Flyers fall to Blue Jackets, lose 10 in row for second time this season

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers lost a 10th straight game for the second time this season, 2-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

They are the first team to lose 10 straight twice in the first 40 games of an NHL season.
"Our job is to win and we're not winning," Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. "We're being challenged. We have to rise up to the challenge and find a way to be better and we have to find a way to overcome it."
The Flyers (13-19-8) are 0-7-3 in their past 10. They were 0-8-2 from Nov. 18-Dec. 18.
"It was a tough one tonight for us," Flyers forward Cam Atkinson said. "We wanted to dig a little deeper, each guy, especially just knowing what was at stake. It's definitely frustrating. Losing this many in a row is unacceptable. We just have to find a way to dig ourselves out of this. It's not going to be pretty, but we all have to dig a little bit deeper."
Gerry Mayhew scored for Philadelphia, and Carter Hart made 27 saves.

Oliver Bjorkstrand and Patrik Laine scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 33 saves for Columbus (18-18-1).
"It's hard to win on the road," Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. "They've lost a bunch in a row, they're trying to get a win, and we're on the road. It's not an easy league. We got a little jittery there at the end."
Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski had a goal overturned at 2:02 of the second period after Philadelphia challenged for goaltender interference.
Bjorkstrand gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead 11:53 of the second. Columbus forward Sean Kuraly poked the puck away from Philadelphia forward Scott Laughton and it rolled to Boone Jenner, who passed it between two Flyers to Bjorkstrand. The forward switched from his forehand to his backhand and scored from in close.
Laine made it 2-0 at 5:50 of the third period when he scored from the top of the right face-off circle.
"To get going in the right direction, it's not pretty sometimes," Kuraly said. "I'm not sure it was the prettiest one for us. You're happy about it for a couple of minutes and then we've got another one tomorrow night against [the] Pittsburgh [Penguins]."

Mayhew cut it to 2-1 at 12:40 with a shot from the right point. It was his first goal since Oct. 26, 2019, for the Minnesota Wild.
The Flyers were 0-for-4 on the power play; the Blue Jackets were 0-for-3.
"Definitely a tough stretch for us right now but you just got to try to stay positive," Hart said. "The last few games we've started to play better hockey, starting to play more of a complete game and guys are buying into our system and the changes that we're making. It's tough right now but you have to stay positive and it's going to come."
Yeo said, "As a staff we can go two ways. We can try to beat them down and get mad at them. I think when you're doing that you're trying to motivate them. I don't think motivation is an issue. Our execution wasn't real sharp tonight, [but] we didn't see any lack of desire, lack of drive. Didn't sense any of that on the bench. The other way we can go right now just do everything we can to continue to motivate the guys and continue to come to the rink with a great attitude."
It was the first game between the teams since the Flyers traded forward Jakub Voracek to the Blue Jackets for Atkinson on July 24.
Voracek, who exited NHL COVID-19 protocol Thursday after missing two games, had two shots in 16:25. Atkinson had three shots in 20:37.
NOTES: The last team to lose 10 straight twice in one season was the Colorado Avalanche in 2010-11. ... The Flyers record is 12 straight losses from Feb. 24-March 16, 1999. They have lost 11 in a row twice (1968-69, 1970-71) and lost at least 10 in a row nine times. … Laughton has an assist in four straight games. … Jenner had two assists and has scored six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games. ... Werenski played 29:58 and had six shots on goal; each was a game high.