Flyers losing streak reaches four after 5-2 setback at the Buffalo Sabres

BUFFALO ― They say when it rains, it pours.

And while it was raining and sleeting outside the KeyBank Center in Western New York for most of the game, it was stormy inside for the Flyers, too.

Handed a 5-2 loss by the Buffalo Sabres, extending their losing streak to a season-high four games, the Flyers also lost two key players in the process — although Jamie Drysdale returned after missing three games with an upper-body injury.

Rasmus Ristolainen didn’t even make it onto the ice for warmups. The defenseman was a full participant and was on the point for one of the power-play units during morning skate, but did not dress for the game. He is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

» READ MORE: Jamie Drysdale returns but Flyers lose Rasmus Ristolainen before Sabres game to an upper-body injury

Goalie Dan Vladař got the start but did not return after the first period with an undisclosed injury. According to the Flyers, he will be re-evaluated after the game. Coach Rick Tocchet did not have an update when he spoke postgame.

On the first Sabres goal in the first period, during a power play, it appeared that Vladař moved awkwardly when he wasn’t sure where a missed shot by Josh Doan went. He was slow to get up and was able to reset, but Rasmus Dahlin beat him from the point with Jason Zucker setting a screen.

It was the second shot of the game for the Sabres. Buffalo then scored on its fourth shot. Mattias Samuelsson, the son of former Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, made it 2-0 with a sweeping snap shot from the inside of the right circle. The goal came after Travis Konecny and Trevor Zegras had a two-on-one but lost the puck in the neutral zone to Doan.

“I think right from the start, I think we maybe respected them a bit too much,” forward Owen Tippett said. “Few of those guys, you kind of have to play hard and take their time and space away. I think some penalties crept in that might have ended up hurting us, too. But, yeah, at the end of the day, I think we just need to be ready to play right from the start.”

Vladař allowed two goals on five shots. Sam Ersson entered at the start of the second period and allowed two goals on six shots in the middle frame.

Buffalo’s Jack Quinn made it 3-0 when he was left alone in front as the Flyers’ defense collapsed. Ryan McLeod got the puck behind the net and fed the open Quinn for the quick shot past Ersson.

The Sabres’ power play, which entered the game ranked 22nd in the NHL and had one goal in the last 21 opportunities dating back to Dec. 21, got their second on the man advantage off the stick of Dahlin, too.

Dahlin got the puck above the circles, walked down, and sent a wrister past Ersson with Zucker atop the crease again. The Flyers’ penalty kill fell into the box setup, which allowed Dahlin the time and space to skate down the middle to make it 4-1.

“Yeah, just really disappointed, like, I’m pretty disappointed,” said Tocchet. “I’m a PK guy, and the reads that we gave them weren’t good. They’re just unacceptable for me, so we’re going to have to tidy that up.”

The penalty kill went 4-for-6. The Flyers’ power play had chances, too, and capitalized on one of five opportunities.

Philly got an early power play when Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen wrapped his arms around Christian Dvorak as he tried to corral the puck and do a wraparound. But the Flyers’ power play is struggling, and entered the night 31st in the NHL (15.3%).

» READ MORE: Q&A: President Keith Jones on the Flyers’ timeline, playoff hopes, and Matvei Michkov’s development

On the first power play, they did have two shot attempts, with Zegras’ shot forcing Luokkonen to stop it. A positive was that it looked better than Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning when it went 0-for-2 with two shot attempts, zero shots on goal, and an icing call.

After going 0-for-3, the power play finally cashed in with Zegras getting on the board — albeit off his skate in the third period. With the Sabres focusing on the other side of the ice, the forward crashed the net with Konecny’s pass going off his skate and past Luukkonen.

The goal, to make it 4-2, was Zegras’ 18th of the year and seventh on the power play. Konecny now has 39 points in 44 games. The power play went 1-for-5.

In the second period, Tippett got the Flyers on the board to make it 3-1 with a pull-and-shoot.

The forward started the play when he deflected a pass by Dahlin near his own blue line that was intended for Tage Thompson diagonally at the Flyers’ blue line. The puck bounced to Noah Cates, who sent it up to Tippett, and he used Samuelsson as a screen.

The goal is Tippett’s sixth in the past 12 games. Postgame, he gave Nikita Grebenkin — who was on his line for the first time this season — credit for driving through the defense and creating a bit of a distraction on his goal.

“I think if you have that guy going to the net, it kind of switches things up,” Tippett said. “At that point, you just want to try and create as much as you can and try and impact the game and crawl back. So, yeah, obviously, whenever I have a chance, I’m going to try and shoot. But that one worked out being a good opportunity.”

It’s hard to gauge when things went off the rails, as the Flyers put up shots quickly. And things would have probably gone differently if Luukkonen hadn’t committed highway robbery on Grebenkin 6 minutes, 5 seconds into the game.

Tippett drew the attention of the Sabres’ goalie and sent a backhand pass over to a wide-open Grebenkin at the right post. A left-handed shot, Grebenkin attempted a shot off the pass, but Luukkonen flashed the leather and stole a sure goal.

» READ MORE: Rick Tocchet wants the scuffling Flyers to simplify: ‘We’re going to have to really dummy it down a little bit’

The Flyers had a six-on-four power play chance with 2:15 left in the game with Ersson pulled, but were unable to score. McLeod added a short-handed empty-net goal.

“I don’t know,” Zegras said when asked what went wrong. “I just think maybe we’ve got to get like, our spark, our mojo back a little bit. We just got to, I guess, reboot our brains a little bit, and know that it’s a hard league, and that you’re going to go through these tough stretches, and that’s part of it.

“And we’re a pretty young team, and I know we have played well up to this point, but we haven’t really accomplished a whole lot. Got to keep the foot on the pedal and just keep going.”

The Flyers had 22 shots on goal and allowed 14. … Noah Juulsen had a shot go off the post with 9:58 left in the third period. … Forward Denver Barkey was a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career.

The Flyers get right back to it on Thursday in Pittsburgh, facing the Penguins (7 p.m., ESPN), who have lost three straight.