POSTGAME 5: Flyers Lack Finish, Lose 6-2 to Canucks

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 6-2, at Rogers Arena on Saturday night. The Flyers have lost three straight games in regulation and have started off their four-game western road trip with back-to-back four-goal losses. Elias Pettersson led the way for Vancouver with a five-point game on three assists and a pair of empty net shorthanded goals.

Unlike Thursday's 6-2 debacle in Vancouver, where the Flyers were widely outplayed for nearly the entire game, this game had a different feel to it. The Flyers had territorial control for the majority of the latter 50 minutes of the game and never felt out of the game against one of the shakiest defensive teams in the NHL until Pettersson's shorthanded ENGS. Above all else, Philly's own struggles to finish chances stood out the most in this game.
A deflection goal by ex-Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier (12th goal of the season) gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 14:24 of the first period. Scott Laughton (13th) answered at 15:56 to send the game to the first intermission tied at 1-1.
In a second period heavily controlled by the Flyers, they nonetheless fell into a 3-1 deficit. Andrei Kuzmenko (24th) made it 2-1 at 1:53 and then Beauvillier had a power play deflection goal at 13:35 for his 13th of the season and second tally of the game. At 17:28, Morgan Frost (PPG, 11th) scored in a scramble around the net to cut the gap to 3-2.
Philly made a heavy push in the third period but came away with nothing to show for it. A Phil Di Giuseppe goal (2nd) off a bad rebound restored a two-goal margin for Vancouver. The Flyers had a late power play opportunity, attacking 6-on-4, but Pettersson's 26th and 27th goals of the seasons into the vacant Philadelphia net made the game a 6-2 final.
Carter Hart stopped 17 of 21 shots. He had no chance at saves on either of Beauvillier's two goals or Kuzmenko's tally. However, the rebound on the fourth goal was preventable and it put the Flyers in dire straights again, down by two goals.

