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Wrap: Sharks Devour Flyers, 8-2; Gameday Preview: Flyers @ Senators

October 9, 2018, 11:25 PM ET [655 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wrapup: Sharks Devour Flyers, 8-2

Things went off the rails quickly for the Philadelphia Flyers in their 2018-19 home opener and got progressively uglier in an 8-2 shellacking at the hands of the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers team defense -- forwards and defensemen alike -- was atrocious. Gaps, one-on-one coverages, lack of competitiveness, puck management and more were flat out unacceptable.

Goaltender Brian Elliott looked bad on the game's first two goals, but there were plenty of errors of commission and omission in front of him even on those. The rest of the night was Elliott being just about the only guy in orange competing. He finished with 40 saves on 48 shots.

The one thing that Philadelphia did well was generate scoring chances of their own -- those were produced in abundance in the first and second periods -- but they couldn't finish any of them until the game was out of hand.

Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said it the most bluntly and accurately.

"We sucked," Gostisbehere said. "I feel so f-in' bad for Moose (Elliott). To leave the guy out to dry like that, it was absurd."

The Flyers had two prime early scoring chances but Nolan Patrick (who had four more Grade A chances as the game progressed) could not finish a play off a San Jose turnover on the game's first shift. Shortly thereafter, Travis Konecny was alone near the net and had room upstairs but elected to make an extra pass that went awry. After a nice play by Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov got blocked and San Jose broke out on a 2-1 with Logan Couture beating Elliott through the five hole for a 1-0 Sharks leads at 3:17.

San Jose scored immediately again, beating the Flyers off the center ice faceoff. Giroux got beaten at the blueline and didn't get back in the play. Robert Hägg was beaten one-on-one by a toe drag move. Andrew MacDonald, left with two men to cover, was indecisive and Joe Pavelski potted a fat rebound.

Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol kept his team's timeout in his back pocket, and did not make a goaltending switch even as the score grew to 3-0 on a second Pavelski goal. Elliott nearly made a 10-bell save on from point blank range but replays clearly showed crossing the goal line. Oskar Lindblom accidentally deflected a Justin Braun point-shot directly to Evander Kane on a partial block and Kane tipped home a power play goal to make it 4-0 at the first intermission.

The Flyers got outshot by a 23-11 margin the first period. If Philly could have finished their own chances, they could still have been in the game but that didn't happen.

"Brian got hung out to dry on it. Should have gotten him out of there probably after the second. I wanted to give him an opportunity to keep battling, thought he was battling on every puck and every shot and by the time we got to the third period, the sixth one against, it’s too late to get him out and put Pick into that situation," Hakstol said.

"They got through the neutral zone easily then in the zone once they entered into our D-zone. We were on the outside of everything, like I said and when we were on the inside in the right spots, we were late on pucks. ...I liked our energy from the drop of the puck for the first couple of shifts. It’s decision making. The first goal we had everything in place where we want it, but we give up a puck and give up a 3-on-1. Then we give up a quick one off of a center ice faceoff which should never happen, so that’s not an energy issue, that’s focus on taking what’s there and then focus on detail."

A one-timer power play goal by Gostisbehere cut the gap to 4-1 at 4:56 of the second period and the Flyers subsequently had another power play with a chance to climb back within two goals and start to make a game of it. That didn't happen, either.

The Flyers did a good job on a mid-period penalty kill but had a breakdown just as it expired and Kane rifled home a shot through a screen to restore a four-goal lead. That pretty much did it for the Flyers' attempted push-back, although there would be additional Flyers looks from the slot or in close that were either saved, missed the net or drew iron.

The third period was a formality, but the Sharks tacked on another power play goal as Tomas Hertl undressed Andrew MacDonald off the rush and then scored a "Peter Forsberg goal" on Elliott. A 2-on-0 shorthanded goal against the Flyers second power play unit made it an 8-1 game. Wayne Simmonds scored a long-since-meaningless power play goal from the doorstep with 1:31 left.

Aaron Dell stopped 31 of 33 shots for the Sharks to earn the win.

The Sharks went 2-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-6 on the PK with a shorthanded goal (already the second the Flyers have allowed in three games).

