Flyers come out flat in ‘ugly’ game, lose to Hurricanes 4-1

There’s a stats page on the NHL’s media site that lists comeback wins.

The Flyers aren’t on it.

Across their first 21 games, the Flyers were unable to mount a comeback when their opponent scored first (0-8-1). Things did not change on Tuesday night as the Orange and Black lost 4-1 to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

“We were just flat, right through the lineup,” coach John Tortorella said. “Back end did some work, some good work but just didn’t have many forwards going at all.”

Michael Bunting got the Hurricanes on the board just 5 minutes and 39 seconds into the game, banging in his own rebound on the doorstep. Once the hottest team in the NHL when it came to first-period goals, the Flyers have not scored in the past four games in that span — while allowing four.

“Yeah, we got to work a little bit harder,” Scott Laughton said. “I think urgency throughout the game, and thought we had spurts of it, but not good enough consistently.”

Travis Sanheim had one of those spurts in the first period. The team’s top points guy with 16 (two goals, 14 assists) had three shot attempts, including a Pavel Datsyuk-like move. All alone down low, he received a pass from Travis Konecny as he cut across the crease and tried to knock the puck in as he dragged it behind. Unfortunately, Teuvo Teravinen was standing in the open net as Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov got pulled out of position and knocked the puck off the goal line.

It was probably the closest the Flyers came into the contest despite putting seven high-danger chances on goal, per Natural Stat Trick.

In a sloppy game — Tortorella and Laughton actually called it “ugly” — the Flyers were listed as having six giveaways to the Hurricanes nine. From the eye test, it was probably more but the biggest giveaway officially handed out was on former Flyers forward Brendan Lemieux’s game-winner. Carter Hart made the initial save but the clear by Laughton went off Lemieux’s shin and back to Hart, who made the save before Lemieux knocked in the rebound.

“Just some crappy bounces,” Hart said.

“I don’t know how many times that’s gonna happen again,” Laughton added.

The fist pump and yell told the story.

After starting off red-hot with eight goals in his first eight games, Konecny only found the net three times in the next 13. He finally cashed in on Tuesday.

As Hart made a save on Brent Burns, Konecny was coming off the bench for Cam Atkinson. The rebound went right to Tyson Foerster who found Konecny for a breakaway. He finished with a perfectly placed wrister glove side for his 12th of the season.

“I mean, at this point, it doesn’t really matter, you know?” Konecny said about his goal. “Just want to make sure our team is back and doing the right things in the way we were playing before.”

Tortorella has said there was no panic. He’s said the issue isn’t structure. But in another game where they trailed by one goal for the majority of the time, the power play was powerless.

The Flyers had a chance in the first minute of the game after Bobby Brink cut through the slot and was tripped up by Marc Staal’s brother, Jordan. But the Flyers had zero shots on goal and had trouble setting up.

They had another chance in the first minute of the second period when Jordan Staal was again sent to the penalty box for interfering with Brink. This time the Flyers had two shots on goal and one blocked shot — but the Hurricanes also had two shots on net.

“Yeah, we knew that was coming,” Konecny said about the Hurricanes’ aggressive penalty kill. “Have to go back and look at it again. See some of the options that were open.”

In front of a crowd chanting, “We want Owen,” 9-year-old Owen Micciche hit the ice with another Owen, the Flyers forward Tippett, for his rookie lap. In front of the Flyers faithful, and his boisterous teammates from the Genesis Hockey Club, Micciche skated around the Flyers end, getting two shots on goal, including an absolute snipe top shelf.

After announcing the starting lineup, he was on the bench for the first period, next to Tortorella. When the young hockey player, who is battling cancer, was shown on the jumbotron, he got shy and buried himself into Tortorella. The coach comforted the youngster and, wanting him to enjoy the moment, got him to wave to the crowd.

“If you understand the history of this kid, and what he’s going through, that just puts talk about losses, this, that, flat, not scoring goals, it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing,” Tortorella said. “So I’m thrilled that we were part of it with him tonight. Great kid. He was yelling on the bench. I hope for a little bit it helps him. It certainly puts things in perspective if you understand what he’s going through.”

Micciche was first diagnosed with cancer at six months and in July, when he thought he was doing scans to move into the Survivorship Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, doctors found tumors on his brain and spine.

Luis Estyvan Maradiaga dropped the ceremonial puck. The 11-year-old was diagnosed in June with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). Lyla Henn and Rachelly Ocasio, who are part of the Ronald McDonald House, rode the Zamboni during the second intermission.

Earlier in the day, the Flyers announced forward Noah Cates would miss 6-8 weeks with a lower-body injury. Tortorella later revealed postgame that Cates suffered a broken foot. Brink took his spot in the lineup. ... Egor Zamula was again a healthy scratch on defense.

The Flyers have had an up-and-down run as of late. After rattling off five straight wins, they’ve now lost three of four but entered Tuesday coming off a 1-0 win against the Islanders on Saturday.

“We’re gonna have some good streaks, we’re gonna have some struggles. And we may win three or four, we may lose three or four or, like we’re doing here, going back and forth,” Tortorella said. “It’s not frustrating. It’s just trying to figure out what’s best for the team for the next day and I already have a plan for them tomorrow and get ready for Jersey.”

The Flyers host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP).