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Wrap: Awful Road Trip Ends in 5-1 Loss in Vancouver; Phantoms Update |
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Wrap: Awful Road Trip Ends in 5-1 Loss in Vancouver
Staring at a 3-0 deficit by the time the game was 11:12 old, the Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Vancouver Canucks by a 5-1 score at Rogers Place on Saturday night. Philadelphia concluded a five-game road trip with a 1-3-1 record and fell to 12-15-4 on the season.
Saturday marked the 10th time in 31 games this season that the Flyers have either been shut out or held to one goal. It was the 21st time in 31 games they've given up the first goal. Over the team's last 15 games, the club has posted a 4-8-3 record and fallen to last place.
Changes appear to be coming soon. How soon and whether that is behind the bench, player personnel or a combination of the two remains to be seen. What is known for sure: New general manager Chuck Fletcher publicly said he would use the road trip as an evaluation period before making any significant moves.
Saturday's game followed an all-too-familiar and frustrating pattern of falling into an early hole and having to chase the game. It's rarely a successful way to play.
Chris Tanev (1st goal of the season), Loui Eriksson (6th) and Josh Leivo (7th) scored first period goals that built a quick 3-0 lead. The Flyers Scott Laughton (7th) nicely soloed for an unassisted goal to narrow the deficit to 3-1. Although the Flyers did not lack for puck pressure or looks at the net over the final 40 minutes, they never made any headway on the scoreboard.
Brock Boeser (11th) made it 4-1 midway through the second period. Markus Granlund (6th) added an empty-netter in the third period.
Anthony Stolarz was pulled for injury reasons -- lower body, possibly his left knee or leg -- after being beaten for two goals on four shots in 8:14. Alex Lyon went the rest of the way, stopping 17 of 19 shots. Vancouver goalie Jacob Markström made 31 saves on 32 shots.
Dave Hakstol juggled his lines -- the team has gone with different starting lineups almost every game as well as multiple in-game changes -- for Saturday's game. Oskar Lindblom and Phil Varone were healthy scratches. Jori Lehterä (8:35 TOI, 17 shifts that were all at even strength) and Jordan Weal (7:58 TOI with 1:48 on the power play, 11 shifts overall) re-entered the lineup.
Claude Giroux played left wing on a line with Nolan Patrick and Michael Raffl. Wayne Simmonds played his off-wing on a line with Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek. Weal centered James van Riemsdyk (two shots on four attempts, 13:32 TOI, minus-three) and Travis Konecny.
The Flyers controlled the opening four minutes of the game but then got scored on by Vancouver on the Canucks' first shot of the game. On a delayed penalty on Travis Sanheim amid a series of lost puck battles by the Flyers, Tanev walked in from the point after beating Simmonds and skating in untouched to beat Stolarz upstairs at 4:13. The assists went to Nikolay Goldobin and Bo Horvat. At 8:09, Eriksson scored from prime shooting range in the slot to build a 2-0 lead for Vancouver. It was another instance of poor own-zone play by the Flyers, as they repeatedly got outworked for pucks. The assists went to Adam Gaudette and Alex Biega.
As the teams went to face off, Stolarz flexed his leg several times. At a stoppage five seconds later, he left the game and did not return. Lyon entered the net. With 8:42 left in the period, the Canucks benefited from some self-made puck luck. Leivo put the puck at the net and it deflected off Andrew MacDonald's skate and over Lyon to make it 3-0 with 8:48 left in the first period.
Laughton did a nice job staying with a bouncing puck and then soloing to cut the Flyers gap to 3-1 at 16:29 of the first period.
The Flyers were more aggressive in their puck pressure in the second period. They generated good pressure -- but no goal -- on their second power play. The best opportunity was a pass out from behind the net from Claude Giroux to Sean Couturier in front.
Despite the Flyers improved overall play in the second period, they fell into a 4-1 deficit. Once again, small details added up to the Flyers' detriment. Giroux lost a faceoff to rookie Elias Pettersson. Provorov partially screened Lyon on the puck's path to the net but goaltender Lyon could have better tracked it. Time of the goal was 11:12 of the second period. Boeser and Troy Stecher earned the assists.
