The Philadelphia Flyers dropped another road game, this time to the Detroit Red Wings, which represented their 13th straight road loss. The 6-3 score doesn’t necessarily indicate how close the game was at one point but that doesn’t matter all that much as the Flyers fell 3-0 early in the second and then couldn’t do much with the goalie pulled twice.
On a positive note, Joel Farabee, Kevin Hayes, and Travis Konecny each had multi-point efforts. 13 games represents the 3rd-longest road winless streak in franchise history and things can turn from bad to worse in short order as the season-long road trip has only just begun.
The Flyers embarked on their longest road trip of the season as they started off in Detroit and then have to travel to St. Louis, Colorado, Nashville, and Minnesota in the next 7 days. It was also the first game after the trade deadline as they shipped out Claude Giroux on Saturday and then Derick Brassard and Justin Braun on Monday. The Flyers’ lineup was a little different tonight than in their previous game on Sunday against the New York Islanders as Mike Yeo set out a lineup with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
FIRST PERIOD
To start the game, the lines remained the same minus one centreman as Kevin Hayes was in between Travis Konecny and Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost was the second line centre between Owen Tippett and Oskar Lindblom, the fourth line consisted of Zach MacEwen, Patrick Brown, and Max Willman, while James van Riemsdyk and Cam Atkinson were without a pivot. Ivan Provorov was back with Cam York, Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim represented the second pair, while Nick Seeler, Keith Yandle, and Kevin Connauton were defensemen 5-6-7.
It was a passive start for both teams as the first 5 minutes didn’t produce much of anything. The first real pressure put on by the Red Wings ended up in the back of the net as Joe Veleno’s patient wrap-around found it’s way through a screened and interfered-with Carter Hart. Rasmus Ristolainen tried clearing the crease and closing off the end-post but instead he got in the way of his goaltender and Veleno’s patience worked to perfection. Another early goal put the Flyers on notice as they entered the game with the worst record when allowing the first goal; 4-27-4.
The Flyers couldn’t get much of anything going in the first 10+ minutes as they were barely in the offensive zone and only registered 2 shots on goal. That didn’t bode too well in tonight’s game as Jakub Vrana turned a 1 goal deficit into 2 rather quickly. After getting in the way of a Tyler Bertuzzi deke attempt, Ristolainen turned the puck over behind the net as he was double teamed by both Bertuzzi and Vrana. Ristolainen tried cutting behind the net but there was no one close by to receive his pass attempt. With a slew of bodies in front of Hart, Vrana was able to find daylight as he scored his 4th goal of the season in only his 7th game.
Down by two and with not much going on, Ivan Provorov’s aggressive offensive rush resulted in a Flyers power play as Givani Smith was called for a slash. 15 minutes into the period, down by 2, only having 3 shots on goal, and the Red Wings having the 30th best penalty kill; what a time for the Flyers to claw back in the game and cut the deficit in half. The 30th ranked power play had very little offensive zone time and only one shot on goal that came from the perimeter.
SECOND PERIOD
After forcing a turnover off the stick of Cam York, the Detroit Red Wings opened the second period with a few scoring chances before finally finishing one off on the very next shift. Lucas Raymond’s tremendous rookie campaign continued as he finished off an unbalanced one-time blast in the slot. Dylan Larkin made a seed of a pass from the point and Raymond’s slap-shot went glove side on Hart, who looked to be anticipating a blocker-side shot instead.
The Flyers thankfully stopped the bleeding a little as they scored only 25 seconds later thanks to great forechecking by the newly formed top line. Joel Farabee pressured rookie defenseman Moritz Seider in his own zone, making him swerve and zig-zag, before finally sending a quick pass to Lucas Raymond who tried making a deke that was poked away by Kevin Hayes. The Wings were trying to transition so the Flyers caught them on a 3 on 0 break, where Travis Konecny passed it to Farabee, who passed it to Hayes, who passed it back one last time to Farabee as he tucked home his 13th of the season and the first of the game for the Flyers.
The Flyers looked to have awoken after their first goal of the game as they started to create more scoring chances and pressure in the offensive zone. Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes both recorded their second assists of the period as they set up an Oskar Lindblom goal coming off the rush to make it 3-2 Detroit. Larkin’s shot from the point was blocked off by Travis Sanheim who corralled the puck in short order and set it up for Hayes to exit the zone. Larkin aggressively went for Hayes – which opened the ice even more – who chipped the puck to Konecny who had so much ice to work with. He then sent Lindblom a perfect saucer pass and he made not mistake in beating Alex Nedeljkovic glove-side.
The Flyers had several cracks at tying the game shortly after as the ice tipped in their direction for the rest of the second period. None bigger than Joel Farabee’s abbreviated breakaway opportunity with a little over 2 minutes remaining, where he tried deking Nedeljkovic before tucking it through his five-hole but the goaltender read it the whole way and shut it just in time.
All the hard-work made by the Flyers to almost tie the game after going down 3-0 was for nought as Jakub Vrana scored his second of the game with just over a minute to go. Ristolainen’s attempted saucer pass from his own zone was brought down by Bertuzzi’s stick and they were able to quickly transition and catch the Flyers flat-footed. Larkin weaving through the slot, brought over 3, nearly 4 defenders, before tucking a pass to the unmarked Vrana, who made no mistake in wiring the one-time shot past a sliding Hart.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period started at a snail’s pace for both teams, which is exactly what the Red Wings would have wanted. However, Zack MacEwen, who has done it all season long, dropped the gloves to get his team going with 13:50 left in regulation. MacEwen dropped the gloves and went after Givani Smith right as the puck was dropped and luckily the Flyers weren’t given the extra instigator penalty. 26 seconds after the fight, Detroit’s Gustav Lindstrom was called for a tripping penalty, giving the Flyers a chance to cut the deficit in half.
The Flyers power play was 3 for their last 28, 6 for their last 62, and 11 for their last 94 going into this man advantage and like the one’s before them, they couldn’t set up, create chances, and most importantly, score. The Wings intercepted a York pass with 2 seconds left on the power play which led to a 2 on 2 rush that was stopped. York actually turned it over again in the defensive zone as the Wings very nearly iced the game at the midway point of the period, Carter Hart stood his ground as the puck found its way in the blue paint for the unmarked Bertuzzi.
With 8:56 remaining in regulation, Kevin Hayes who has been arguably the best forward for the Flyers in the last 3-4 games, found himself on a breakaway in attempt to claw their way back into the game but his shot was stopped by Nedeljkovic and deflected into the safety netting. After the second commercial break, following Hayes’ scoring chance, James van Riemsdyk scored his 15th goal of the season in and around his office. After Farabee’s hard work behind the net to knock the puck loose from Marc Staal, he fed Cam Atkinson who then found van Riemsdyk all alone in the slot. The assist for Farabee represented his second multi-point effort in as many games.
With 3 minutes to go, Mike Yeo decided to pull Carter Hart but the Red Wings had the puck. It only took the Red Wings 9 seconds to quickly transition from defense to offense as Oskar Sundqvist finished off the empty net opportunity, scoring his first goal as a Detroit Red Wing in his first game. Once again, Mike Yeo’s decision to pull the goalie didn’t go his way as the Red Wings pick-pocketed the puck soon as Hart left the net with 1:11 remaining. Bertuzzi finished off the second empty net opportunity for his 25th goal of the season.
MacEwen dropped the gloves on the next face-off against Givani Smith again and just like the first scrap, MacEwen made quick work of Smith.
UP NEXT
The Flyers head to St. Louis to take on the Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday night in the second of this five-game road trip.
