PHILADELPHIA – The word disconnect is one you don’t want to hear when you walk into a professional hockey team’s locker room.
When it applies to the way a team is playing, it implies the desired five-man unit is not working in concert. Play can be disjointed and that’s not a recipe for success.
But the D-word was used quite a bit by Flyers players in describing Sunday night’s disappointing 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
The final score was actually quite misleading. The Flyers trailed by a 4-1 score until the final two minutes when the Canadiens took their feet off the gas pedal.
Montreal pretty much put this one away in the second period when they scored three goals and didn’t allow any.
It was not exactly the kind of welcome the Flyers wanted for goaltender Aleksei Kolosov, who was called up from Lehigh Valley on Saturday night and made his first NHL start a night later.
The Canadiens, who had played Saturday night in St. Louis while the Flyers slept at home after an afternoon win over Minnesota, were rude guests in this one-sided affair.
Only a pair of late goals by Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny made the score look closer than the game really was.
The Flyers, who remain in last place in the Metropolitan Division and have the fewest points in the Eastern Conference, completely fell apart in a sleepwalk second period. They were outscored and simply outplayed. They took bad penalties, turned pucks over and looked a step slow even though they had the rest advantage.
“A little disconnected in our game,” said Scott Laughton. “We have to start supporting pucks better. Go back to what made us successful last year. Getting in on the forecheck, winning battles, getting it up high, putting pucks on net and then we recover from there.
“We don’t have to do it all in one shift. No one’s coming to dig us out of this. It’s the guys in the room. We have to figure this out quick. We’ve got a lot of runway left but we’ve got to figure it out.”
Defenseman Travis Sanheim scored two of the three Flyers goals and echoed what Laughton said about a disconnect.
“I don’t know, we’re just not working as a group,” Sanheim said. “Last year the reason we were so successful was it was five-man units. Every line had an identity, we were working hard. Teams are aware of the success we had last year doing that.
“It’s just getting back to the basics. We just need to simplify, put our heads down, go to work, get to the dirty areas. Last year we were throwing pucks from awkward angles, getting those rebounds. Just not seeing that right now.”
Brendan Gallagher started the Montreal second period scoring parade when a shot was deflected past Kolosov at 4:48. Then Cole Caufield connected on a wrist shot during a power play at 12:48.
Finally, Jake Evans found himself open deep in the left circle and he buried a shot before Kolosov could guard the near post at 16:01.
That said, the Flyers put little of the blame for this loss on the netminder.
“I thought he did a great job for us,” Laughton said.
Garnet Hathaway was also asked why the Flyers haven’t been able to replicate what they did to make themselves so successful last year.
“You could see from last year we just had that flow from our own zone,” Hathaway said. “There were guys playing roles, understanding how that worked together. I think the disconnection comes when you’re trying to create something instantly.
“You want something to work right away. We were great on the rush (last year), we wore teams down with offensive possession. This year it’s probably the other way. I would say that’s the disconnection.”
Kolosov held his own in the first period as the Canadiens managed some good pressure but scored only one goal.
That came at 10:42. A mid-range shot by Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble was stopped but Nick Suzuki gathered up the rebound and shoveled it back into the net.
The Flyers got that one back on a goal by Sanheim. The defenseman unloaded a point shot which made its way through a Joel Farabee screen and past goaltender Cayden Primeau at 17:24.
In the third period, Sanheim scored again on a solo rush with 2:12 to play. Then, with the Flyer net empty, Konecny scored to get the Flyers within a goal.
Coach John Tortorella wants his team to get back to playing as a tighter-knit unit moving up the ice.
“We’re just not in ‘five,’ you need to play up the ice in ‘five,’ it not only helps you defensively but offensively,” the coach said. “We’re just not playing in the five. It’s something we have to continue to work at.”
Coaches often talkabout ‘the gap,’ meaning the distance between the forwards and the defense. Here, it sounds like there’s too much spacing practically everywhere.
“We have so many guys who are struggling offensively, it’s tough to generate,” Tortorella said. “We have to continue to work on our structure. We just have to keep our wits about ourselves and continue to work on our game.”
>Short shots
The Flyers resume action with a game at Boston’s TD Garden to play the Bruins on Tuesday night. . .Hathaway was fined the NHL-maximum fine of $5,000 for elbowing Minnesota defenseman Joel Eriksson Ek during Saturday’s game at the Wells Fargo Center.
Flyers head team physician Dr. Gary Dorshimer celebrated 40 years with the Flyers. Team president of hockey operations Keith Jones and general manager Daniel Briere presented Dorshimer with a Tiffany’s Crystal, a team-signed jersey and a bottle of Silver Oak wine in pre-game ceremonies.
Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler played in his 300th NHL game.
