The Philadelphia Flyers have now lost 4 straight games and 8 of their last 10 as they lost another 6-2 game, this time against the Vancouver Canucks.
Arturs Silovs claimed his first NHL victory tonight as he backstopped the Canucks with his 35 saves, Elias Pettersson scored 2 goals and added 3 assists, Luke Schenn had 2 primary assists, and Flyer-killer Anthony Beauvillier scored 2 goals in the first 40 minutes. Scott Laughton redirected a Justin Braun point-shot to tie the game late in the first and Morgan Frost scored a power play goal to cut the deficit back to 1 late in the second.
Phil Di Giuseppe scored a backbreaking goal to give the Canucks a 2-goal lead midway through the third period before Pettersson scored 2 shorthanded empty net goals in the final 2 minutes. Carter Hart was not at his best as he stopped 17 of 21 shots fired his way, Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim were reunited and – contrary to the popular song – it didn’t feel so good as they were responsible for the first 2 goals against. Travis Konecny was the lone bright spot in tonight’s loss as they slightly improved from their Seattle drubbing, but were unable to solve the rookie goaltender when it mattered most.
After one of their worst performances of the season, the Philadelphia Flyers came into tonight’s tilt against a Vancouver Canucks team looking for some answers of their own. The Flyers lost back to back games to the Seattle Kraken but none more difficult to watch than their 6-2 drubbing on Thursday night. They had 1 shot on goal in the first period, only 10 shots after 40 minutes, and by the time they started firing pucks at the net the game was well out of reach. Head coach, John Tortorella, was a man of few words postgame and brought back a similar lineup that ended the game against the Kraken with a few tweaks.
Nicolas Deslauriers was on the wing with Noah Cates and Travis Konecny opposite him. Joel Farabee was with Morgan Frost and Patrick Brown, and Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton, and Owen Tippett were the final trio, as the Flyers went with 7 defensemen again. James van Riemsdyk and Wade Allison were the pivot-less duo as Justin Braun returned to the lineup with only 3 games to his name since the 22nd of December. Carter Hart returned in goal with Samuel Ersson as his backup with the Flyers embarking on their 2nd game in 6 days with a back-to-back on the horizon on Monday and Tuesday.
As for the Vancouver Canucks, they have been a tire-fire this season and some can argue that the tank is on. They fired Bruce Boudreau, brought in Rick Tocchet, traded captain Bo Horvat, and have players like Brock Boeser, Thatcher Demko, Luke Schenn, Conor Garland, and Tyler Myers on the trade block ahead of the trade deadline. Similar to the Flyers, they entered tonight’s game on a 3-game losing streak, winners of 3 of their last 10, and were 3-5-1 under Tocchet. Arturs Silovs got the start, playing in only his second NHL game after allowing 5 goals in their 6-4 loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. The Canucks were also without Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tanner Pearson, Curtis Lazar, Travis Dermott, Ilya Mikheyev, and Thatcher Demko. We were either going to see a barn burner with the high-octane offense of the Canucks but porous defense (71 goals scored versus 95 goals against in their last 22 games) or we were in store for another snoozefest out west.
FIRST PERIOD
7 minutes into the first period, the Vancouver Canucks tried to take advantage of the Flyers’ new lines and their lack of chemistry. Justin Braun and Travis Sanheim looked completely out of sync with each other, got in their own ways, and turned the puck over several times in the defensive end with the Canucks firing 4 shots towards Carter Hart – many of them being of the dangerous variety.
Nicolas Deslauriers, Morgan Frost, Travis Konecny were also hemmed and skating in circles for a shift that lasted close to 100 seconds. Fortunately they survived the shift and went the other way creating their best chance of the game at the 11 minute mark with Konecny coming down the wing and firing a shot labelled for the top corner that Arturs Silovs shouldered away.
Newly-acquired Anthony Beauvillier opened tonight’s scoring after deflecting a Luke Schenn point shot that travelled through a maze of bodies and past the glove of Hart after the pairing of Sanheim and Ivan Provorov failed to clear the puck.
It started with Sanheim trying to send a stretch pass from his own zone but it was batted down in the neutral zone before the Canucks raced back and Elias Pettersson was stoned on a one-time opportunity. Hart made the save but Provorov failed to properly handle the rebound as his clearance attempt was corralled by Pettersson, he then quickly fed Schenn at the point whose shot was eventually tipped in by Beauvillier for his 12th of the season and 3rd as a member of the Canucks at the 14:24 mark of the period. The goal also represented Beauvillier’s 11th career marker against the Flyers in his 26th game.
1:32 later, Justin Braun tied the game with a similar play that led to the Canucks goal – a shot from the point with traffic in front of the net. Silovs got a piece of the shot but it trickled past his arm and into the net for Braun’s first of the season and first point of the season, with Patrick Brown and Joel Farabee getting the assists. Braun’s initial shot was blocked but he corralled his own rebound, skated along the boards before firing his shot from the faceoff dot.
The goal was eventually charged to Scott Laughton as he got a faint tip before it got past Silovs for his 13th of the season.
