They can change who stands behind their bench but the Flyers can’t seem to change the outcome.
There have been three different men running the show the past three games but the outcome has been the same: Another loss.
On Tuesday night, the Flyers continued their experiment with various personalities in charge — to no avail.
This time it was assistant coach Rocky Thompson, who stood and watched the Flyers lose to the Blues, 4-2, at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
The Flyers put together another spirited rally with goals in the third period from James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Frost. Too little, too late.
Previously, the Flyers had lost with associate coach Brad Shaw calling the shots on Saturday night in a 6-3 loss to Buffalo.
On Sunday night, head coach John Tortorella returned to his normal role but the Flyers dropped a 4-2 decision at Pittsburgh.
And then came the game against the Blues. The Flyers couldn’t find their legs early and lost their fourth straight (0-3-1) after winning four in a row.
Goaltender Samuel Ersson, filling in for the injured Carter Hart, didn’t get much defensive support. Meanwhile, Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington picked up the win.
Thompson said he wasn’t too pleased with the way his team performed at the outset.
“I didn’t think we competed at all from the very beginning,” Thompson said. “Sometimes it’s not just competing up ice, it’s competing in your own end. And I thought we were sitting back. We just weren’t working at all. I thought some individuals were just going through the motions. Fortunately for us, it changed. But it was too little, too late.”
Both van Riemsdyk and Frost indicated the Flyers took a little too long to get their engines going.
“Definitely not the best start,” JVR said. “It just didn’t seem like we were sharp executing, particularly with the puck. When you’re defending a lot, things are going to happen.”
Frost added: “I would say the first period and a half or the first two periods, that wasn’t us. The way we’ve been playing, that was really flat. Kind of no energy, we weren’t moving our feet. You dig yourself that kind of hole, it’s tough to get rid of it.”
The Blues received goals from Jordan Kyrou, ex-Flyer Tyler Pitlick, Justin Faulk and Alexey Toropchenko.
Kyrou scored at 5:53 of the first period thanks to a Noah Cates giveaway.
It was more of the same in the second period. Pitlick found himself on a semi-breakaway and made no mistake with a hard shot past Ersson’s glove at 5:04.
Then Faulk made it a three-goal edge by scoring from the slot at 8:26.
St. Louis thought it had a fourth goal but the Flyers challenged and won the appeal on an offsides call.
The Flyers finally got on the scoreboard at 5:51 of the third period when van Riemsdyk tipped a Nick Seeler shot into the net. It was JVR’s 299th NHL career goal.
Then Frost scored at 12:43 to cut the margin to one. It was Frost’s 19th goal of the season. St. Louis scored an empty-netter with 32 seconds to play.
Tortorella’s plan is to give some of his staff a chance to work behind the bench but so far the experiment hasn’t been too successful.
>Short shots
The Flyers return to action on Thursday when they visit the Dallas Stars for the third game of this four-game road trip. . .Cates had an apparent goal disallowed at 4:06 of the third period. He appeared to push the rebound of his own shot across the goal line with his glove.
