POSTGAME 5: Habs Conquer Flyers, 5-2
The Philadelphia Flyers slogged through a 5-2 loss to an injury-riddled Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night
Philadelphia was poor in virtually every facet -- especially in the first period -- for the majority of the game. Much of it came down the five-man units not being connected on either side of the puck: exits, entries, 50-50 battles, board work, gaps were all subpar. Philly got caught flat-footed at times, stationary and watching the puck. Low-percentage stretch pass attempts failed multiple times. Until the third period, the Flyers rarely got pucks near the net and, when they did, rarely had bodies in the vicinity.
Bright spots for the Flyers were few and far between. Owen Tippett scored a nice goal and fired eight shots on net in 10 attempts. Linemate Morgan Frost assisted on both Philadelphia goals and was in the middle of several other chances (for Tippett and others). Beyond that, it was a dreadful 60 minutes for virtually everyone in orange and black.
Carter Hart almost singlehandedly kept the game scoreless until the late stages of an atrocious first period for Philadelphia. Veteran defenseman David Savard (3rd goal of the season) gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 17:50. Even more damagingly, the Flyers on the ice were spectators as just-acquired veteran Chris Tierney (3rd goal of the season, 1st for Montreal) made it 2-0 with less than five seconds remaining on the first period clock.
In the second period, the deficit grew to 3-0. After Wade Allison was tagged with an instigator penalty in a fight with Alex Belzile, a power play goal credited to Nick Suzuki (19th) put Philly in an even deeper hole at 7:12.
The Flyers made a short-lived push in the third period. Tippett scored (17th) of the season just nine seconds into the period. Philly had several subsequent chances to draw back with a goal but they were unable to do so. A deflection goal by Jesse Ylönen (1st) at 12:12 and a tally from the slot by a wide-open Josh Anderson at 12:12. In garbage time, Ivan Provorov (4th) converted a setup sequence from Tony DeAngelo and Frost at 18:32 to reduce the final margin of defeat to three goals.
Hart did not play badly at all but his stats (five goals allowed on 31 shots) look ugly because the team in front of him hung him out to dry on four of the goals and the other was a wicked deflection. Jake Allen had a rather easy night for two periods and finished with 24 saves on 26 shots to earn the win.
The Flyers did not have a power play the entire game. Except for a blatantly missed non-call late in the first period, Philly did little to deserve a power play against one of the NHL's most penalized teams in terms of times shorthanded.The Canadiens were 1-for-2 on their power plays.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
The Flyers dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen. However, veteran defenseman Justin Braun skated various shifts as a fourth line right winger among his 11 shifts (7:43 TOI). The Flyers juggled some line combinations after the disastrous first period, including putting Joel Farabee on a line with Frost and Tippett. Additionally. Tippett was double-shifted a few times. Below are the lines that started the game:
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
62 Olle Lycksell - 49 Noah Cates - 86 Joel Farabee
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 61 Justin Braun
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
45 Cam York - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
TURNING POINT
As bad as the first period was for the Flyers, they'd have still been in the game (thanks mostly to Hart) if they could have gotten the game to intermission trailing just 1-0 despite how poorly they played. Instead, the deficit doubled on Tierney's goal in the waning seconds. Even more gallingly, the Flyers put forth a non-competitive effort on the shift. They may have still been upset about a non-call at the other end of the ice, but that's not a valid excuse to fail to play to the buzzer.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Flyers had the first two shots on goal of the game -- neither particularly dangerous -- and then Montreal took over. Mike Hoffman had a breakaway opportunity but fired wide.
Olle Lycksell was called for stick-slashing penalty at 7:52. Hart was blitzed for five shots on goal and had to make four tough saves, including one a wide-open Hoffman.
At 10:42, Frost fired a shot on net off a toe-drag from the top of the left circle. Allen made the save and held for a stoppage. Nick Suzuki won the ensuing faceoff against Frost cleanly. At the end of the shift, Tippett had a shot in transition. That was as close as the Flyers came to scoring in the first period.
The Canadiens took a 1-0 at 17:50. It started with the Flyers being hemmed in their own zone for more than two-and-a-half minutes. Philly had several failed clearing opportunities. Farabee finally got the puck out to the neutral zone but the Flyers were only able to make a partial line change. Savard took a pass from Hoffman. With Hart moving to his left, Savard fired the puck over under the goalie's arm and inside the post to the goalie's right. Juha Ylönen drew the secondary assist.
The Flyers continued to be unable to establish a forecheck, getting outworked on another 50-50 puck. Subsequently, Tippett went down to the ice and then Sanheim was blatantly taken down -- away from the puck -- by Johnathan Kovacevik.
Montreal made it 2-0 at 19:55. The Flyers were stationary, watching the puck and Tierney went to the net. Taking a pass from Michael Pazzetta, Tierney scored from point blank range. Kovacevik earned the secondary assist.
