Wrap: Winless Streak at Six after 5-2 Loss in NJ
The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the New Jersey Devils, 5-2, at the Prudential Center in Newark on Sunday evening. The Flyers winless streak is now at six games (9-4-2).
Defensive miscues by the Flyers proved fatal, especially a botched routine puck exchange between Rasmus Ristolainen and Ivan Provorov that went rapidly from a no-danger situation into the game-winning goal for the Devils. That was followed by a coverage breakdown after Provorov was beaten wide and play went around behind the net. Suddenly, a 2-2 tie became a two-goal Devils lead.
Dougie Hamilton deflected a shot home from the slot (6th goal of the season) to give New Jersey an early 1-0 lead. A Scott Laughton shorthanded goal (4th) late in the period knotted the score.
Andreas Johnsson (8th) restored a lead for New Jersey early in the second period. The Devils took the 2-1 lead into the third period.
Joel Farabee (7th) made it a 2-2 game early in the third period. Jesper Bratt (5th) restored the lead for the Devils with 8:03 remaining in regulation. Nathan Bastian (2nd) added an insurance goal. Johnsson (9th) tacked on an empty netter.
Martin Jones stopped 31 of 35 shots in a losing effort. MacKenzie Blackwood earned the win with 22 saves on 24 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. They were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
For more on Sunday's game, see
Postgame 5: Flyers Fall to Devils on the Flyers official website.
Unofficial Quarter Marker
With Sunday's game, the Flyers have played 20 games this season; the unofficial quarter pole of the regular season. The month of November saw the Flyers start out by going 3-1-1 in games against Arizona, Pittsburgh, Washington (arguably the Flyers best-played game this season; that was certainly the case for the first 40 minutes), Toronto (a 3-0 loss but a largely even game for two-plus periods) and Carolina. Since then, things have rapidly spiraled downhill.
Until recently, much of the Flyers' puck possession disadvantage was tied to almost habitually poor second periods. First periods were fine and third periods were fairly even (with the Flyers holding a goal differential edge). Getting caved in badly in second periods pushed the overall numbers underwater but the goaltending was helping to minimize the damage in most games.
Lately, however, the Flyers have seen downturns in their first-period and third-period performances -- both in underlying metrics and the bottom line of goal differentials. Noticeably, the much-improved defensive structure the team showed early on -- which was hardly mentioned and erroneously chalked up by some entirely to the goaltending -- has deteriorated over the last eight games. Inevitably, when a team loses its five-man-unit structure and starts to give up too many tap-in goals and back-door plays where the goalie has little chance, the goalie play itself tends to get dragged down with it.
We haven't even touched upon the Flyers struggles in establishing a 5-on-5 forecheck, generating sustained pressure, attacking with pace through the neutral zone or having defensemen (other than Travis Sanheim, who has been doing a good job of it lately) jump into the play up ice. A team CAN have success with a chip-and-chase approach, but they'd better hit the attack zone with some speed to get their first-forechecker in deep effectively. Right now, the opposing retrievals and breakouts are too likely. Likewise, the average attempted Flyers controlled entry sees the puck carrier getting swarmed and taken off the puck near or just over the blueline.
The Flyers desperately miss Ryan Ellis. Even in training camp and his three-game spell before exiting the lineup, the off-injured vet had an instant, four-fold impact:
1) He was very good at triggering the breakout. The puck will always move faster than anyone skates. Right now, most Flyers breakout attempts are a mess. There's a lot of standing around, and a lot of passes up the boards that either get intercepted, go for icings or else see the recipient struggle to find any skating room;
2) Ellis's presence better enabled the Flyers to slot all three of their pairings. Right now, with Ivan Provorov struggling, Rasmus Ristolainen having had several games recent where gaffes proved costly and outnumbered his good plays, Keith Yandle struggling mightily, the team burning the candle at both ends on Justin Braun and Nick Seeler dressing as a regular (who never lacks a thing for competitiveness and moxie but is a seventh defenseman forced to play every game), the blueline is back into a similar situation from last year. So much of the plan is tied up in a healthy Ellis. Unfortunately, Ellis is out for several more weeks and has the type of injury (believed to be a recurring groin pull) that can linger all season.
