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Wrapup: Flyers Skid Continues in 4-2 Loss to Oilers |
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When a goaltender has a .938 save percentage on a given night but yields three goals and is charged with a regulation loss, it tells the tale of a long night spent mostly in the defensive zone. Sure enough, the Philadelphia Flyers wasted a 45-save performance by Michal Neuvirth to go down to a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night at Rexall Place.
The Oilers outshot the Flyers by a 49-22 margin and out-attempted the Flyers by a whopping 87-41. Somehow, the Flyers entered the third period leading 3-2 before the Oilers rallied for a pair of closely spaced even strength goals and a late empty-net tally.
Neuvirth, who could not be directly faulted on any of the three Edmonton goals, deserved a better fate. The rest of the Flyers team did not. Neuvirth gave the team a chance to win, making 36 saves through the opening 40 minutes alone.
The loss was the Flyers' fifth in a row (0-4-1) and dropped the club's season record to 4-6-2. The Oilers, who have made a habit in recent games of recovering from scoreboard deficits, improved to 5-8-0. On this night, the Oilers battled back from losing superstar rookie Connor McDavid to a shoulder injury as well as staying patient while Neuvirth robbed them on odd-man rushes and point blank chances to finally create a few self-made lucky bounces that resulted in the tying and winning goals.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored power play and empty net goals (fourth and fifth of the season) for Edmonton. Taylor Hall scored the game-winner for his sixth goal of the season and assisted on both Nugent-Hopkins tallies. Just activated from the injured reserve list, Matt Hendricks tied the game with his first score of the season shortly before Hall won it.
Philadelphia scored the only two goals of the middle frame, temporarily taking a lead for the first time since a short-lived 1-0 edge in the second period last Thursday while getting outplayed on home ice by the New Jersey Devils. Scott Laughton (second goal of the season) and Ryan White (first) got the goals. Winning goaltender Anders Nilsson made 20 saves for Edmonton.
Over the course of the last five games, the Flyers have been outshot by a combined 192 to 139 margin (40-33, 33-28, 36-28, 34-28, 49-22) yet their goaltenders have put them in position four of five possible times to come away with either one or two points had they won a third period by a single goal. That's what happened in the first game of the winless streak but they Flyers have been outscored by a combined 10-3 in third periods. The Flyers have yielded empty net goals in three of the last four games, but did score at 6-on-5 to steal a point in the first game of the skid.
On Tuesday, Neuvirth nearly got the Flyers through the first period unscathed from a frame in which they were outshot by a 19-2 margin. In the final four seconds of the frame, however, Edmonton cashed in the back end of a four-minute power play created by Brandon Manning taking two separate minor penalties (interference with Eric Gryba and high-sticking Hall).
The Oilers had three cracks at the puck until Nugent-Hopkins finally scored. The sequence started with Neuvirth making an initial save on Hall's left circle shot through a Rakdo Gudas screen (an attempted but failed shot block) but not quite being able to absorb the puck. Poked away by Teddy Purcell went to a wide open Nugent-Hopkins, who hit the post with half a net staring at him. Leon Draisaitl then got to the puck, but his angle from just behind the goal line was impossible so he slid the puck back to a still-open Nugent-Hopkins, who banged the puck over the goal line from the door step just ahead of Neuvirth at the 19:54 mark.
Throughout the sequence, the Flyers' penalty killers were more or less spectators. They neutralized nobody's stick, let alone clearing the porch or being quicker to the puck. Even the initial rebound was not Neuvirth's fault, as Hall was able to use Gudas as a partial screen and weave a shot between the defender's legs as he tried to stretch out to look for a block. Neuvirth did well to make the initial save but needed some help from his teammates thereafter and got none.
The Flyers tied the game at 1-1 on the opening shift of the second period. As with Edmonton's first three goals, this was a case of self-made good luck.
On a solid forechecking sequence Laughton pounced on a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle after an initial swing-around shot by Matt Read (second assist of the season) was kept alive by the skate of Wayne Simmonds (fifth assist). From a somewhat flat angle, Laughton fired a seeing eye-shot that found room on the short side under Nilsson's blocker-side armpit at the 36-second mark.
At 12:59, the Flyers took a 2-1 lead. Once again, it was a case of a team creating its own good fortune. With Chris VandeVelde taking Gryba to the net and jostling for position near the doorstep, the defensemen careened into the crease and into Nilsson's pad just as a White slap shot from the top of the right circle arrived at the net. The puck then found the back of the net. Gudas and Neuvirth got their respective first assists since joining the Flyers.