2) First period shots on goal were 14-6 Montreal. Shot attempts were 24-13 Habs. Scoring chances were 9-3 Montreal. High-danger chances were 5-1 Canadiens.
With the exception of the first period of the Flyers' 6-2 loss in Seattle, this may have been the worst opening period the Flyers have played in months.
3) In the second period, the Flyers had an early scoring chance on a counterattack. Cates snapped a shot on net at 1:25. Tortorella did some line juggling as the period progressed. Philadelphia's play picked up slightly -- there was almost nowhere to go but up after that atrocious first period -- but not nearly enough.
At 6:17, van Riemsdyk made a good play down low. Frost went to the to receive the pass. The puck went off Frost's skate (not his stick) and on net. Allen turned it away.
Alex Bezile hit Laughton from behind. Allison made a beeline for the Montreal player and fought the Montreal player. In addition to the matching fighting majors at 6:53, Allison received an instigator penalty and an automatic 10-minute misconduct.
This is the type of penalty -- standing up for a teammate -- that teams often bear down extra hard to make sure they kill off. Not this time. The Canadiens converted it into a power play goal at 7:12. Josh Anderson went to the net and looked for a pass from Suzuki. Instead, the puck went off Provorov's stick and upstairs into the net. Matheson and Hoffman received the assists with Suzuki getting credited for the goal.
Tippett attempted to duplicate a play he made when the teams faced off in Montreal this season -- shooting the puck at the drop of a right-circle faceoff -- but Allen was wise to it this time around.
Later, the Flyers hit the attack zone with numbers. A DeAngelo shot from the right slot went directly into the goalie. There was no rebound.
4) Second period shots on goal were 10-6 Flyers. Shot attempts were 17-15 Montreal. Scoring chances were 8-7 Flyers. High-danger chances were 1-1, with the Canadiens scoring on theirs and the Flyers (the JVR-to-Frost attempt) not getting the timing quite right on theirs. Montreal did not have a shot on goal for most of the latter half of the period but the damage had already been done.
5) Frost lost the opening faceoff of the third period to Christian Dvorak but Frost immediately took the puck away from a defender at the blueline. Frost gained entry and dropped a pass to Tippett. In a goal sequence similar to Tippett's first of two goals in the previous meeting in Montreal. the winger used a defender as a screen, fired a tracer of a snap shot through the legs and beat Allen. The goal at the nine-second mark, suddenly made a comeback seem plausible. Frost earned the lone assist.
The Flyers needed another strong shift to build off the quick-strike goal. Instead, they got hemmed in their own end on the second shift of the period. Tortorella then came right back with the line of Farabee, Frost and Tippett for the third shift. The line generated a Grade-A scoring chance with Frost backhanding a pass across to Tippett in the left slot but, this time, Allen made the save.
For the first 4:30 of the third period, the Flyers controlled the play. They had another good scoring chance on a play where Seeler joined the attack but the defenseman put the puck across the blue paint.
At 4:50, Anderson had Montreal's first shot of the period. That one was a routine offering but, later in the same shift, Anderson had a bang-bang chance from the slot. Hart made the save.
Farabee had to go to the locker room -- seeming for protocol testing -- after he went down to the ice and had his helmet knocked ajar. He eventually returned to finish the game.
Montreal restored a three-goal lead at 6:26. Ylönen scored on a high-tip of a Justin Barron shot. The play was close to being a high-stick but replays showed Ylönen kept his stick just below the height of the crossbar. Jonathan Drouin earned the secondary assist.
Tippett attempted a repeat of his second goal in the previous game in Montreal as he was tabbed to take a right-circle offensive zone faceoff and shot the puck immediately off the drop. Allen stopped it.
Hart had to fight off traffic to track and stop a Mike Matheson point shot at 11:26. It was clear, though, that the Habs had more than neutralized the early Philadelphia push in the period and were now getting the better of the chances in the middle stages of the period.
The Habs put a further exclamation point on the game at 12:12. DeAngelo was taken off the puck behind the Philadelphia net as Rafael Harvey-Pinard passed out to an open Anderson for his third scoring opportunity of the period. This time. Anderson bagged a goal from prime range. Harvey-Pinard drew the lone assist.
With the outcome long since clear, the Flyers had some late chances. Tippett set one up with DeAngelo joining the rush at 15:55. A shift later, Laughton had an opportunity from the left slot off a Habs turnover. Finally, the Flyers added a second goal.
Frost had a shot attempt from the left circle blocked but he regained the puck and made a spin move to pass out to Provorov at the point. DeAngelo and Provorov then worked a little give-and-go, which Provorov finished off at 18:32. DeAngelo and Frost drew the assists.
Third period shots were 11-10 Montreal. Shot attempts were 20-19 Montreal. Scoring chances were 12-10 Flyers with a 6-3 high-danger edge for the Flyers. This was much too little and much too late to salvage an extremely disappointing performance.
