Flyers take another hit in 5-1 Boston loss, dropping six straight to start season
Shortly before warmups, the Flyers announced a new slate of injuries, with Travis Konecny and Cam York sidelined for at least the back-to-back this weekend.
BOSTON ― The losses continue to pile up for the Flyers.
On Saturday, the Flyers fell, 5-1, to Boston, their sixth consecutive defeat to open the year.
“It’s all in the details,” Travis Sanheim said. “If you don’t want to play the right way every shift, teams make you pay. It’s a good league, and guys are figuring that out. … We do it at times, and you see it works, and then we just decide to stop doing it. If we don’t want to do it for a full 60, these are the outcomes that are going to happen. I don’t know. It’s got to stop.”
Shortly before warmups, the Flyers announced a new slate of injuries, with Travis Konecny and Cam York sidelined for at least the back-to-back this weekend.
Following the close loss in Ottawa, the Flyers’ best game of the young season, the group had the opportunity to build off a much stronger offensive performance and take another step back to becoming the team they hoped they could be.
» READ MORE: Flyers announce injuries to Travis Konecny and Cam York in the midst of five-game winless streak
Instead, it was more of the same. The group regressed and once again got massively out-shot and out-chanced, and looked discombobulated with the puck. Their first two power-play chances both went poorly: they could barely enter the zone on the first, and negated the second with a high-sticking penalty just 18 seconds in.
“A lot of giveaways, we’ve had a couple good shifts, and then someone would throw a puck in the middle,” coach Rick Tocchet said.
Pavel Zacha slipped one between Dan Vladař’s pads to give Boston the early lead. Mason Lohrei sniped a puck in on the rush to beat him late in the second period to go up 2-0. Marat Khusnutdinov beat Vladař point-blank just over two minutes into the third to make it 3-0.
After that, the group showed some signs of life. On their third power-play attempt, Porter Martone lifted one over the shoulder of Jeremy Swayman just 16 seconds in, for his first goal of the year and the Flyers’ second power-play goal of the season.
“It’s not like we’re not trying,” Martone said. “The guys in this group, we care. I know a lot of people from the outside think it’s lack of effort, but everyone in this room is giving his all. We don’t like this. We’re not having fun right now.”
But the Bruins got the goal back quickly after Casey Mittelstadt buried one after a clean passing play with Elias Lindholm and James Hagens. Fraser Minten iced it at 5-1 late in the third.
“Some guys are competing, but not enough,” Tocchet said. “When you give the puck up a lot, you’re going to have to make decisions. That’s just the way it is. If you cut down your giveaways, you can make a play on a breakout, less decision-making. But if you keep giving the team the puck, it’s going to look bad, because all you’re doing is giving them chances and chances instead of having the puck more often.”
Breakaways
Nikita Grebenkin is on injured reserve and will be out for “at least” four months with back surgery. Injuries to Konecny, York, and Rasmus Ristolainen are expected to be short-term, per Danny Briére. Helge Grans was activated and made his season debut, playing 12:16 on the third pair alongside Simon Benoit.
Up next
The Flyers will play the Carolina Hurricanes at home at XFinity Mobile Arena at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