Through 40 minutes, shots were 19-18 in the Flyers favor. The Flyers would post a 13-8 shot edge in the third to no avail. Granlund tacked on an empty-net goal. For the game. the Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play, and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
The Flyers will fly back to Philadelphia on Sunday. On Tuesday, the team hosts the Detroit Red Wings at the Wells Fargo Center. It remains to be seen what, if anything other than Michal Neuvirth returning from family leave, will happen between now and then.
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Phantoms Drop 5-2 Decision to WB/S
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms split their two weekend games. After a 4-1 home win against the Belleville Senators on Friday, the team lost a 5-1 road verdict to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday.
Although his stat line appeared pedestrian (29 saves on 33 shots) on this night, Phantoms goaltender Carter Hart was easily his team's best player. Almost singlehandedly, Hart got the game to the first intermission in a 0-0 deadlock despite a 13-3 shot disadvantage and the Phantoms having to kill a pair of penalties. Among the four goals he later yielded, two were on breakaways (1-on-0 and 2-on-0) and another was scored in a netfront scramble after Hart made a 10-bell arm save on a point-blank shot that appeared ticketed for the net. Only the final goal he yielded was one that he might have played a little better.
The big disappointment for the Phantoms on this night was in not only going 0-for-5 against the AHL's 30th-ranked penalty kill but also giving up two shorthanded goals in the process. Lehigh Valley went 4-for-4 on their own penalty kills.
The Phantoms opened the scoring at 1:57 of the second period on an unexpected goal by Philip Samuelsson (2nd). However, Teddy Blueger (9th) soon tied the game on a shorthanded breakaway goal at 5:28. On "Teddy Bear Toss Night" in Wilkes Barre, the Blueger goal touched off a deluge of stuffed animals for children's charity donation to be thrown on the ice.
Ryan Haggerty, who went on to score a hat trick (2nd, 3rd and 4th goals of the season), scored on two-man breakaway at 10:32 to put the Pens on top, 2-1. At 14:23, after Lyon's highlight-reel save, Haggarty stashed home the puck amid the ensuing scramble near the goal mouth.
Mike Vecchione got the Phantoms back within 3-2 at 15:51 of the second period, taking a high-stick to the face as he corralled the puck and shot it home. Taylor Leier and Chris Conner earned the assists.
In the third period, the Phantoms had multiple good cracks at tying the game, but were unable to solve Tristan Jarry (29 saves on 31 shots) on their opportunities. At the other end, Hart made two additional excellent saves, including a point-blank stop on a rebound in front.
With 4:53 left, Phantoms captain Colin McDonald drew a penalty on WB/S with hard work in the offensive corner. Unfortunately, after a Phantoms turnover and a counterattack, Sam Lafferty scored from the left circle on a shot that went off the post and into the net; Hart made himself a bit small in the net on this one but it was also a really nice shot.
Haggarty later completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal. Phantoms defenseman Philippe Myers smashed his stick over the crossbar in frustration afterwards.
Saturday's game was a feisty contest between the two divisional rivals. Most notably, all hell broke loose after a whistle at 16:09, with Mark Friedman fighting Lafferty and then ex-Phantom Will O'Neill thumping former teammate Leier -- and then playing it up to the crowd -- before both players were given game misconducts for a secondary fight.
The Phantoms remain quite shorthanded personnel-wise. None among German Rubtsov (out for the season), Phil Varone (NHL recall), Alex Lyon (NHL recall), Mikhail Vorobyev (upper-body injury) or David Kase (upper-body injury) are available right now for Scott Gordon's team.
With the regulation loss, Lehigh Valley dropped to 15-9-2 on the season. A busy week is upcoming. On Wednesday, the Phantoms host the Hershey Bears. On Friday, the Syracuse Crunch comes to town. The following night, the Phantoms are in Hershey.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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