Flyers shut out for second straight game
The Flyers offense is offensive. They suffered their second straight shutout loss Monday, dropping a 2-0 decision to the St. Louis Blues before a boo-happy crowd at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers offense is offensive.
They suffered their second straight shutout loss Monday, dropping a 2-0 decision to the St. Louis Blues before a boo-happy crowd at the Wells Fargo Center.
Making matters worse, rookie winger Travis Konecny left the game in the second period and did not return. After being checked into the boards, Konecny was holding his shoulder and also appeared to be limping.
The Flyers said they would have an update Tuesday.
The Flyers have been blanked in consecutive games for the first time since 2015. It's the first time they been shut out in back-to-back home games, provided there was not a road game in between, since 1999.
"We have to go back to keeping it simple," said captain Claude Giroux, whose team has had a defense-first mentality in recent games said. ". . . When we get one, we're going to get a bunch."
St. Louis entered the night as the NHL's 26th-best defensive team, allowing 3.10 goals per game.
Former Flyer Carter Hutton was not forced to make many difficult saves as he stopped 26 shots and recorded his third shutout in 23 games this season - and raised his career record to 3-0 against his former team.
The Flyers were 0 for 4 on the power play, collecting a total of six shots. Their power play is 3 for 32 in the last nine games, and when they are ineffective with an extra skater, they struggle mightily because of their five-on-five woes.
"I think everything is a little bit too slow," said Mark Streit, who, with Shayne Gostisbehere benched, is running the first power-play unit. "We've got to move the puck quicker, we've got to move bodies quicker. We're too stagnant. Nobody's really moving."
Kenny Agostino, recalled from the AHL to replace the injured Robby Fabbri, scored on a breakaway with 17 minutes, 50 seconds left to give the Blues a 2-0 lead.
St. Louis, which started a five-game road trip, won despite firing just 16 shots on goal.
The Flyers were passive in the second period, getting outshot, 11-4, and falling into a 1-0 hole. At that point, they hadn't scored in their last five periods.
St. Louis had the last 10 shots in the second and took the lead when a point drive by Kevin Shattenkirk deflected off the skate of Paul Stastny and trickled past Michal Neuvirth with 4:38 left in the session.
Flyers coach Dave Hakstol challenged the goal, claiming defenseman Carl Gunnarson didn't keep the puck in the zone earlier in the sequence. The replay was inconclusive, so the call on the ice - a goal - stood.
"It was a lucky bounce and it changed the whole game," Giroux said.
It marked the 36th time an opponent had scored first against the Flyers, who had the first tally just 18 times.
Stastny's goal, his 15th, came just 16 seconds after the Flyers superbly killed a four-minute high-sticking penalty against Andrew MacDonald. They had seven clears and allowed just two shots during those four minutes.
Trying to get more offense, Hakstol juggled two of his lines. He inserted Konecny after a two-game benching and put him at right wing - he had been playing the left side - on a unit with Dale Weise and Brayden Schenn. Because of his injury, Konecny played just 8:13.
In another new look, he had Sean Couturier centering Nick Cousins and Wayne Simmonds.
The Flyers had a handful of scoring chances but couldn't finish their opportunities during a scoreless first period in which they outshot the Blues, 11-1.
It was the fewest shots allowed by the Flyers in a period this season, and it marked the first time they had surrendered just one first-period shot since March 8, 2011. The Flyers defeated Edmonton in that game, 4-1, as Jeff Carter scored a pair of goals and Sergei Bobrovsky was the winning goalie.
The Flyers are 1-1-1 on their season-high five-game homestand, which continues Thursday against the New York Islanders.
"We played solid defensively. I don't think that's taken away from what we're doing offensively," Hakstol said. "I just think we can be a little sharper, not just on the power play but five-on-five in order to generate more offense."
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