With 12 seconds remaining in the period, the Flyers jumped on a J.T. Miller turnover right in front of his goaltender but Konecny’s shot rang off the crossbar, keeping the game tied heading into the first intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
The newly re-formed pairing of Sanheim and Provorov bit the Flyers yet again as Andrei Kuzmenko finished off some pretty passing just under 2 minutes into the second period for a 2-1 lead. It all started when Provorov lost the puck at the blue-line in the offensive zone, and as the Canucks gained possession they raced into the Flyers zone and even though the Flyers survived the first wave, they lost control of the puck before the neutral zone, which allowed the Canucks to race back in.
They had the Flyers hemmed in for awhile and while Provorov had a few cracks at getting the puck out of the zone, he failed to do so, which allowed Elias Pettersson to do what he does best as he set up Luke Schenn with a cross-seam pass before the veteran forced Hart to play him aggressively and come out of his crease before zipping a pass to Kuzmenko who had a yawning cage to shoot at for his 24th of the season. The Canucks kept coming in waves and almost made it 3-1 when Beauvillier’s shot rang off the post but bounced out, fooling even the man in charge of the goal lights.
With 6:29 remaining in the second period, Travis Konecny was called for the first penalty of the game, a tripping minor much to the chagrin of the fiery forward. 4 seconds into the power play, Elias Pettersson ripped a slap-shot from the point that was eventually deflected by Beauvillier that beat Carter Hart blocker-side. J.T. Miller won the faceoff cleanly, Quinn Hughes quickly passed it to Pettersson for the slap shot – the winner of the hardest shot competition at the All-Star Skills Competition – that was tipped in the slot, which fooled the goaltender who looked rather perplexed as the puck got past him.
It was the 2nd goal of the game for Beauvillier, his 13th of the season, 4th as a Canuck, and 12th against the Flyers. Pettersson recorded his 3rd assist of the game to add to his team-leading 69 points.
As good as the Canucks’ power play may be, they possess the NHL’s worst penalty kill and are well on their way to the worst penalty kill in NHL history with a lowly 65.6% success rate. Luke Schenn was called for a roughing minor with 2:44 remaining and it only took the NHL’s worst power play unit 12 seconds to get on the board with a scrum in front of the net that led to a Morgan Frost tally.
It started with a faceoff win before Tony DeAngelo set up Owen Tippett for a one-time blast that was initially stopped by Silovs only for Konecny to jump on the loose puck and fire a shot of his own. His shot may have been stopped but Frost was able to finish off the play by poking the puck over the line as a scrum ensued in and around the crease for his 11th of the season. Similar to last game, Konecny was the most noticeable and driven Flyer all night as he entered the third period with 6 shots on goal and several scoring chances to boot.
40 seconds after Schenn was called for a penalty, Provorov was then whistled down for a tripping minor with 2:04 left on the clock. Scott Laughton, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Rasmus Ristolainen were hemmed in their own zone for almost the entirety of the power play with only Laughton getting to the bench with 16 ticks remaining. Konecny had a good scoring chance shorthanded to start the kill but then Canucks 10th ranked power play were zipping passes, changing formations, and firing shots at will. Fortunately the Canucks were kept to the outside and missed most of their more dangerous chances but Hart held the fort down with tired bodies in Orange and White gasping for air. The period ended with the Flyers throwing 12 shots towards Silovs compared to the 4 that reached Hart and the Flyers entered the final 20 minutes with a 22-15 edge.
THIRD PERIOD
With 9:56 remaining in regulation, the Vancouver Canucks scored a backbreaker of a goal thanks to Phil Di Giuseppe. It initially looked like Hart had the puck covered as he stopped and corralled Brock Boeser’s wrist shot from the slot, however the puck was loose and available at the toe end of his pad, which allowed Di Giuseppe to push it past Hart as the referee was right on top of the play for his second of the season.
With 3:31 left in regulation, Tortorella pulled Hart for the extra attacker and then with 2:22 remaining, the Canucks were whistled down for a high sticking minor, courtesy of Di Giuseppe, which prompted a timeout for Rocky Thompson to draw up a play with 2 extra skaters. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to win the draw and even more unfortunate was that they weren’t able to set up when they reentered the zone. The Flyers were sloppy and lost the puck in the middle of the zone, which allowed Pettersson to backhand it towards the empty net and as fate would have it, it was a bullseye for his 26th goal of the season, 4th point of the game, and 70th point of the season only 24 seconds into the man advantage. The Flyers decided to pull the goalie again down 3 goals and Pettersson scored his 2nd empty net goal in 76 seconds – this one with 41 seconds left in the game.
The losing streak continues for the Flyers who had their chances in the third period when the score was 3-2 for Vancouver, but were unable to solve Arturs Silovs as he collected his first career NHL win in his second start.
UP NEXT
The Flyers visit the Calgary Flames on Monday in a Family Day/Presidents’ Day matchup, depending where you live, as they continue their road trip at Scotiabank Saddledome.
