A horrific first period filled with turnovers and breakdowns, sporadic goaltending play and a pair of disallowed third period goals combined to send the Philadelphia Flyers down to a 5-4 regulation road defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.
The Flyers dug themselves a 3-0 hole in the first period and never quite drew even despite playing much better over the final 40 minutes as they got their skating legs moving. Philadelphia reduced the gap to 3-2 in the second period only to go to the second intermission trailing 4-2. The deficit grew to 5-2 before the Flyers scored two goals that counted and two that were disallowed.
Dion Phaneuf (power play, 3rd), Mark Borowiecki (1st), J-G Pageau(shorthanded, 1st), Mark Stone (6th) and Tom Pyatt (2nd) scored goals for Ottawa.
Jakub Voracek (1st goal, one assist), Travis Konecny (2nd goal, one assist), Ivan Provorov (2nd goal, one assist) and Sean Couturier (7th goal, two assists) scored goals for the Flyers. Shayne Gostisbehere added his 11th assist of the season.
Michal Neuvirth made some tough and important saves in the latter portion of the game but was leaky for much of the game as the Flyers collectively dug a deep hole for themselves. He finished with 23 saves on 28 shots. Craig Anderson stopped 36 of 40. The Flyers' 40 shots on goal were among 70 total shot attempts; 21 of which were blocked. The first period was largely a continuation of the horrific Thursday blowout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Philadelphia got outplayed in almost every area of the game, and fully deserved to go to the intermission staring at a three-goal deficit.
With Brandon Manning in the penalty box for a needless slash behind the offensive net, Couturier lost a defensive left circle faceoff. The puck was worked back to Phaneuf at the point. With layers of screens obstructing his vision, Neuvirth never tracked the puck at all. The wrist shot beat him to the long side at 1:31.
The Sens took a 2-0 lead at 9:31. Robert Hà¤gg lost the puck in a battle behind the net, there was a failed clear, Voracek lost a coverage and an attempted pass across was accidentally deflected into the net by a Travis Sanheim desperation lunge in an effort to break up the play. Borowiecki was credited with the goal.
A Flyers neutral zone turnover by the second power play unit, a Karlsson pass to Pageau and a shot from the left circle using Provorov as a partial screen built a 3-0 lead for Ottawa on a shorthanded goal. It was the second SHG allowed by the Flyers this season. Although he was partially screened on the release, this was a save Neuvirth needed to make.
Philly got a friendly bounce off a defender in front as Voracek got his first goal of the year to cut the gap to 3-1 at 14:30 of the second period. Quickly, the Flyers cut the gap to a single goal at 15:23 as Konecny was sprung by Gudas on a short breakaway and snapped a shot over Anderson to make it a 3-2 game.
Apart from the two goals, the Flyers skated much better and also played with more of a sense of structure after a disorganized opening 20. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the gap grew back to two goals as Stone scored on a spin-o-rama backhander at 17:37.
Some frustration started to set in for the Flyers at times in the third period after Tom Pyatt scored to make it a 5-2 game at 10:33. At 11:38, a Manning point shot found its way into the net and was initially ruled a good goal. Upon challenge by Ottawa, however, the goal was overturned for goaltender interference.
On the play, Jordan Weal skated through the blue point and it appeared that Anderson initiated glancing incidental contact before Weal vacated the net. It was just enough to trigger rule 69.3, whereby the goal was disallowed after the referee reassessed it on replay. The call could have gone either way, but there was NHL Rule Book justification depending on the judgment call that was made based on the replay. Even if it were argued that Anderson initiated the contact, the rule still could be used to justify a no-goal decision.
Going back to the disallowed goal, this was the relevant section of the NHL Rule Book section on goalie interference. pic.twitter.com/FP5LVPqwQu
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) October 27, 2017
At 11:45, Gudas was booted from the game on a charging major and game misconduct. The call appeared to be an overreaction, as it did not look like all that bad of a hit. Tempers continued to flare, and much of the ensuing time was actually spent at 4-on-4 due to penalties on Borowiecki (roughing in response) and later on Karlsson (slashing at 13:38).
At 15:18, during 4-on-4 play, Provorov pinched in on the left side, moved to his right and hammered home a shot to cut the gap to 5-3. Konecny and Couturier got the assists. At 18:14, Couturier (who was earlier denied point blank on a rebound) got into position over the middle and wickedly deflected a Gostisbehere shot past Anderson to make it a one goal game.
On the next shift, Valtteri Filppula had a point-blank chance of his own near the left post but was stoned by Anderson. With 56 seconds left, the Flyers created a scramble near and behind the net. The puck was moving the whole time and was eventually jammed at by Couturier into Anderson's glove --- which was entirely over the goal line.
The sequence was viewed on replay and then deemed non-reviewable because the referee had already lost sight of the puck and had decided play was dead, although he had not yet blown the whistle. Two major problems with this explanation: 1) it was the wrong call in the first place because the puck wasn't covered and 2) the "intent to blow the whistle" iron-clad status was removed a couple years ago to be retractable if a replay shows a "good hockey" goal (see tweet embed below):
The "not reviewable b/c intent to blow whistle" is nonsense.... that was changed a couple years go. pic.twitter.com/4Kq8I3MbSl
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) October 27, 2017
In other words, this was absolutely a reviewable sequence and there was a clear-as-day look that showed the puck was in continuous motion and not possessed by Anderson until it went into his glove inside the net. Ottawa would likely have not even protested much had the call been reversed because it was so clear-cut.
The Flyers kept pressing 6-on-5 but ran out of time.
NOTES:
1) Nolan Patrick did not play in the game after practicing on Wednesday. Officially, he is day-to-day with an upper body injury.
2) Gostisbehere and Provorov repeatedly switched sides throughout the game, with Provorov playing the right side quite a bit early but the two switiching repeatedly. Technically, Gostisbehere was the right defenseman on the pairing. The other two pairings started out with rookies Robert Hà¤gg and Travis Sanheim (who struggled mightily) together and Manning with Gudas were switched by the second period and Sanheim was used sparingly as the game moved along.
3) Dating back to March 1 of last season, Patrick Kane (30 in 30 games) is the only NHL player with more points at even strength than the Flyers' Couturier (27 in 28 games).
3) The Flyers return to action on Saturday night when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.