Arturs Silovs earned his first NHL win. He struggled at times with rebound control and looked vulnerable at junctures with room to shoot but he made the stops he had to make and the Flyers shooters were unable to hit the mark on the others. Silovs finished with 35 saves in 37 shots.
Coming off a two-goal third period in Seattle that ended a 13-game goal drought, Travis Konecny attacked with speed and creativity throughout Saturday's game and had a slew of scoring chances. He had seven shots on goal but was unable to pot one. Konecny did get an assist. Other than Konecny. Owen Tippett had some good looks at the net despite coming away pointless (and minus-four due to two minutes being tacked on for being on the ice for both Pettersson ENGs) on four shots on goal and eight attempts. Frost was strong in the second and third periods.
The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play. The Canucks were also 1-for-2.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
Tortorella juggled line combinations throughout the game, which he indicated beforehand was the plan. There were the combinations that started the game on their respective first shifts.
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - Owen TIippett
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 38 Patrick Brown
25 James van Riemsdyk - [rotating centers] - 57 Wade Allison
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
45 Cam York - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
TURNING POINT
Konecny's second period tripping penalty off an offensive zone faceoff proved costly almost immediately. Beauvillier's second deflection goal of the game followed moments after the first faceoff of the Vancouver power play. The Flyers were now down by two goals. Even after Frost's power play goal essentially canceled out the Canucks' PPG, the Canucks still took a lead into the third period.
In the third period, a rare giveaway by Noah Cates and Hart's failure to cleanly handle a Brock Boeser shot resulted in another two-goal edge for Vancouver. The Flyers had various chances to draw back within a goal but they were unable to do so.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Noah Cates broke his stick on the opening faceoff. The game's first shot on goal belonged to Owen Tippett from the deep right slot. Quinn Hughes had the first shot on net at the other end. The first 4:30, shots were 3-2 Flyers. The Canucks had a scoring chance off a York turnover.
The Canucks iced the puck at 5:27. Frost lost the ensuing offensive zone faceoff. The Flyers ended up hemmed in their own zone on a lengthy shift, exacerbated by a Konecny giveaway in the defensive zone. Hart made two tough saves on J.T. Miller.
On the next shift, the Cates line got hemmed in. Hart made a good save on Brock Boeser from the deep right slot. Scott Laughton lost the ensuing faceoff. Hart made his 8th save of the period, stopping an Ethan Bear point shot.
Wade Allison tried a sharp-angle shot from the right side after JVR sent the puck up to him. Silovs fought it off but couldn't tell where the puck went. No harm ensued for Vancouver. At 10:30, Hayes connected with a pass to Konecny. Silovs denied a right circle snap shot for his 6th save.
Laughton and Hayes had a strong shift including a scoring chance for Hayes off a faceoff win by Laughton. The Flyers spent back-to-back shifts in the Vancouver end.
An attempted stretch pass by Sanheim was picked off. Vancouver eventually scored at the other end of the ice. Elias Pettersson passed out to Luke Schenn at the point. Beauvillier deflected the ensuing point shot past Hart to give Vanouver a 1-0 lead at 14:24.
The Flyers drew even at 15:56 with help from two unexpected sources. Patrick Brown passed to Braun at the right point, who skated down the wall a couple strides. An initial shot attempt was blocked but a second effort somehow went in under Silovs' arm to tie the game at 1-1. Initially, the goal was credited to Braun and assists went to Brown and Farabee. Subsequent replays showed Laughton got a piece of the puck in front to slightly deflect it. Subsequently, the goal was changed to credit Laughton with assists to Braun and Brown. Farabee lost an assist due to the scoring change.
In the final minute of the period, Konecny fired a shot off the crossbar. It was his fourth shot attempt of the period (three were on net).
2) First period shots on goal were 11-10 Vancouver. Shot attempts were 20-14 Flyers. Scoring chances were even at 10-10 but the Canucks had a 3-2 edge in high-danger opportunities. Faceoffs were 13-8 in favor of the Canucks (largely by virtue of Pettersson going 4-for-5 and Miller going 5-for-7, while Frost was 0-for-5 for Philly).
The first 10 minutes of the game for the Flyers saw them struggle to get out of their own end of the ice and fail to connect on potential breakout passes. The latter half of the period was better from a territorial standpoint.
3) The first shift of the middle period went well. Konecny made a pair of strong puckhandling moves -- one early in the shift and another at the end -- and fired off shot attempts. The second shift did not go well. The trio of Hayes, Laughton and Tippett and the defense pair of Provorov and Sanheim ended up on the ice for a lengthy defensive zone shift, as Pettersson controlled the play. Finally, Kuzmenko had a back-door tap-in from the left post after a pass from Schenn at 1:53.
Beauvillier nearly gave Vancouver a 3-0 lead but the Flyers caught a break as the shot went off the post and stayed out of th net.
In need of a stabilizing shift, the Flyers got one. Frost won an offensive zone left circle faceoff and the Pettersson line got hemmed in. There was a scoring opportunity for Allison mid-shift.By the Vancouver cleared the zone, all they could do was get a line change.
On Cates' next shift, he had takeaway in the neutral zone, leading to good pressure in the Canucks' end by Philadelphia.
At 10:13, Hart made a clean save on Myers pinching into the right slot.
At the 13:20 mark, Quinn Hughes took a needless icing. Frost lost the ensuing faceoff but the Canucks iced it again. Laughton came out for the next faceoff. Konecny was called from tripping off the draw, sending Vancouver to the game's first power play at 13:31 of the second period.
Vancouver scored immediately on the first faceoff of the power play. Pettersson won the draw against Brown and the Canucks moved the puck rapidly. Receiving a pass from Hughes. Pettersson ripped a shot at the net and it was deflected upstairs by Beauvillier for his second goal of the game.
Frost passed to Provorov, who pinched down low and swung around the net for a wraparound attempt. Konency had a rebound opportunity at point blank range but Silovs made his best save of the game up to that point at 16:54.
At the 17:16 mark, the Flyers went on the power play for the first time. Hayes had his helmet knocked off by Schenn, who was called for a roughing penalty. Frost won the ensuing faceoff and the Flyers went on the attack. Tippett had a crack at a goal. Eventually, Philly scored in a scramble around the net. Ristolainen got a stick on the puck. Konecny had an opportunity at the doorstep. Frost had a whack at the puck, putting it off the post but then knocking it home on a second effort. It was Frost's first power play goal of the 2022-23 season. The assists went to Konecny and Ristolainen at 17:28.
Provorov called for tripping at 17:56. Konecny had a great shorthanded scoring chance as he put on a burst of speed to be the first to a loose puck and go one-on-one with Silovs. TK was unable to bag his fourth shorthander of the season.
4) Second period shots on goal were 12-4 Flyers. Shot attempts were 24-13 Flyers. Scoring chances were 15-9 Flyers. High-danger chances were 10-2 Flyers. As the numbers suggest, the Flyers heavily controlled the play in the second period. To go down by two goals and enter the third period trailing 3-2 was rather disappointing given the flow of play.
Farabee seemed to be shaken up on a latter second period shift. He stayed in the game but only took two shifts in the third period (16 seconds and 23 seconds in duration; the latter being the one in which DiGiussepe scored the goal that made it a 4-2 lead for Vancouver).
5) Frost and TK had scoring chances on the first shift of the third period. In hindsight, Frost should not have passed up an open look from the right slot.
Beauvillier had a bid at completing a hat trick. Hart made the save on his right circle shot. A few shifts later, Frost made a good defensive play to break up a developing chance.
At 6:34 Konecny had a stuff-in attempt near the left post: It was his seventh shot on goal and 12th shot attempt of the game.
Kuzmenko had a chance to extend the lead at 7:27. It remained a one-goal game.
An extremely frustrating sequence for the Flyers culminated in a Phil DiGiussepe goal at 10:04. In the Vancouver end, Silovs lost his stick. The Flyers were unable to get a shot on net. As play swung the other way, Schenn went to the Canucks bench to retrieve a goalie stick and take it to Silovs. The Canucks, meanwhile, had only four attackers in the offensive zone. Noah Cates failed to get the puck out of the defensive zone, which was intercepted by Boeser. Hart made an initial save on Boeser's shot but the rebound squirted out of the goalie's glove and Di Giussepe stashed it in the net. The rebound was the big issue here; it was a controllable puck.
Frost up a chance up a shot for DeAngelo. The rebound pinballed around but did not go in.
With about five minutes left, Beauvillier had another chance -- this one from the slot -- to finish off a hat trick. Hart kept the deficit at 4-2.
Shortly thereafter, Tippett used his speed to create a chance. Laughton had backhander on net. Silovs covered for a stoppage at 16:29. Hart was pulled for an extra attacker.
The Canucks took a penalty with 2:22 left as Di Giussspe high-sticked Konecny. Flyers got a 6-on-4 with the goalie pulled.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, Pettersson scored a pair of empty-net shorthanded goals. The first, at 18:03, came after Tippett was unable to control the puck over the middle and Pettersson guided a long-distance backhander into the net. The goal was unassisted. At 19:19, Pettersson scored from the side boards in the neutral zone. Miller and Bear received assists.
Third period shots were 15-8 Flyers. Shot attempts were a whopping 31-10 Flyers as they pushed in vain for a comeback bid. Scoring chances were 15-8 Flyers. High-danger chances were 6-2 Flyers.