It should be noted that this particular injury is NOT one that Ellis had previously in his career. His primary past issues stemmed from knee surgery, a concussion and a broken hand. However, Ellis has certainly had frequent injury absences in his career and the Flyers knew the risks when they acquired him and tied so much of their roster-building plan into having him as the backbone of the blueline and Provorov's partner. He's not "damaged goods" per se, and his current situation isn't career-threatening, but just like with Petr Svoboda and Eric Desjardins (latter career), working around the risk of injury-related absences is a significant part of the equation.
3) Ellis' presence helps the Flyers once up-ice, too. For one thing, he is one of the NHL's best at shot selection. His shots through rate (shot attempts that get on net) is elite. The Flyers are missing that sorely. Again, though, without Ellis the options are limited. Cam York, currently dealing with being in COVID protocol for Lehigh Valley has had a struggling rookie pro season and Egor Zamula has also dealt with his share of ups and downs. Adam Clendening is not an upgrade; a defensive downgrade on Seeler, although he makes a better first pass.
4) Ellis quickly established chemistry with Provorov and almost immediately showed signs of having a calming presence when things got chaotic. Braun is better off being a third-pair stabilizer, not a top-pairing D. But, again, there's been little other choice. There was a stretch of about 6-7 games where both Sanheim and Ristolainen were clicking but degrees of inconsistency and streakiness are part of their equation, and why they are better suited as second-pair guys than a top pair.
I haven't addressed Kevin Hayes' absence, the decline in both primary and secondary scoring after a promising start over the first five games or the team's current 5-for-54 quagmire on the power play. However, if you look through the game-by-game "Five Things" previews on the Flyers' official site, the team's offensive woes are almost-constant topic of late.
To sum up: The Flyers issues right now aren't just lack of results. The process itself needs fixing, and it's going to have to be accomplished with compromised depth and a variety of players who've been individually struggling for the last month. Not where you want to 25 percent of the way through the season.
Let's close this on a few positive notes:
1) The penalty kill seems legitimately improved. Unfortunately, the Flyers have been hemorrhaging 5-ob-5 goals of late (after a good start in their full-strength GF/GA differential). But the Flyers' PK is one area that has generally been stronger in the regular season after a brutal year in 2020-21 and a rough preseason.
2) Joel Farabee has scored goals in three straight games after a lengthy drought. The Flyers need that to continue. They also need to get a variety of other players scoring, including Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk, Oskar Lindblom, Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier and members of the blueline corps.
3) With the exception of the third period against Boston and the final 40 minutes of the Tampa game, "compete level" has not been the same level of concern that it was during the team's swoon this past March.
4) Scott Laughton really stepped up in Sunday's game and there were some signs that his reunited line with James van Riemsdyk and Oskar Lindblom could get back to generating positive shifts for the team.
5) I don't think Morgan Frost was as good on Sunday as he was in his first callup game of the first two periods on Friday. However, he easily could have had a three-point game (instead of nothing) against the Devils. He set up an open look from the slot for a pinching Travis Sanheim on a second-period power play but Sanheim partially fanned on the shot from prime range. Frost started a passing sequence with Farabee and Atkinson that looked very promising but fizzled out when a cross-crease pass from Farabee to Atkinson didn't make connections. Late the game, if Atkinson had finished a "how did that NOT go in?!" chance at the doorstep (the puck went through goalie MacKenzie Blackwood's legs laterally through the crease), Frost would have had the primary assist. At least the line of 86-48-89 is getting a few chances per game together so far. It's a start.
Mind you, in light of all the issues going on, these small rays of hope are not much solace. The Flyers will have to play much, much better -- and not just for a shift here and nice play there -- to defeat the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden come Tuesday night.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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