Right now, with Provorov struggling on both sides of the puck through the first three games, the Flyers don't have a single stabilizing defense pair. Gostisbehere individually played well overall but that's not nearly enough. Meanwhile, the forwards don't get a pass, either, because they have been allergic to back-pressure or helping out below the dots.

The result has been 13 goals against in the last two games despite Elliott playing brilliantly in Colorado and at least battling in this game.

Now the Flyers need to have short memories. They are in Ottawa on Wednesday to take on the Senators.

*******************

Game 4: Preview: Flyers @ Senators

Playing the second half of their first back-to-back set of the season, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-0) are in Ontario on Wednesday night to take on Guy Boucher's Ottawa Senators (1-1-1). Game time at the Canadian Tire Centre is 7:30 p.m. EDT.

The game will be televised on NBCSNP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at FlyersRadio247.com.

This is the first of three meetings this season between the teams, and the lone game in Ottawa. The teams will rematch in Philadelphia on Nov. 27 and March 11. Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-1 against the Senators.

Philly lost a controversial 5-4 regulation decision in Ottawa on Oct. 26, 2017 marked by two disallowed goals in the third period. Most notably, an out-of-position referee botched a would-be Sean Couturier game-tying goal in the final minute; a moving puck that did not disappear into goalie Craig Anderson's glove until it was over the goal line but was ruled a dead puck stoppage and upheld despite clear-cut video evidence to the contrary that was viewed as a potential "good hockey goal" and then ignored. The Flyers staged a big third period comeback at home on Feb. 3 to steal an undeserved point but the Senators prevailed in overtime, 4-3. On Feb. 14, the Flyers took a 5-3 decision in Ottawa.

Flyers Outlook

The Senators have been at home a couple days, with a practice day on Tuesday. Recently claimed off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs, goaltender Calvin Pickard is slated to make his first start as a Flyers.

Hakstol made an early in-game defense pair switch -- which made no difference in how things went -- on Tuesday. Robert Hägg, who started the home opener paired with Andrew MacDonald, was placed with Radko Gudas. MacDonald played with Travis Sanheim. In the third period, Sanheim took Provorov's spot on the second power play unit.

Senators Outlook

The Senators have scored 11 goals over the first three games but have allowed 13. The highlight of the young season to date was a 5-3 upset win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. However, it was followed up by 6-3 loss in Boston on Columbus Day.

A poor first period (2-0 scoreboard deficit, outshot 15-9) left the Senators chasing the game the rest of the afternoon, although they twice reduced deficits to a single goal and played a strong second period before the Bruins pulled away in the third.

Ryan Dzingel scored twice for the Senators in Monday's game, while Bobby Ryan tallied in the third period. Patrice Bergeron notched a hat trick for Boston. Mike Condon stopped 24 of 29 shots in a losing cause.

The Senators have started the season 1-for-8 on the power play. The penalty kill is 5-for-7 to date. At five-on-five, Ottawa has scored nine times and yielded nine.

PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier -93 Jakub Voracek
23 Oskar Lindblom -19 Nolan Patrick -11 Travis Konecny
21 Scott Laughton- 24 Mikhail Vorobyev - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise -15 Jori Lehterä -12 Michael Raffl

9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
8 Robert Hägg - 3 Radko Gudas
6 Travis Sanheim - 47 Andrew MacDonald

33 Calvin Pickard
[37 Brian Elliott]

Scratches: 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 26 Christian Folin (healthy), 25 James van Riemsdyk (IR, lower body), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), 38 Corban Knight (IR, upper body), 5 Sam Morin (ACL surgery).

SENATORS

7 Brady Tkachuk - 95 Matt Duchene - 89 Mikkel Boedker
18 Ryan Dzingel - 15 Zack Smith - 61 Mark Stone
59 Alex Formenton - 71 Chris Tierny - 9 Bobby Ryan
56 Magnus Pääjärvi - 36 Colin White - 10 Tom Pyatt

72 Thomas Chabot - 2 Dylan DeMelo
74 Mark Borowiecki - 5 Cody Ceci
58 Maxime Lajoie - 6 Chris Wideman.

41 Craig Anderson
[1 Mike Condon]
'
Scratches: 28 Paul Carey (healthy), 67 Ben Harpur (healthy), 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau (IR, torn achilles tendon), 17 Max McCormick (IR).
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