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The Philadelphia Flyers (24-18-9) got off to a decent start but never really got on track thereafter in a 4-0 home shutout loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. A first period shorthanded goal by Jean-Gabriel Pageau put the Flyers on their heels. They never really recovered.
Ilya Sorokin recorded a 21-save shutout (his sixth shutout of the season). Pageau later added an even strength goal to his earlier shorthanded tally. Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist. Former Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo blasted home a second period power play goal.
As the match moved along, the Islanders increasingly clogged up the neutral zone. In the attack zone, the Flyers rarely got below or between the dots. Sorokin saw nearly every shot, and swallowed them with ease. Overall, the Flyers were too casual on several puck battles that proved costly. They deserved to get shut out and lost by as many goals as they did.
Looking for a spark, Tocchet juggled lines in the latter part of the game. Most notably, Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras swapped lineup spots. It made little difference.
The good
- Philly was fine in the first period until the Pageau shorthanded goal. Philly decent for roughly the first 14 minutes. Thereafter, not so much.
- The Flyers first power play of the game was perhaps the team’s best two minutes of play. They moved the puck around well and generated multiple looks from different areas.
- Owen Tippett, Michkov and Cam York all has isolated standout shifts here and there. That’s about it on the Philly side.
- Nick Seeler quietly played a solid and efficient game.
The bad
- The Flyers’ power plays after the first one got progressively worse. Samuel Ersson misplayed a high flip into the zone and Jamie Drysdale was rendered a spectator on the Pageau shorthanded goal sequence.
- It was a very rough game for Emil Andrae. Meanwhile, in his first game back from a six-game absence, Rasmus Ristolainen took himself out of position on the second Pageau goal.
- Ersson wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t particulary sharp, either.
- In general, this was a low-energy and fairly low-event game after back-to-back days off.
The ugly
- The Flyers had a room full of culprits on Monday night. Meanwhile, key players such as Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny were particularly ineffective. After the game, Tocchet said he’s seen slippage in Zegras’ game over the last few weeks. The numbers since New Year’s pretty much bear that out, with the key exception of the win over Anaheim.
- The Flyers got dominated on faceoffs until the game was pretty much already decided.
- Here’s the most telling stat of the night: over a stretch of 30 minutes of game play — the entire second period and the first 10 minutes of the third period — Philly had just one high-danger chance. They had three in the latter part of the third period (York had the best one) but it proved meaningless.
Flyers starting lineup
Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin – Lane Pederson – Carl Grundstrom
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drydale
Emil Andrae — Rasmus Ristolainen
Samuel Ersson
[Aleksei Kolosov]
Postgame reaction
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet
