Wrap: Flyers Own Worst Enemy in 6-3 Loss to Columbus
The Philadelphia Flyers followed an all-too-familiar script in
losing 6-3 on the road to the Columbus Blue Jackets: When things went awry, they went totally off the rails and led to Grade A chances. Little things added up to big ones. Glaring team defense lapses, lost one-on-one battles, poor puck management and a lack of clutch (and sometimes routine) goaltending saves overshadowed the good things they did on the forecheck and generating opportunities.
Teams that defend well take care of the puck. They have layers of coverage and seal off lanes very rapidly. That has been lacking with this Flyers team, and absolutely must improve. Goalies have to their part as well, and that has not been the case, either, the last couple games.
The Flyers overcame a rough early couple minutes with their puck management to play a solid overall first period. They finally scored first in a game -- for the first time this season -- and outplayed the Blue Jackets for most of the opening stanza to take a 2-1 lead to intermission.
Travis Konecny finally got off the goal-scoring schneid, opening the scoring at 10:06. The teams then traded off stoppable goals. Anthony Duclair slid a five-hole goal through Cal Pickard on an ugly sequence for Philly (Flyers turnover and Columbus counter, Duclair falling to the ice, then still beating Robert Hägg and then finally scoring on a shot that should have been stopped). Late in the period, Sean Couturier bagged his third goal of the season on a fluttering shot that went off Sergei Bobrovsky's glove into the net.
Two-time Vezina Trophy winner Bobrovsky had a so-so performance. He stopped 32 of 35 shots but looked bad on two of them. At the other end of the ice, Cal Pickard had a poor game. Three of the six goals he allowed on 28 shots were of the soft variety and another one was stoppable although not easy.
In the second period, the Flyers had some scoring chances. That was not the problem despite Philly not scoring in the frame. The issue was poor decisions and executions with the puck, forwards not back checking, defensemen getting turnstiled, soft coverages that left wide open lanes and Pickard not stopping the puck.
Boom, boom, boom: In a span of seven minutes early in the second period, the Flyers' 2-1 lead turned into a 4-2 deficit on two goals by Cam Atkinson and one by Nick Foligno. Now the Flyers were chasing the game. That was the real story. The Flyers outshot Columbus, 12-10, but it was a disastrous period that undid the positives of the opening 20 minutes.
The Flyers made a good push early in the third period. Oskar Lindblom and Travis Konecny worked the puck down low and Lindblom stepped out in front, catching Bobrovsky napping to cut the gap to 4-3 at 1:07. Very shortly thereafter, Travis Sanheim created a power play at 2:27 with some competitive work behind the Flyers' net.
Unfortunately, the Flyers' second power play of the game did not generate nearly the same sort of pressure as their first in the opening period. Philly's momentum was short-circuited and the Blue Jackets stabilized their hold on the lead.
The Flyers killed off a Jordan Weal tripping penalty in the defensive zone in the latter half of the the third period. Then Christian Folin fell down, losing the puck and creating a 2-on-1 for Columbus. Josh Anderson's low, short-side shot from the lower circle was weak and eminently stoppable but squeezed past Pickard and put the Blue Jackets ahead by two goals again. Another goal that Pickard would have liked to have back, scored by Sonny Milano swooping around behind the net, created a 6-3 final.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. They won 64 percent of the faceoffs. Claude Giroux, who won 10 of 14 faceoffs, assisted on the Konecny and Couturier goals. He has seven assists on the season.
On Friday, the Flyers will hold an 11 a.m. practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. On Saturday afternoon, they will host the New Jersey Devils at the Wells Fargo Center.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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