Flyers-Sabres takeaways: More special team struggles, ‘still maturing in some areas’

BUFFALO — The Flyers were handed a 5-3 loss by the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, a team that just fired its general manager and may make a coaching move soon.

Philly came out hard but still trailed and while they tied the game and took the lead at one point, they eventually sputtered and lost.

Here are two things to know from Western New York.

Philly had three power-play opportunities but was unable to put one past former Flyers goalie Alex Lyon. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had 12 chances, including four shots on goal; the four shots came on the first two power plays.

The last man advantage was in the third period, with the Flyers down a goal, after the son of former Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, Mattias Samuelsson, put the puck over the glass with 2 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game. They had three shots by Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale and Owen Tippett blocked when goalie Sam Ersson was pulled to make it a six-on-four.

“We’re getting points. It’s a loss. I mean, relax. I’m not saying you, nothing against you,” coach Rick Tocchet directed at the media. “But, I mean, yeah, it’s a loss, I’m mad like you, but we’re getting points. These guys are trying, so we’ve got to take it easy on that part.

“But saying that we got to be more disciplined, right? I’d like to see the power play, we got to get some guys to score some goals on the power play. Too perimeter. We need some people in front. That’s the one thing. I thought the key tonight, we didn’t have people in front of the net. You’ve got to be in front of the net to score goals.”

The penalty kill allowed a goal to Josh Norris, who was left wide-open in front, in the third period. Norris’ goal, the eventual game-winner, came 18 seconds after Bobby Brink took a high-sticking call in the offensive zone when he hit Michael Kesselring in the face as he tried to make contact with the puck in the air.

Norris was left alone in front as all four Flyers penalty killers went to one side of the ice.

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The penalty was one of five on the night by the Flyers, although the goaltender interference call on Matvei Michkov in the second period was questionable. The winger appeared to be bumped into Lyon and then took several cross-checks to his back while on the ground and defenseless behind the net.

The Sabres had 11 chances during five-on-four action and nine scoring chances. The Flyers had four scoring chances during their power-play opportunities, none in the third.

Philly has been called for 117 minor penalties this season in 33 games, tied with the Winnipeg Jets for the seventh most in the NHL. Last season, the Flyers had 238 across 82 games, tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 13th fewest.

“We’re taking a lot of penalties and we’re playing good players, so the more opportunities they get, the more chances for them to score,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “But in saying that, obviously we have to do a better job, and we’re at our best when we’re pressuring and disrupting and it’s something obviously we know we’ve got to be better, and I’m sure we will be moving forward.”

Defenseman Cam York, whose second goal of the season gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead in the second period, probably said it best postgame.

“I think it’s just group maturity. I think we’re still maturing in some areas,” he said. “You don’t want to play simple sometimes, and it comes back to bite you, I think, when you don’t want to get the pucks behind their D man and forecheck; we’re not going to have the puck much, and we’re going to be defending.

“So there’s a lot of things that go into the game, obviously, but we’re definitely struggling to put a full 60 [minutes] together.”

According to Elite Prospects, the Flyers are the sixth-youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 27.08, aging slightly with the recent return of 31-year-old defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.

And while they are young and still learning and growing, it is also just 33 games under a new coaching staff led by Tocchet.

“There’s positives. To learn how to win, you’ve got to be disciplined. You can’t throw pucks away. We have a couple guys who were diving in when we shouldn’t,” Tocchet said.

“That’s hockey, and we’re not a team that could outscore our mistakes. But we’re in every game, so I give them credit. But, there’s some things there, we need some other guys to contribute too. It just can’t be the same guys.”

Despite it being the fourth game in six days, the Flyers came out firing and dominated the analytics. But they ended up trailing before Noah Cates tied things up less than a minute later.

“You just got to stay focused and be ready. Any opportunity you’re given, no matter who or what the situation is. So just something we’ve honestly been needing to work on our whole season,” Cates said.

“It [stinks] because we’ve honestly been good kind of in the back half of games, kind of coming back and kind of bites us in the butt. So we obviously can’t rely on it, and going to learn from it and move on and have a big one on Saturday.”