Familiar Flyers Script in 4-1 Loss to Blues
The Philadelphia Flyers remain winless since the NHL All-Star break, following a 4-1 defeat at the hands of St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday evening. The Flyers are 0-4-2 in six games since the break.
Brayden Schenn (15th goal of the season) opened the scoring at 11:50 of the first period. The second period was scoreless. In the third period, Oskar Lindblom (8th) tied the game at 8:01 only for Vladimir Tarasenko (19th) to restore a Blues lead at 8:51. Ivan Barbashev (16th) added an empty net goal in the final minute, followed by a Brandon Saad (17th) empty netter.
Martin Jones stopped 22 of 24 shots in a losing cause. Jordan Binnington turned back 25 of 26 Flyers' shots.
The Flyers followed an all-too-familiar path to defeat. They battled back to the game at 1-1 in the third period, only to give up a goal on the very next shift, and never drew even again. There were a few golden scoring chances that could have been game-changers -- a Scott Laughton breakaway in the first period, an open-net look on the power play late in the second period for Claude Giroux -- that were not finished off.
It was not a lack of work ethic in this game or any of the previous four. Phily simply ran into a better hockey team again and didn't navigate their very slim margin for error. The Flyers were somewhat outplayed in the first period and more widely outplayed in a scoreless middle frame but they competed and also got a strong game in net from Martin Jones (22 saves on 24 shots). Philly made a solid push in the third period and ended up with only another loss to show for it.
After starting 6-2-2 in their first 10 games, the team has gone 9-24-8 over its last 41 games (exactly one-half of a statistical season). The Flyers have won just two of their last 21 games.
Philadelphia featured a variety of line combination changes in this game, both at 5-on-5 and on the power play. The primary lines:
76 Isaac Ratcliffe - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson 23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 20 Gerry Mayhew 71 Max Willman - 39 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun 6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen 3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
35 Martin Jones [67 Kirill Ustimenko]
PP1: Giroux, van Riemsdyk Frost, Konecny, Yandle PP2: Laughton, Mayhew, Atkinson, Ratcliffe, Provorov