Flyers lose their heads and Game 3 in one swoop: ‘We’ve got to be more disciplined’
“It’s awful, especially at this time of the year, you wouldn’t expect all these penalties. ... At the same time, control our emotions and be better,” Sean Couturier said.
Late in the second period, Taylor Hall buried Travis Sanheim from behind into the boards. Hall evaded a five-minute major penalty, after an official review, but still picked up a two-minute minor for boarding. Tied at one, the Flyers had the chance to finally break through and take the lead in a game they desperately needed to win.
Instead, the Carolina Hurricanes scored a short-handed goal just 11seconds later, and the whole thing unraveled for the Flyers in a 4-1 loss in Game 3.
Was the play dirty? Sanheim said he thought so.
“Just felt like he could have laid off a little bit, and he decided to put me into the wall,” Sanheim said. “I guess that’s his decision.”
The Flyers never actually lured Hall into a fight, but continued to start scrum after scrum, picking up extensive penalty minutes in the third period. For the game, the Flyers racked up 38 penalty minutes compared to 20 for Carolina.
“We’ve got to understand, you take a punch to the mouth, just don’t do anything, just take the power play,“ Rick Tocchet said postgame. ”If you’re going to go in, like I told the guys, you’ve got to go in and fight. If you’re not going to fight, then get out of there. A little inexperience from us."
» READ MORE: Flyers’ playoff hopes on life support after 4-1 loss in penalty-filled Game 3
Travis Konecny looked like he was on the wrong side of a bad meme as he tried and failed to goad K’Andre Miller into something late in the third period, and Miller just laughed. Konecny picked up 14 penalty minutes on his own, and Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen aimed to join him by fighting at the end of the game, but the damage had been done.
The Flyers ultimately gave the ’Canes nine power play opportunities, on which Carolina scored twice — their first goal by Jordan Staal, and their third goal from Andrei Svechnikov. On five Flyers power plays, including over a minute of a five-on-three, they did not score.
Tocchet said the Flyers were just “not equipped” to play a game with so much special-teams time, especially with power-play regulars Owen Tippett and Noah Cates sidelined. Guys who shouldn’t necessarily be on the power play ended up with significant power-play time, which hurt the Flyers even further when they continued to fail to score.
“It’s awful, especially at this time of the year, you wouldn’t expect all these penalties,” Sean Couturier said. “But it is what it is. We’ve got to be more disciplined. At the same time, control our emotions and be better.”
Against Pittsburgh, the Flyers used their physicality to their advantage. They goaded players like Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, and Erik Karlsson into taking penalties, keeping some of Pittsburgh’s most potent scorers off the ice. They also laid timely hits to keep the crowd engaged.
» READ MORE: The Flyers’ abysmal power play cost them dearly in these playoffs. It has to improve next season.
On Thursday, the crowd had emptied out of the building before 10 minutes had expired in the third period, too late to see the Flyers finally attempt to fight.
“Towards the latter half of the game and the third period, I think frustration started to boil over a little bit,” Sanheim said. “In saying that, it’s not just the officiating. I think it’s our play and the chances that we’ve been getting and not capitalizing on.”
