The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-2, at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. The Penguins seized control early, built a multi-goal lead and then turned the game into a blowout in the third.
The Penguins have won 10 games in a row. The Flyers are winless in their last four games (0-3-1).
After the game, interim head coach Mike Yeo opined that -- even more than the x-and-0 details loss itself -- he was bothered by how meekly the shorthanded team seemed to accept its fate in a three-goal first period and then, after putting forth a more competitive effort for the next 28 minutes, folding its tents when the Penguins made it 4-1.
"Probably will take some time to think about it a little bit more before we address it entirely, to be honest with you. Said a lot during the game. What the message is probably going to be is… in all honesty, we were missing some guys. How do you compensate for that? Well, you up your compete level. You dig in harder into your team game, and obviously you have to show more resilience, heart, whatever you want to say. You look at tonight and I thought we had an okay start. Then, next thing you know they score a goal. It was just after that whether or not we believe we could win, or whatever the case was. We were not good enough," Yeo said.
"So, for me, the biggest message was, more than anything, we can talk about x’s and o’s and game plans and everything else. It’s just about how hard you fight. We can look at where we are at in the season, and we can just sort of accept our fate for the rest of our way and just say it’s not our year, bad luck, this and that. You can do the same in the game. You can fight and determine your own fate… regardless of what the circumstances are. There’s gonna be times where maybe you don’t get the result you’re looking for. You’re gonna go down swinging if that’s the case and I think we did that tonight and I think that’s the biggest thing we have to address."
A three-goal blitz by the Penguins in the latter half of the second period put Pittsburgh in the driver's seat. Bryan Rust notched power play and 4-on-4 goals (8th and 9th goals of the season) before a 5-on-5 tally by Jake Guentzel (17th) made it a 3-0 game.
"First period we were on our heels waiting for their D and forwards to come up the ice. I feel like we were watching a little bit and then in the third whatever happens, happens, get a couple breakaway goals but you have 9,10 guys out, 6 guys in protocol it’s a tough league to win that way," Laughton said.
In the second period, Cam Atkinson (14th) narrowed the Flyers' deficit to 3-1. Philly had subsequent chances to get back within a goal but the two-goal margin for the Penguins held for the rest of the frame.
The Penguins broke the game wide open in the third period on breakaway goals by Evan Rodrigues (15th) and Guentzel (2nd of the game) spaced 90 seconds apart. Brian Boyle (4th) added insult to injury with a shorthanded goal. Oskar Lindblom (4th) offset it with a goal right after play went back to 5-on-5.
"it seems like it’s happened all year where they score a goal and then they get one or two or three right after it's a five minute lapse -- or whatever it is -- and we can’t seem to get out of it. We had a really good second period, quick up in pucks, making their D turn and being physical and then in the third you give up a couple and same thing as the first. It’s tough," Laughton said.
Carter Hart wasn't given much of a chance by the team in front of him and ended up with ugly numbers on the night. He stopped 26 of 32 shots. Tristan Jarry saw only 20 shots for the game. The Pens' netminder made 18 saves. Jarry came up with a few clutch saves but generally wasn't tested much.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play with a shorthanded goal yielded. They were 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.
The Flyers played this game with an exceptionally depleted roster: six players in COVID-19 protocol (Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler and Jackson Cates) and three others on Injured Reserve (Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis and Nate Thompson).
The Flyers recalled Connor Bunnaman and Egor Zamula from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms in order to be able to dress 12 forwards and six defensemen for the game. Additionally, Derick Brassard returned to the Flyers lineup after stints on IR (hip) and in COVID protocol.
The team is likely to be without most of these players again on Saturday when they host the San Jose Sharks. Yeo said that, regardless of the opponent, the team needs to be more consistently competitive.
"There’s an element of toughness on the ice. You battle your courage and you show up and you compete and you battle and you play physical. But there’s another form of toughness and that’s mental toughness and that’s not feeling sorry for yourself but getting frustration getting the best of you. That’s not letting a bad bounce or something that didn’t work out well determine your fate," the head coach said.
"Things happen. Bad things happen. What are you gonna do? You’re going to have to make sure to respond to that. The way I see it, is that we have a chance to prove that this isn’t us because obviously things aren’t going well enough during the season. Individual games like this, we need to find a way to push harder and not let one goal turn into two and two turn into three. We have to show more fight in that situation and we’re going to have a great opportunity to do that going forward."
Yeo was asked about the fact that the Flyers have only won two of the 16 games in which the team has given up the game's first goal. The coach said that it reflects the same issues that bothered him about the performance against the Penguins: a lack of resiliency.
"This is something I’m not looking at just tonight for sure. I believe that there is an element of it where you have to show your determination, your fight. Not just to say that it was not our night tonight. Can’t just say it’s not our season this year. I also believe that there is an approach you have to take in that situation," Yeo said.
"You can’t just say 'we gotta get the next goal' and then give up two or three more. I think more than anything, it’s just mindset and determination. You know what? We said we have a chance to prove ourselves here and take advantage of that."