While the Flyers might not be one of the higher scoring teams in the NHL, they usually find a way to get a goal or two.
Not on Monday night.
After getting through the first quarter of their season schedule without a shutout loss, that’s exactly what happened to the Flyers in their game, their 21st overall of the season, at Tampa Bay.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy did the honors as the Flyers dropped a 3-0 decision at Benchmark International Arena. It was Vasilevskiy’s sixth career shutout win vs. the Flyers. Only New Jersey Devils’ Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur tops that number.
Sam Ersson played one of his better games of the season in goal for the Flyers but came away with the tough-luck loss.
Both head coach Rick Tocchet and captain Sean Couturier admitted the Flyers were off their game.
“There were plays to be made, we just didn’t,” Tocchet said in a televised postgame interview. As for the defensive side of the game, Tocchet didn’t put blame on his backliners. “Odd-man rushes, that’s not on the ‘D.’ The second period we had eight (defensive) odd-man rushes. That’s on the forwards, not on the ‘D.’ They have talented players and they had numbers.”
Couturier put some of the blame on his line.
“I think the difference was our line was inconsistent without the puck,” Couturier said. “We need to be better, it cost us two goals tonight.”
The Flyers certainly had their offensive rhythm on Saturday when they scored six goals against New Jersey. Two nights later, nothing.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, what kind of game we play,” Couturier said. “We have to be ready to play and find ways to win. We have since the start of the year. Battled our way back but tonight we weren’t able.”
A coverage breakdown led to Tampa’s second goal with four minutes to play in the second period.
The Flyers were slow getting to their defensive zone as Nikita Kucherov found himself open in the left circle. No one came back to cover Anthony Cirelli in front for what resulted in an easy tap-in for the Lightning attacker.
Jamie Drysdale said his team allowed too many scoring chances. Ersson was under siege much of the night.
“More chances than we would like, they’re a dangerous team,” Drysdale said. “They were tonight. They came with speed right from the gate. Pushed us back a little bit for sure. Odd-man rushes here and there. They played faster than us.”
For the eighth straight game, the Flyers allowed an opponent to score first.
This time, the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel set up shop in front of the Flyers net with defenseman Emil Andrae trying to provide coverage. The whole skirmish wound up producing a screen in front of Ersson, who couldn’t get a look as Emil Lilleberg’s point shot nicked off Hagel’s leg into the net.
The Flyers entered the game with a record of 8-4-2 when an opponent scores first.
During a first-intermission televised interview, Owen Tippett said the Flyers had a few adjustments to make, specifically continuing to work on “not backing up.”
“Just need to know what’s coming behind you,” Tippett said. “Obviously we want to get back as fast as we can. Just make sure we know where we are. We just have to clean things up. Support the puck a little bit more and try to execute plays.”
Hagel added an empty-net goal in the final minute to finish the night with three points.
>For Deslauriers, size doesn’t matter
Early in the game, Nic Deslauriers dropped the gloves with Curtis Douglas, who just happens to go 6-foot-9, 242 pounds. Deslauriers (6-foot-1, 220) more than upheld his honor and wound up getting in the final punch which put Douglas on his back and Deslauriers looming him over him.
>Short shots
The Flyers have Tuesday off, then complete the Florida segment of the four-game road trip with a stop at the Panthers on Wednesday night. . .Tampa was without the services of star forward Brayden Point and three of its top four defensemen. . .Travis Sanheim played his 600th NHL game, all as a Flyer. He is sixth on the team’s all time list for games played by a defenseman.
The Flyers entered the game with a .750 home winning percentage, tied for third-best in the NHL. . .Tyson Foerster’s two goals in 17 seconds on Saturday night vs. New Jersey are the fourth-fastest in team history. Ron Flockhart holds the franchise record at eight seconds (Dec. 6, 1981). He’s followed by Jeff Cartner’s 13 seconds (Jan. 8, 2008) and Ron Sutter’s 15 seconds (Feb. 17, 1986).
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