Wrap: Flyers Suffer 6-2 Loss in Seattle
It was as ugly as it gets. The Philadelphia Flyers were on the wrong end of a 6-2 whipping at the hands of the Seattle Kraken, at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Thursday night. The Flyers trailed 2-0 after the first period and 5-0 through two periods. Philadelphia had only one shot on goal in the first period and, for the second time in a week, just 10 shots through two periods against Seattle.
When Flyers players weren't being stripped of the puck for odd-man rushes, they were getting smothered and neutralized before they got into the Seattle zone. If the puck was dumped in, Seattle easily retrieved it and broke out of their defensive zone.
The Kraken, showing their characteristic speed and puck pressure, scored goals just about every possible way: two breakaways, a 2-on-1, a 6-on-5, through generating traffic on the power play and through taking Flyers players off the puck and counterattacking. Two third period goals by Travis Konecny (25th and 26th of the season) were virtually the only bright spot for the Flyers.
The first period was lopsided in Seattle favor. The Flyers were outshot, 11-1, and outscored 2-0 on a shorthanded goal by Jared McCann (26th) at 3:01 and a Yanni Gourde deflection tally (7th) on a delayed Flyers penalty at 14: 39.
The Flyers got off to a better start in the second period, but the wheels soon fell off again. Philadelphia's deficit grew to 3-0 on a power play goal from the point by Justin Schultz (6th) at 5:52 of the second period. From there, things rapidly went further downhill on an Oliver Bjorkstrand breakaway goal (11th) at 11:26 and then Gourde's second goal of the game (PPG, 8th) at 14:43.
In the third period, Seattle's Matty Beniers (18th) sandwiched a breakaway goal in between Konecny's two tallies.
Carter Hart was pulled after 31:26 after the Kraken scored their fourth goal on 19 shots. Samuel Ersson went the rest of the way. He stopped 9 of 11 shots. Philipp Grubauer saw only 19 shots for the game. He carried a shutout into the third period and earned the win with 17 saves.
The Kraken have not been a good special teams club this season. The team does most of its damage at 5-on-5. On this night, however, Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play, yielding a shorthanded goal. The Kraken were 2-for-3 on the power play. Seattle also scored a 6-on-5 goal.
For more on Thursday's debacle, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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Phantoms Update
Coming off back-to-back road losses to the Charlotte Checkers, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (24-19-5) have an off night on Friday. They will return to action for back-to-back home games against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (21-20-6) on Saturday (7:05 p.m. ET) and the Hartford Wolf Pack (19-19-9) on Sunday (5:05 p.m. ET).
Both games will be streamed on AHLTV (subscription required).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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