The second period was the Flyers' best of the three, even apart from the two goals. They still yielded too much defensive real estate and had breakdowns canceled out by Neuvirth but at least there was some energy, push-back and some stretches of territorial control. Edmonton ended up outshooting the Flyers by a 17-13 mark but trailing where it mattered.
The Flyers killed off a latter-period delay of game penalty on Neuvirth. The goalie was cited for roaming out of his net and diving on top of a loose puck with a pair of Edmonton players nearby.
With 1:45 left in the second period and the Flyers on the power play, McDavid attemped a short-handed counter rush after getting the puck away from Del Zotto high in the defensive zone. Gathering the puck and skating up the ice, McDavid attempted to go wide on Brandon Manning. Met by Manning and Del Zotto, McDavid slid heavily shoulder-first into the end boards. He got up under his own power, holding his left shoulder and left the game.
The initial word on McDavid's condition was not encouraging: he will be out for a prolonged stretch with a shoulder injury.
In the third period, Edmonton took the play to the Flyers once again, outshooting Philly by a 13-7 margin. The easy excuse that the Flyers were a fatigued road team playing the second end of back-to-back games and the Oilers were a rested team home team did not wash. Every Flyers player but R.J. Umberger (9:41 of ice time) skated at least 11 minutes of ice time and no one had as much as 21 minutes (Del Zotto led with 20:57).
The Flyers put themselves off on the wrong foot quickly in the third period just as they came out flat in the first. The serially undisciplined Gudas took a slashing penalty early in the frame. Although Philadelphia killed off the 5-on-4 and blocked three of four Edmonton shot attempts, they had to expend considerable energy to do so.
There was no further special teams play in the game. The Flyers finished 4-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play.
Edmonton kept right on attacking. It finally paid off at 6:13. A shot by Andrej Sekera deflected (possibly off Del Zotto) behind the net and quickly came right out in front to an open Hendricks on the other side, who buried a shot just ahead of a sliding block attempt by Streit and before Neuvirth could get over to cover.
Just 1:27 later, the Oilers went ahead to stay. Edmonton started out deep in its own end and rushed nearly the entire length of the ice through porous defensive coverage. Hall did most of the heavy lifting, weaving his way around pylon-like defenders. With the Oilers once again sending traffic to the net at will, Hall put a backhanded shot toward the net from the right circle.
A low-danger routine save suddenly became massively dangerous when it deflected off Del Zotto's skate directly in front of the net and severely changed direction. Neuvirth had no chance after it changed direction. Draisaitl and Gryba got credited with the assists.
Neuvirth made several additional good saves to give the Flyers a chance to rescue at least a regulation tie, but it wasn't to be. The Flyers pulled the goaltender for an extra attacker late in the third period, and the night finished with one final piece of frustration.
Jakub Voracek, still goalless on the season despite ranking among the NHL's shot on goal leaders, had a one-timer opportunity from the right side that he hurried to get off before the lane closed. The puck missed the net and was recovered by Hall, who passed it to Nugent-Hopkins for what turned into an uncontested slam dunk at the 19:17 mark.
The Flyers return to the ice on Thursday for their third road game in four nights. The schedule is not conducive to working on things at practice, so the team will have to try to fix their issues on game night. The Flyers' road trip concludes on Saturday in Winnipeg. The Oilers will have the next two nights off. The Pittsburgh Penguins pay a visit to Rexall Place on Friday.
Defenseman Evgeny Medvedev was sent back to Philadelphia prior to the game. Officially a healthy scratch on Monday, the team announced on Tuesday that the Russian defenseman had an upper-body injury and would undergo further evaluation. In better medical news, there seems to be a good chance that center Sean Couturier (concussion) will be ready to return to the lineup in Calgary after missing the last six games.
The Flyers do not currently have enough cap space to recall a player if Medvedev misses additional time and needs to go on injured reserve. If Couturier is ready to go, they could return recent recall Chris Conner (a healthy scratch in favor of Vincent Lecavalier in both Vancouver and Edmonton) to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. In that case, Philly could recall veteran defenseman Davis Drewiske, who is the lone notable Phantoms defenseman whom the Flyers would have sufficient cap space to recall even if forward Conner is sent back to the AHL.
It will also be interesting to see which goaltender Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol tabs to start on Thu. Tossing out number one goaltender Steve Mason's second start, which was played under extremely difficult personal circumstances and turned into a fiasco on the ice, he's played OK (2.79 goals against average, .916 save percentage) but has not truly settled into a groove yet after a strong preseason. Meanwhile, Neuvirth has been stellar during the season after a rough preseason.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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