Flyers' Hakstol: 'We deserved better'

Shots on goal: Flyers 46, Islanders 26.

Shot attempts: Flyers 89, Islanders 51.

Final score: Islanders 4, Flyers 3.

Yeah, the Isles' shootout win Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center didn't compute.

"I don't know what happened. I truly don't remember us playing this bad before," said Frans Nielsen after scoring two goals to key the victory. "I don't know when it happened last. We definitely didn't deserve those two points tonight with the way that we played. We have to be better, but it's still nice to get the win."

They got the victory because Jaroslav Halak outplayed Steve Mason, who was replaced by Michal Neuvirth early in the second period.

"I thought our team played a good hockey game," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. "We deserved better tonight, but that's the way the game is. The guys competed and battled hard, but unfortunately we couldn't come up with the second point."

The message coming out of the Flyers' locker room after the game: If we play like this, we're going to win most games.

"I thought tonight we had everyone going, and playing with tenacity," Hakstol said. "It's a good formula, and I thought we did that for as much of the 60 minutes as we have this year."

It was the first of three games in four nights for the Flyers, who play in St. Louis on Thursday and in Dallas on Friday.

In other words, it won't get easier.

Breakaways. The Flyers had just one shot in the last 13:20, and none in the final 8:20 of regulation.....Shayne Gostisbehere fired 10 shots _ seven that were blocked and three that weren't on goal....Andrew MacDonald, in his first game back with the Flyers, played 19:29, blocked three shots and had an "even" plus-minus rating....Evgeny Medvedev played a game-high 32 shifts.....The Flyers had 46 shots _ 28 more than in their previous game against the Isles, a 3-1 loss....Chris VandeVelde had five hits....The Flyers have an NHL-worst 31-64 record in shootouts.