WRAP: KINGS BLANK FLYERS, 2-0
One night after finding the net five times in the regular season opener in San Jose, the Philadelphia Flyers were unable to solve the Los Angeles Kings as they went down, 2-0, on Thursday night in the second match of a four-game road trip. The Flyers played a good game overall and controlled most of the third period as they pushed to erase a one-goal deficit but ultimately succumbed to a pair of counterattacking goals by LA.
Trevor Lewis and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Kings, while Jonathan Quick notched a 35-save shutout. The Flyers forechecked well and attacked with speed, but LA largely prevented open looks in the higher-percentage areas below and between the dots. When there were good scoring chances, Quick erased them.
Michal Neuvirth was excellent in his first game of the regular season. He had no chance on either Kings goal and made numerous good saves among the 25 stops he made on 27 shots. In the first period, he made a 10-bell save that will appear on highlight reels all season; a fully-extended, lateral movement glove save on Anze Kopitar from point blank range after a cross-ice feed seemingly had the goaltender helpless.
The game was scoreless for the first 26:16. Finally, LA got on the board.
The Flyers' fourth line trio of Scott Laughton, Taylor Leier and Michael Raffl buzzed around the Kings' end for much of the night, and Laughton (five shots on goal in 12:46 of ice time) actually earned second-star honors for the game. On this shift, however, Laughton turned over the puck in the neutral zone on a Flyers' exit. LA capitalized quickly on the counterattack. From the right side, Nick Shore fed an accurate cross-ice pass. Lewis then hammered a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle past Neuvirth. Kyle Clifford got the secondary helper.
Making his NHL debut, Flyers 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim had a rough night in 10:58 of ice time across 19 shifts. There wasn't too much he could to stop Lewis from scoring on his side of the ice. The real cause of the goal was the initial neutral zone turnover. Also, Lewis got the puck to the outside of Sanheim and already had a head of steam. However, there was too wide of a gap and Sanheim was a bit flat-footed in his lane on the scoring sequence.
Sanheim was fully at fault for a careless high-sticking double minor near the Flyers' net at 18:14 of the second period that put the team in a precarious situation. The team stepped up on the penalty kill. Neuvirth came up big as needed and the Flyers barely got out of the second period still trailing by just one goal. The PK then killed the carryover time in the third period with authority.
The four-minute penalty kill seemed to energize the Flyers. Philadelphia dominated puck possession for much of the third period and generated a pair of power play opportunities. Now it was time for the LA penalty kill to rise to the occasion. The best opportunities on the two power plays were an open one-timer for Claude Giroux off a Jakub Voracek pass and, on the subsequent man advantage, a momentary shooting lane for Giroux near the right slot. Unfortunately for the Flyers, neither attempt was on target.
Ultimately, both teams had five power play chances and both sides ended up 0-for-5. The previous night in San Jose, the Flyers scored on each of their first three power play chances before ending up 3-for-5.
With time ticking down to the late stages of regulation, LA struck for an insurance goal.
Sanheim, whose obvious jitters for much of the game seemed to finally calm after the team killed off his four-minute penalty, tried to extend puck possession for the Valtteri Filppula line on a pinch from the point. Trailing in the waning minutes, it wasn't a bad play. However, Sanheim lost the battle and LA countered on an odd-man rush. At 17:39, Jeff Carter fed the puck to Toffoli, who buried a point-blank shot past Neuvirth. Kyle Clifford got the secondary assist.
To no avail, the Flyers outshot the Kings, 17-5, in the third period and 35-27 for the game.
The top line trio of Sean Couturier, Voracek and Giroux had their share of quality shifts during the game as did the Laughton line. Playing his third NHL game, Robert Hà¤gg had a generally solid night on the blueline in 19 minutes of ice time, although he was charged with two giveaways. In his second NHL game, Nolan Patrick skated 14:20 of ice time, generating one harmless long-distance perimeter shot on goal in three attempts and going 2-for-8 on faceoffs.
As a team, it was a pretty good Flyers effort on the second night of a back-to-back. The bottom like was that a couple LA counterattacks proved fatal. Meanwhile, Quick was in pretty firm control of the angles and was able to track most of the shots with a clear line of vision.
The Flyers will take an off-day on Friday. On Saturday, they are in Anaheim to take on the Ducks. On Thursday night, the Ducks opened their season with a comeback 5-4 road win against the Arizona Coyotes after trailing by scores of 2-0 and 4-1. Corey Perry led the way for Anaheim with two goals and one assist. Midway through the game, he triggered a ruckus by running Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue behind the Arizona net.
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QUICK HITS: OCTOBER 6, 2017
1) Happy 40th birthday wishes go out to longtime Flyers fan favorite, Danny Briere. Also celebrating an Oct. 6 birthday is Briere's former Flyers linemate, Ville Leino, who turns 34. Earlier this week, Leino announced his retirement as an active player.
2) Flyers goaltending prospect Carter Hart has not played in a game since being reassigned to his junior team, the WHL's Everett Silvertips. His lingering illness was recently diagnosed as mononucleosis.
3) On a brighter note, it appears that the paperwork/clearance issues that were holding up German Rubtsov's first 2017-18 QMJHL regular season game have finally been sorted out. He may be in the Chicoutimi Sagueneens lineup on Friday night when they take on the Victoriaville Tigres (featuring Flyers 2016 second-round pick Pascal Laberge).
4) Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost did not have his best night on Thursday as he was held pointless, without a shot on goal and 3-for-16 on faceoffs in a 4-3 overtime road win for his Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. However, Frost was on the ice for the Hounds when Tim Gettinger netted the game-winner at 1:58 of overtime. For the season, Frost has five points (one goal on a penalty shot, four assists) in six games but has been kept off the scoresheet in three of his last four games.
5) Flyers goaltending prospect Felix Sandström managed to stay sharp despite going very long stretches without seeing a puck (including just one shot on his net in the second period) as Brynà¤s IF Gà¤vle downed Karlskrona HK, 4-1, on Thursday. Sandström stopped 14 of 15 shots for the game. For the season to date, he has appeared in four games (2-2-0, 2.02 GAA, .927 SV%).
6) Two Flyers prospects went head-to-head in Thursday SHL action as the Và¤xjö Lakers downed Mora IK, 5-2. For Và¤xjö, 19-year-old defenseman Linus Högberg (who scored a goal the other day in a Champions Hockey League game against Cardiff) skated 15:22 with an even plus-minus and two shots on goal. David Kase had an assist on Mora's first goal. Thus far in his first SHL season, Kase has five points (two goals, three assists) in six games.
7) In Thursday MHL action in Russia, Flyers goalie prospect Kirill Ustimenko notched an 18-save shutout (second shutout of the season) in a 3-0 win for his MHK Dinamo St. Petersburg team. For the season to date, Ustimenko has appeared in eight games, winning five with a 1.89 GAA and .908 save percentage (pulled down by one particularly rough outing).