
PHILADELPHIA – It was an eight-game golden opportunity for the Flyers to make some headway in both the division and conference standings.
But when a stretch of eight Metropolitan Division games out of nine ended on Thursday night, the Flyers’ 3-0 loss to the visiting New York Islanders left Philadelphia’s record at 3-4-1 for that key segment.
The defeat dropped the Flyers, who suffered their second straight shutout loss, back to seventh place in the division with a record of 23-24-6, leaving them just two points ahead of the last-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
The defeat, another example of the Flyers’ rocky play this season, might have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. After the game, word broke the Flyers had traded for Calgary forward Andrei Kuzmenko in exchange for forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee (see sidebar).
It was a long night for the Flyers who now have failed to score a goal in a total of 120 minutes, 15 seconds going back to Monday’s home game against New Jersey.
Coach John Tortorella probably could have used Kuzmenko in this game.
“We’re getting chances, we just haven’t been able to finish,” he said. “Third period we had a couple odd-man rushes, we really got nothing accomplished.”
When teams get in a scoring rut, they often say they’re gripping their sticks too tightly. Sean Couturier went along with that premise.
“I think for some of us, yeah,” said Couturier, who has just one goal in his last 17 games. “Especially me. I feel like I’ve got quality chances at key moments in a game where we have a chance to take the lead. . .it’s frustrating. At least I’m getting chances. Just got to stick with it.”
The Islanders, who jumped the Flyers in the standings by winning their sixth straight game, scored twice in the second period to take a 2-0 lead as the Flyers failed to put together a cohesive attack.
New York scored at 10:02. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale (for the season now a minus-23) stood in front of goaltender Ivan Fedotov and that screen allowed Simon Holmstrom to connect on a long shot.
Then at 17:08, Kyle MacLean made a nice rush down the slot and fed Marc Gatcomb for his first goal of the season.
Meanwhile, the Flyers couldn’t solve New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin who raised his career record against the Flyers to 11-3-2.
The first period had no goals but plenty of action.
First, Scott Laughton needed only four minutes, 51 seconds to go after Maxim Tsyplakov to avenge the Islander’s cheap-shot hit on the Flyers’ Ryan Poehling back on Jan. 16.
Poehling hasn’t recovered from that blow and remains on injured reserve. Tsyplakov received a three-game suspension, which didn’t end in time for last week’s Flyers-Islanders game.
Laughton put a pretty good beating on Tsyplakov but to his credit, the Islander stood his ground and didn’t turtle up or quickly fall to the ice.
Later in the period, defenseman Adam Pelech was guilty of a high stick, which bloodied Travis Konecny’s mouth. Pelech got a double-minor on the infraction.
The Flyers thought they scored when Matvei Michkov’s long shot went through a screen set by Morgan Frost and into the goal at 14:05. But Sorokin claimed interference, the Islanders made a formal protest and after review, the goal was disallowed.
In the third period, the Islanders upped the lead to three when Kyle Palmieri sent a shot past Fedotov at 9:53.
At the final horn, the Flyers skated off the ice to a mild chorus of boos.
“It’s tough,” Laughton said. “We got shut out two games in a row. I thought Sorokin saw the puck way too much tonight. Didn’t get enough traffic on him. He’s an elite goalie. When you don’t get enough traffic on him, it’s tough to score.”
>Michkov sits again
It wasn’t the first time rookie Michkov has been sat down for a period or two and it won’t be the last. On Thursday night, he only saw just over eight minutes of action before Tortorella pulled the plug.
“Like I’ve said before with him, we are so far ahead of the process,” the coach said, “with him being here. And that continues, even tonight. I’m trying to teach him how things are done, how things are done here. It’s for the right reasons because we care about him.”
>Lines shuffled
With Owen Tippett out of the lineup due to injury in Wednesday night’s game at New Jersey, the lines underwent some significant changes.
Bobby Brink was pulled off the Noah Cates-Tyson Foerster line and put with Frost and Farabee. Couturier centered Michkov and Anthony Richard. Rodrigo Abols returned to the lineup and centered Laughton and Garnet Hathaway.
>Tortorella milestone
Tortorella coached his 1,600th game in the NHL. On Wednesday night in New Jersey, Tortorella passed Ken Hitchcock for seventh place on the all-time list. Tortorella needs only eight more games to pass the great Al Arbour (1,607) for sixth place on the list.
>Short shots
The Flyers have Friday off, practice Saturday, then head for Colorado for a game against the Avalanche on Sunday afternoon. Then they go to Utah for a game against the Hockey Club before heading home. . .The Islanders jumped both the Flyers and New York Rangers into fifth place in the Metropolitan.