in the offensive zone for most of the man advantage, and actually looked dangerous. Greiss stopped them all, including 2 great pad saves on James van Riemsdyk in and around his office in the blue paint. The Flyers continued that relentless pressure as the Wings didn’t register a shot until the 7 minute mark of the second stanza.
Trying to the tie the game at the midway mark of the second period, Travis Sanheim made a move on a Red Wings defender and wired his shot but was blockered away by Greiss. The rebound bounced to van Riemsdyk in the corner who whipped a pass back into the slot to Sanheim. Instead of shooting it this time he made a pass trying to find the stick blade of Connor Bunnaman for a tap-in goal. However, Marc Staal legally defended the play perfectly and Larkin was able to scoop the loose puck.
After Larkin located the puck and used his speed to get out of the zone, it was poked away by Claude Giroux who followed him brilliantly, however Filip Zadina was behind Larkin the whole time. Even though Giroux poked it away, the puck found Zadina’s stick and he wired a beautiful wrist shot past Carter Hart, who was screened by Nick Seeler and Gerry Mayhew. They were inches away from a tie game, but it heartbreakingly turned into a 2-0 deficit on the ensuing rush.
The Flyers, who had started the second period with 7 shots in the first 4 minutes, in large part because of the power play, sagged completely after the Wings recorded their first shot of the period at the 7 minute mark. The Red Wings took all the momentum and even when the Flyers looked their most dangerous, they forced the Flyers to turn the puck over and scored on the ensuing rush.
With just over a minute remaining in the period, Scott Laughton found himself on a breakaway but Thomas Greiss made yet another ridiculous pad save. Fortunately, Laughton was hooked and impeded by Marc Staal and the Flyers found themselves on the power play with a chance to cut the deficit in half.
Laughton was all over the power play and with 7.5 seconds left in the period, his initial pass which was slightly impeded by Namestnikov, found its way to Keith Yandle who ripped a slap shot past Greiss with Isaac Ratcliffe serving as the perfect screen. It was Yandle’s first goal of the season and as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers but equally as important was the screen by the 6’6” rookie, who didn’t allow Greiss the light of the day to see the shot or the puck, as Yandle was able to walk in and blast his shot.
THIRD PERIOD
5 minutes into the third period the Flyers were awarded another power play, this one with the chance to tie the game against the NHL’s worst team in the final frame. Pius Suter was called for tripping but the Flyers, unlike their previous 2 power plays, failed to really capitalize on the opportunity with scoring chances. 17 seconds after the power play had ended, Ivan Provorov was called for goaltender interference, representing the first penalty called against the Flyers.
The Red Wings were in the Flyers zone for the entirety of the power play that lasted 1:40 after a Moritz Seider wrist shot goal found its way through a very screened Carter Hart. The power play was all over the penalty killing unit of the Flyers, hitting the post, taking several shots, and forcing the Flyers to turn it over as well, including one on Sanheim that directly led to the goal. He tried to turn his body to get a better chance to clear the puck but in doing so turned it over to Lucas Raymond.
Raymond, Larkin, and Seider passed it around before Seider’s first shot was stopped by Hart. The rebound went into the corner for Larkin to corral it and find Seider again who wristed his shot beautifully around Laughton and then through a maze of defenders.
On the ensuing play, Gerry Mayhew found himself on a breakaway that Greiss stopped again but after the save, Mayhew tripped over his stick and crashed hard and awkwardly into the boards. Bleeding profusely, the play was stopped and there was a delay as Jim McCrossin jumped over the boards to lend a hand.
44 seconds after the Seider goal and shortly after the injury to Mayhew, Laughton cut the deficit back to one as he was able to jump on a loose puck in the blue paint. Laughton forced a turnover in the neutral zone, passed it behind him to Ivan Provorov who sent it back up to Laughton with a perfect outlet pass. As they entered the zone, Laughton fed the puck to Travis Konecny who took a harmless wrist shot that snuck through the arm of Greiss and rolled into the blue paint for Laughton to tuck home.
On the next face-off, Konecny was robbed by Greiss on his bid to tie the game, really putting the pressure on the Red Wings but that was cut short as the Flyers were called for another penalty. The Flyers killed the penalty but then conceded an empty net goal shortly after to Michael Rasmussen that iced the game away.
After winning back to back games before the All-Star break, the Flyers have lost their last 2 games since, both at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings. They have now lost 15 of their last 17 games as they now embark on an 11-game gauntlet against some of the NHL’s best teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
