Before the game started the Philadelphia Flyers were given the fortunate news that both Kevin Hayes and Ryan Ellis would be returning to the lineup. Hayes was making his season debut and Ryan Ellis was returning to the lineup after missing the previous nine.
The Flyers were coming off a 2-1 victory last night against the Carolina Hurricanes, where they were lead by a spectacular performance in goal by Carter Hart. Tonight did not produce the same result as the Flyers fell 5-2 at the hands of the Dallas Stars.
Coming off another anemic offensive performance last night, the Flyers were looking for a spark offensively and had to change their lines for this one with players returning to the lineup. James van Riemsdyk joined Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier on the top line. Kevin Hayes found himself centering Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson, Travis Konecny was placed on the third line with Scott Laughton and Derick Brassard, and the new look fourth line had Oskar Lindblom going with Nate Thompson and Zach MacEwen.
On defense, Ryan Ellis was paired with Keith Yandle and the power plays were changed as well as the top unit featured Giroux, Farabee, Couturier, van Riemsdyk, and Yandle. The second unit had Hayes, Atkinson, Brassard, Ellis, and Provorov.
As expected with different line combinations, there was going to be a little bit of rust, which is what we witnessed in the first seven minutes of the hockey game. Nothing happened for both teams until the Stars capitalized with a great offensive zone shift.
They had the Flyers circling, making crisp passes, and then finally John Klingberg fired a simple shot from the point and it was deflected by Luke Glendening. It found the back of the net at 13:23 in the period.
After that it was all Philadelphia as they peppered 19 shots on goal in the first frame. Their new-look power play struggled at the start of the game but the second unit looked sharp. They were making simple plays and just getting the puck to the net. The second powerplay looked even better, but Anton Khudobin was sharp all period long making save after save.
None were bigger than the diving save to rob Travis Sanheim from a terrific cross-seam pass by Travis Konecny. The play was under review but because of the colour of his pads, it was nearly impossible to track where the puck was; it was confirmed as no goal.
Tired legs and sluggishness caught up to the Flyers in the second period as they looked incredibly flat. The Stars didn’t look any better but they had more shots, scoring chances, and incidentally goals scored. They had more of the sustained pressure in the offensive zone and after a Keith Yandle giveaway the Stars top line pounced.
Jason Robertson corralled the turnover and fired the puck to Denis Gurianov who was at the side of the net. He then deflected it to Roope Hintz in the blue paint and Hintz tipped it past Martin Jones.
The Flyers’ top line answered back with a goal of their own as James van Riemsdyk was able to get a “dirty but good” goal. Travis Sanheim did most of the work as he circled around the Stars net and tried to find a streaking van Riemsdyk, who was initially robbed by Khudobin, but received some much needed puck-luck as Glendening punched the puck into his own net.
Old habits don’t die as the Flyers allowed a goal 26 seconds after scoring one themselves. It was a problem last year and the Stars took full advantage of two Zach MacEwen turnovers. On the second turnover, the puck was bouncing a little, but Jacob Peterson danced through both MacEwen and Justin Braun to find a streaking Tyler Seguin at the front of the net. He was tied up by Ivan Provorov but the puck perfectly hit Seguin’s stick blade and found the back of the net; a third deflection goal allowed.
The third period started the same the way the second period ended. After killing off the final few seconds of a late second period penalty, Joel Farabee was called for an unnecessary interference call against Hintz. Off a neutral zone face-off, the Stars’ Alexander Radulov walked into the zone, fed Hintz who was flying in on the wing, and his shot was stopped. He followed his own rebound and threw it back to the front of the net where Joe Pavelski finished it off to make it 4-1.
The Flyers later found themselves on yet another power play, this time down three, but fortunately for them they were able to score off a blast by Provorov. Not only was it a power play goal for a club that had gone 2 for their last 29, but it came from the second unit and from a defenseman. The Flyers hadn’t received a goal from a defenseman since the second game of the season against the Seattle Kraken.
With not much time left on the power play but enough sustained pressure from the second unit, Kevin Hayes pulled out his patented no look drop pass to Provorov who unleashed a slap shot that beat Khudobin.
The goal by Provorov seemed to have woken up the Flyers as they found their legs in the third period. Both teams traded chances in the latter half of the period and with the net empty the Flyers pushed several times. An ill-advised pass by Cam Atkinson found Radek Faksa’s stick and he immediately shot it down into the empty net. It was too little too late for the Flyers.
The goal scoring woes continue for the Flyers, who have now scored just 20 goals in their last 10 games. They were bound to have a not-so-great game from their goaltender and defense, and that was when the offense needed to back them up; the same way Hart et al. have been backing up the offense this season. With reinforcements finding their way back into the lineup, it will be interesting to see how things shake up. The Flyers had a lot of good pressure in the latter half of the third period, but once again there was not enough pressure throughout the entire 60 minutes.
After a 19-shot first period, the Flyers finished the final 40 minutes with 14 additional shots. They received goals from James van Riemsdyk and Ivan Provorov, assists from returnees Kevin Hayes and Ryan Ellis, and Martin Jones stopped 25 of 29 shots. The Flyers’ powerplay finished 1 for 4 and their penalty kill was 2 for 3.
The Dallas Stars got goals from Luke Glendening, Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, and Radek Faksa. They received assists from 9 different individuals including Ryan Suter, Alexander Radulov, and John Klingberg. Anton Khudobin finished the game with 31 saves on 33 shots.
Up next for the Flyers are the visiting Calgary Flames on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center. Paul Holmgren and Rick Tocchet will be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony as well before the puck drops.
