On a night when they played one of hockey’s best teams, the Flyers wanted to show they are still a close-knit club despite some recent controversy.
They gave the high-powered Edmonton Oilers all they could handle on Wednesday night before falling short in a 3-2 overtime loss at Rogers Place. Evan Bouchard scored at 47 seconds of overtime for the game-winner. The Flyers are now 0-6 in OT this season.
Zach Hyman scored twice for Edmonton and goaltender Tristan Jarry got the win. The Flyers are 1-1-2 after four games on this five-game road trip.
The Flyers came from behind from a 2-1 deficit in the third period when Travis Sanheim scored at 11:42 off a nifty sideboard rush.
The late comeback was a big positive, according to coach Rick Tocchet.
“Really good hockey game, really proud of the guys,” he said in a televised postgame interview. “More focused, more diligent. Getting more guys involved. Overtime is something we have to figure out. But that was the only negative for me. For me, the whole game was a real positive.”
Did the Flyers have something to prove in this game, given all the outside noise the past couple days?
“I think so,” Tocchet said. “I mean you get tired of hearing that stuff. What’s happened is maybe a good thing for us, a little adversity. And now we need some guys to keep buying in. We need our bench and that’s what happened tonight.”
Noah Cates, who did a nice job creating traffic in the crease on the Sanheim goal, indicated the Flyers were playing with a little more purpose.
“I liked our effort, a lot of shots,” Cates said. As for the Sanheim goal, he added, “Great net drive by him. We jammed away and I think we need a little more of that.”
Cates said the mood in the locker room has been upbeat, despite what people might think.
“Positive energy in the locker room I think,” he said. “In the tunnel before the game we’re having fun. When you have that positive energy, it’s a lot more fun to play.”
Edmonton got on the board first at 4:13 of the second period. Hyman cornered a rebound off the end boards and shoveled back toward the net before goaltender Dan Vladar could get over to cover.
Hyman scored again on an Edmonton power play when he shoveled a puck past Vladar at 14:03 with Oliver Bonk in the penalty box. Connor McDavid picked up an assist on the goal giving him at least a point in each of his first 20 games of the season.
The Flyers narrowed that margin on a power play of their own at 16:49. Tyson Foerster fired from the lower right circle to cut the edge to one.
Edmonton is now 14-3-3.
The Flyers looked sharp in a scoreless first period which actually was a plus for the visitors. Edmonton entered the game with a plus-14 for first periods this season, which is tops in the NHL.
Also, the Flyers had a 13-6 edge in shots.
Keeping McDonald off the goal-scoring board was important.
“We had to be on him, it takes a team effort to stop a guy like that,” Foerster said in a televised first period interview. “I thought we played well that period.”
As for his own play, Foerster is looking a bit more confident. And then he connected in the following period.
“Just keep shooting, got to hit the net more,” he said. “I had a couple good looks and hopefully one will go in soon.”
>Couturier’s take
Captain Sean Couturier weighed in on some of the developments of the past few days, including the Matvei Michkov-Nick Seeler “conversation” on the Flyers’ bench during Monday night’s game in Vancouver.
Like his teammates, Couturier downplayed the incident, saying it happens a lot more often than outsiders know.
“Listen, we’re here to win some hockey games and focus on our group,” Couturier said. “I mean it’s outside noise, we don’t control what’s being said in the media.
“Since I’ve been here (15 years), if I listened to every rumor that’s out there I’d have been traded 20 times.”
Couturier was asked if the Flyers’ room is still a tight group.
“We’re still tight,” Couturier claimed. “We’re still playing for one another. We control what’s in this locker room. We know we have a lot better hockey in us. We’re going to come back to the way we played last year. Hopefully figure things out.”
When asked about the Seeler-Michkov incident, Couturier could only grin.
“Some people try to make a story out of nothing,” Couturier said. “You know the number of times I got into it with (Jake) Voracek or (Claude) Giroux. . .we probably would have been shipped out 10, 20 times.
“It’s normal. Emotions are part of the game. You want to voice your opinions when you think you can help your team. It’s all part of hockey, all part of a team sport. ‘Seels’ is a team guy, he’ll do whatever he can to help his teammates. I think it’s just two competitors voicing their opinions.”
>Short shots:
Sanheim’s goal moved him into third place on the Flyers’ alltime defense scoring list. He now trails on Mark Howe and Eric Desjardin on that list. . .Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen returned to action and was paired with Seeler. With Ristolainen back in action, David Jiricek was scratched. . .The Flyers complete the road trip with a game at Columbus on Saturday. . .Up front, Michael Bunting played a second straight game and skated on a line with Christian Dvorak and Owen Tippett. . .The Flyers’ Noel Acciari suffered an upper-body injury midway through the game and did not return to action.
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