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Wrap: Habs Drop Flyers, 4-1 |
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Wrap: Habs Drop Flyers, 4-1
The Philadelphia Flyers lost for just the fourth time in regulation on home ice this season as they fell, 4-1, to the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
Joel Farabee (4th) and Tomas Tatar (17th) traded off closely spaced goals late in the first period. Ilya Kovalchuk (power play, 5th) and Artturi Lehkonen (11th) built a 3-1 lead in the opening 2:19 of the second period. Kovalchuk scored again (6th) at 11:13 of the third period as Phillip Danault recorded his third assist.
Making his first Flyers start of the season, Alex Lyon stopped 36 of 40 shots. At the other end of the ice, Carey Price turned in a 40-save performance for the Canadiens.
Of the four goals allowed by Lyon, only the fourth was one that could be looked at as potentially stoppable, and even that one came through a screen. Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said Lyon did his job, and gave the team a chance.
"I felt pretty good. I would say in terms of comparison and how it felt in the past, I was significantly more at ease. So, that felt good. Thought my brain fell asleep a little bit in the second there for about five minutes and that was a real dagger. But good learning experience and just going to try and build confidence and momentum going forward," Lyon said.
Price, meanwhile, was locked in. The Flyers generated a heavy quantity of shots, but was there enough quality (e.g., traffic in front to "take the goalie's eyes away")?
"Yeah, I think we had some good chances. Obviously, he's a pretty good goalie. He makes a tough save look pretty easy. Again we had some chances, but obviously we could have done a lot better," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said.
Vigneault, in no uncertain terms, wasn't buying into the excuse that it was harder for his team to get up for playing the struggling Habs after going 3-1-0 in a series of four games against elite-caliber opposition.
"You know that word that starts with b? These are big games. There is nothing separating teams. And tonight, it is a few plays. I understand emotionally, but points are the same. This game is worth 2. Last game was worth 2. You have to get up for it. You have to get yourself ready. It is going to be a battle. Tonight, it goes to show how one play can change the outcome. That play at the end of the first was a huge play, and we didn’t play it well and it ended up in the back of our net," Vigneault said.
Even more than the Tatar goal, the turning point of the game came over the first 2:19 of the second period. Kevin Hayes was called on a ticky-tack -- but unnecessary on Hayes' part -- hooking infraction. Price's denial of Scott Laughton's shorthanded breakaway early in the second period and the two quick strikes by Kovalchuk and Lehkonen completely altered the outlook of the game. Philly spend the rest of the night chasing against Price, and making no scoreboard headway.
"I will say that there is a tremendous amount of parity in this league. So if you are a little bit off in one area, unless you are Washington or maybe St. Louis you can get by, and there are 3 or 4 teams. We are one of 20 some teams who need to be sharp in all areas. We need to have contribution from our whole group to have an opportunity to win a given game. That is how tight it is. When you have one part of your game that is off, you aren’t good enough. And tonight, we weren’t good enough," Vigneault said.
The Flyers threw all sorts of rubber on Price's net in the second period in particular and had no shortage of potential scoring chances -- by the Sean Couturier line in particular -- but Price saw most of the shots and consistently prevented second-chance opportunities in close.
While generally happy with the Couturier line, Vigneault was less-than-thrilled by the performance of the trio of Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny, whom he felt were too sporadic.
"I expect more. I think that line has a lot of potential. You have playmaking ability, you have a centerman with size, you have two guys who can make plays and create offensive opportunities. They have gotten some looks, but I expect those guys to be better. Coots line is playing really well, I don’t intend breaking that up, so I need Hayesie's line with G and TK to be a force out there. They will have a chance to reset, reenergize and bounce back next game," Vigneault said.
The Flyers went 2-for-3 on the PK and 0-for-4 on the power play. They had some good puck movement on the power play but no finish.
After some puck fumbles by Philly right off the hop, the first period was a rather sleepy one until late in the period. From a puck possession standpoint, Philly spent a bit too much time in their own end.of the ice early on. From a quality of chance standpoint, high-danger chances were sparse for both sides until the closing few minutes.
Shots in the first period were 13-12 in Montreal's favor. Attempts were 19-19 (13-4-6 for the Habs, 12-3-4 for the Flyers). High-danger chances were only 2-1 for more than half the period but ultimately 4-4, with each team scoring on one. Overall scoring chances were 10-7 in Montreal's favor.
Farabee made a pair of nice plays leading up to the opening goal. He needed that one. The rookie had been getting chances in recent games -- including a 2-on-1 earlier in the first period -- and finally got rewarded from center slot at 18:47. The assists went to Tyler Pitlick and Connor Bunnaman (1st in the NHL). The Flyers have gotten a goal from a fourth line in each of the last games.
"Obviously, you want to help the team win so it’s been a while since I last scored so that definitely felt good but at the end of the day it doesn’t really mean much when you don’t win," Farabee said.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, the 1-0 lead lasted only 18 seconds before Habs' leading scorer Tomas Tatar tied the game from the left slot. The Flyers had three forwards up high in the defensive zone and Jakub Voracek's man, Tatar, got inside and below him.
The real dagger, though, came over the aforementioned 2:17 stretch of the second period.
Price stopped Scott Laughton rather easily on a shorthanded breakaway, and the Habs then struck for two goals in 11 seconds.
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First, Kovalchuk potted the rebound of a screened point shot from Shea Weber after the puck hit ex-Flyer Nick Cousins on the way. Then a neutral zone Flyers turnover went the other way and was re-directed home by Artturi Lekhonen off a setup by Phillip Danault as a 1-1 game became a 3-1 Habs lead in a hurry.
The Flyers ended up with a shot on goal advantage in the second period and 4-2 edge in high-danger chances -- including one for Couturier at the doorstep that Price denied off a centering feed from Robert Hägg -- but the cash register is all that matters, and the Habs stashed in two to zero for the Flyers.
Second period shots were 19-9 in Philly's favor; Per Naturalstattrick.com. the Flyers had a 5-2 edge in 5-on-5 high-danger chances and 10-4 edge in overall scoring chances. However, Philly didn't get a lot of second chance opportunities. More traffic was needed than Philly generated.
In the third period, at 1:47, Jesperi Kotkaniemi took exception to a side-boards Hägg hit on Ryan Poehling in the Philly zone, dropping the gloves. The Finn got an instigator out of the confrontation. Philly generated good possession but Montreal was wise to multiple tip-play tries directed at James van Riemsdyk.
Later, at 11:13, Kovalchuk's deep slot goal through some traffic gave Montreal a stranglehold on the game. The Flyers then finished a disappointing night by largely forcing Lyon to fend for himself in the late minutes.
Giroux said a lack of urgency may have been a factor after the run of big wins, but is not acceptable.
"Sometimes after an emotional one, it's tough to get up the next day. But it's no excuse. We didn't play our game, we didn't play well, and it's two points that we let go here," he said.
The Flyer fell out of a playoff spot at least temporarily, as the Columbus Blue Jackets pulled even in points (56) and knocked Philly to 9th in the East via tiebreaker. The Florida Panthers, who hold two games in hand on the Flyers, also pulled within a point of Philadelphia.
The news wasn't as bad ahead of the Flyers. Carolina (to Columbus) and the New York Islanders (to the Rangers) both lost in regulation, so the Flyers remain in a points tie with upper-wildcard team Carolina and four behind the Islanders (who have two games in hand).
The Flyers have a complete off-day on Friday. On Saturday, they will host the Los Angeles Kings.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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