Flyers frustrated by scoring woes in second-round loss to Islanders
Top seed in East heads home after getting shut out in Game 7
That made the disappointment that much more painful after their season ended with a 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday.
The Islanders will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, with Game 1 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS). The Flyers will head home Sunday after almost six weeks in Toronto, the East hub city, feeling like they let an opportunity slip away.
"Right now, it's very frustrating," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. "We like our team. We like the pieces we have. Frustration is high right now. We're going in the right direction, but it's one game. We win this game and we're going to the conference finals."
RELATED: [Complete Flyers vs. Islanders series coverage]
Philadelphia never quite found its best game against New York. But it managed to battle back in the best-of-7 series with two straight wins to cause Game 7, 4-3 in overtime in Game 5 on Tuesday and 5-4 in double overtime in Game 6 on Thursday.
The Flyers had no magic left Saturday.
The Islanders played an almost perfect game, stifling the Flyers with their sustained forecheck and defensive structure, limiting them to 16 shots on goal.
The turning point for the Flyers, if there was one, was when they failed to score on a power play 6:31 into the game and managed one shot on goal during it. The Islanders then got goals 3:45 apart from defensemen Scott Mayfield (9:27 of the first) and Andy Greene (13:12) to take a 2-0 lead.
"I really liked our start to tonight's game," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I thought the first six minutes, we were on our toes, we were making plays, we were playing in their end. And then after they scored that first goal, we just never had the same bounce or the same pop.
"Obviously, it's very disappointing to our whole group."
The Flyers' struggles on the power play continued a series-long trend. They went 0-for-13 and rarely generated scoring chances or momentum from it. The Islanders power play went 4-for-21.
"Their special teams were a lot better than ours," said Flyers center Sean Couturier, who played Game 7 with a sprained MCL. "If you look throughout the games, even if some games we weren't quite sharp, if we get a few goals or you stop a few [penalty kills], it's a few less goals their side, a few more our side, and maybe we have a better result.
"It wasn't good enough and probably played a big factor throughout the series."
The Flyers (41-21-7, .645 points percentage) were fourth in the Eastern Conference during the regular season but appeared to be the team to beat in the East after they won their three round-robin games in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference for the playoffs.
Philadelphia looked like it had picked up where it left off when it went 9-1-0 in its final 10 games before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
But scoring was a struggle for the Flyers from the start of their first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens. Although they won that in six games, they were limited to 11 goals.
Philadelphia had some success offensively in the three games it won against the Islanders (all in overtime), combining for 13 goals, but it was limited to three goals in the four games it lost, including 4-0 defeats in Games 1 and 7.
Forward Travis Konecny, who led the Flyers with 24 goals during the regular season, did not score in 16 games in the postseason. Giroux, who scored 21 goals during the regular season, had one in 16 postseason games.
"We liked our game before the break and we had a lot of good games starting in the bubble," Giroux said. "I think we battled hard in Game 5 and Game 6 to get to Game 7 and just couldn't get the job done tonight."
