
A goal, a goal, my kingdom for a goal.
Well, the original quote from Shakespeare was about a horse, not a hockey goal, but you get the idea.
Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena in Denver extended the Flyers’ scoring drought to 180 minutes, 15 minutes.
Playing with a depleted lineup, the Flyers dropped their third straight shutout game, a franchise record, and haven’t scored since there were 15 seconds left in a win over the New Jersey Devils a week ago. Avs’ goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood registered the shutout but didn’t really have to make too many difficult saves.
The Avs’ Samuel Girard opened the scoring in the second period. After a Scott Laughton near-miss, Colorado put together a three-on-two rush with Girard connecting from point-blank range past Samuel Ersson.
Colorado made it 2-0 by way of a Nathan MacKinnon power-play goal with 2:32 left in the second. Scott Laughton took the first penalty of the game for either team. Then MacKinnon ripped a shot from the left face-off dot which might have nicked off defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen’s left shinpad and past Ersson.
Incredibly, that goal ended a 43-game power-play drought for MacKinnon, who leads the NHL in overall scoring.
In a scoreless first period, the Flyers concentrated on defense. They held the Avalanche without a shot for the first 12 minutes.
Ersson has played well of late but doesn’t have much to show for it.
“I think overall my game is in a pretty good spot right now,” he said in a televised post-game interview.
Is it difficult when your team isn’t scoring and you have to play an almost perfect game to achieve any success?
“It’s out of my control right now,” he said. “It (the scoring drought) is not something I can put my focus on. It’s just a matter of time, right? Once we’re going to get one, it’s going to keep growing. I think for us it’s keep patient, keep doing good things, having belief. We’re not getting the bounces right now, but it will turn.”
Noah Cates generated a number of scoring chances. He wasn’t using a depleted lineup as an excuse.
“Whether it’s new faces or whatever, you just got to play simple,” he said. “Against a team of their caliber. At times we were doing that, other times where we weren’t. A team like that will make you pay.”
Coach John Tortorella can’t really make a fair evaluation of his squad until he at least gets a few front-line players back into action.
“Struggle scoring,” Tortorella said. As for a competitive third period, he added, “Yeah, we had the puck more. . .still didn’t develop a whole bunch. No frustration, we just go back to work tomorrow. We had some chances tonight, we just haven’t put the puck in the net.”
>Revised lineup
With the Flyers still waiting for newly acquired forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier to clear U.S. customs after a trade from Calgary late Thursday night (and Ryan Poehling and Owen Tippett still injured), there were only 11 forwards available for the game against the Avalanche.
The addition of center Jacob Gaucher from the Phantoms helped. Gaucher made his NHL debut and spent some ice time playing with veteran right wing Garnet Hathaway.
In a first-intermission interview, Gaucher said he was excited to be playing his first game with the Flyers. The whole family was energized by the sudden development.
“My first phone call was to mom and dad,” Gaucher said. “Even though it was midnight, I had to wake them up and let them know.”
About 10 members of the Gaucher extended family were in attendance in Denver for the big event.
There were no special instructions for Gaucher from Tortorella.
“No, it was more just let me go play out there,” Gaucher said. “Show what I can do, try to be intense. Finish my checks, get on my forecheck.”
On Saturday at the Flyers Training Center, the 23-year-old from Quebec took part in his first practice and said he was ready to take on the Avalanche. In 44 games with the Phantoms, Gaucher had 14 goals/27 points with a plus-1.
>Short shots
The two-game trip concludes on Tuesday night with a game at the Utah Hockey Club (formerly the Arizona Coyotes). . .The Flyers’ consecutive shutout losses to New Jersey (last Wednesday) and the Islanders (last Thursday) were the first back-to-back blankings since 2017. And Sunday’s defeat took this year’s team into uncharted waters. . .Defenseman Emil Andrae, who had a previous 20-game trial with the Flyers back in the fall, returned to the Flyers’ lineup for this game. . .Ristolainen left the game with an undisclosed issue and did not return. . .The Flyers had previously been blanked in two straight games seven times in franchise history but never three.