Flyers are shut out in 3-0 home loss to Mammoth with the trade deadline looming: ‘We were soft’

There were two things hanging over the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday night: the impending NHL trade deadline and extending their winning streak.

But as the minutes continued to tick off until Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline, the Flyers’ inability to win four straight kept on going with a 3-0 loss to the Utah Mammoth.

It is the third time this year the Flyers have been shut out, and it’s been more than two years since the Flyers strung together a four-game winning streak. The last ended with a 5-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes, who are now the Mammoth, on Feb. 12, 2024.

» READ MORE: How does Flyers GM Danny Brière’s previous trade deadline moves inform what he might do ahead of Friday?

From the drop of the puck on Thursday, it was a lackadaisical effort by the Flyers that saw them muster just 44 shot attempts and 16 shots on goal, tying the season low set on Feb. 5 in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators. It is the 10th time this season that they have not put at least 20 shots on goal.

“I think we’ve got to simplify our game, go to the net hard, drive to the net hard, get some bodies there, bring pucks to the net,” captain Sean Couturier said. “It almost feels like we’re trying to play on the outside and find a backdoor tap-in, which is hard to do in this league.

“I think if we simplify things, eventually things will open up. But I think we’re too content on playing a little bit on the outside at times.”

In the first period, the Flyers had four shots on goal, despite having a power-play opportunity.

“I think the first 10 [minutes] kind of dictated [play]. We were soft; execution was tough,” said coach Rick Tocchet, who also said the Flyers didn’t push back, which is tough to swallow.

Added defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen: “I feel like at times we might have got a little bit outworked and outbattled, and I think that’s where we should start every game, and obviously we didn’t do that enough tonight.”

To be fair, Utah also had only four shots in the first period, but in the second, they broke through on two of their 14 shots.

Lou Nolan didn’t even have time to announce the penalty before Nick Schmaltz found the back of the net to give Utah a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the frame. Eight seconds after Noah Cates was called for holding the stick, Dylan Guenther curled off the boards and into the high slot before going against the grain to Schmaltz on the goal line for the shot.

“Just didn’t play hard enough tonight,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “They’re a tough team to play against. They battle hard, hard on the walls, and make it tough on you. And we weren’t willing to play that style so hard to win when you don’t dig in and win those battles.”

Less than seven minutes later, it was 2-0 on a goal by Clayton Keller, who just helped the United States win gold at the Winter Olympics.

Off a face-off, Sanheim got the puck from Matvei Michkov, who took his spot at the left point and carried the puck down and around the net, trying a wrap-around. The puck slid off his stick, and while he tried to regroup, he eventually lost the puck to Guenther.

Utah’s speedy forward chipped the puck around Ristolainen, and as Sanheim backchecked and tried to cut off Guenther, Keller split through a hole with Michkov too far over.

» READ MORE: The Flyers should be firm sellers at the NHL trade deadline despite their recent winning streak

“What do you want me to say?” Tocchet retorted when asked about the play.

“Yeah, I tried to make a play at the net,” Sanheim said. “And then as it came up, Risto goes to step up on, I think it was on Guenther, and I saw that we had an F3, so I thought I could play Guenther on the wall. Obviously misread it with Mich, and obviously don’t want to give up a breakaway at that time of the game.”

Michael Carcone added an empty-netter for Utah in the third period.

Now the question is, who will be here when the trade deadline buzzer goes off at 3 p.m. on Friday?

Ristolainen, whose name is swirling as someone more than likely getting traded, suited up and skated more than 22 minutes in his 800th NHL game.

“I can’t really control that,” Ristolainen said. “So I just try to come in every day, and obviously tomorrow, we’ll see what happens.”

Did the pending trade deadline impact the team?

“Hard to say, maybe for some guys, I guess,” Sanheim said. “But we’re in the thick of it and just trying to win every hockey game and take it day by day and deal with it as it comes.”

Forward Travis Konecny missed his second-straight game with an upper-body injury, and defenseman Nick Seeler, who sustained a lower-body injury in Monday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, did not play. … On Thursday, the Flyers signed forward Garrett Wilson to an NHL contract to finish the 2025-26 season. A member of Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League since 2019, a team source has also confirmed the captain inked a new AHL contract for next season. Wilson, a native of Barrie, Ontario, has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 51 games this season and leads the team in penalty minutes (99), which enters Thursday tied for 11th overall in the AHL. Wilson, who turns 35 on March 16, has played 751 AHL games for San Antonio, Portland, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Toronto, and Lehigh Valley. He is Lehigh Valley’s all-time leader in games played (338) and ranks fourth in goals (62) and points (148). A rugged 6-foot-3, 218-pound winger, Wilson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL draft by the Florida Panthers and has 84 regular-season and 10 playoff games at the NHL level under his belt. His last NHL game was a playoff game on April 16, 2019, for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

On Saturday, the Flyers will be in Pittsburgh taking on the Penguins (5:30 p.m., NBCSP).