Flyers fall to the Blue Jackets as Johnny Gaudreau stars once again vs. his childhood favorite team

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Historically, Johnny Gaudreau has a good record against his childhood favorite team, scoring 16 points in 13 games against the Flyers. After joining the Columbus Blue Jackets in free agency, he led his new team to a 5-2 victory over the local team that said it never planned to pursue him.

Gaudreau already was the Blue Jackets’ leading scorer, coming into the game with five goals and four assists. He quickly added to his season stats, as well as his career stats against the Flyers, with a goal scored on an odd-man rush, assisted by Zach Werenski.

Eight minutes later, Gaudreau returned the favor and assisted Werenski on the second goal of the night, also scored on an odd-man rush. He then dampened the Flyers’ hopes of a stronger second by helping Boone Jenner score 37 seconds in to give the Blue Jackets, who came into the game on a five-game losing streak, a three-goal lead.

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Another local hockey product, Tony DeAngelo, who is friends with the Gaudreau family, helped the Flyers start to chip their way back when he scored 13 minutes into the second period. Although the Flyers gave up a lot of chances to the Blue Jackets in the second, the more manageable deficit helped them put together a strong third period, when Ivan Provorov scored to cut the deficit to one.

However, two empty-net goals put the game away, and Gaudreau’s three points helped his team to victory over the Flyers, who he has said it would be “cool” to play for. Gaudreau now has 19 points in 14 games against the Flyers.

Flyers coach John Tortorella, who formerly coached the Blue Jackets and made his return Thursday, left the arena before he could answer questions in the post-game press conference.

Since returning from his concussion, Owen Tippett has been one of the brightest stars on the team. In seven games, he scored three goals and added two assists. He’s showing potential, Tortorella said before the game, but he still has things to learn.

Tippett’s performance Thursday proved there’s still room for progress. Both of the Blue Jackets’ first two goals were scored after they picked off Tippett’s passes.

“I’m my own biggest critic, and when I make mistakes like that, I know I got to be better,” Tippett said.

While he came into the game with a plus-minus of zero, Tippett was minus-three for the night, although he only directly contributed to two Columbus goals. As a consequence, he was taken off the first line after the first two periods and replaced by Joel Farabee.

Tippett said his biggest takeaway was that he needs to work on decision-making.

“Obviously if you’re gonna make a play like that, it’s gotta be smart,” Tippett said.

Once the puck dropped, the Blue Jackets came at the Flyers with full speed. Over and over, they beat the Flyers down the ice on breakaways and odd-man rushes for strong scoring opportunities.

The Blue Jackets’ rushes weren’t only created by effort and speed. They were set up nicely by Flyers’ mistakes. Tippett’s passes led to two goals while Travis Konecny’s mistake directly led to another.

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Linemates Tippett and Konecny were far from the only players who were careless with the puck — their mistakes were just the ones that ended up in the back of the goal.

“Most of their stuff was in transition,” DeAngelo said. “We handed them a lot of stuff.”

While the Flyers stopped the other rushes, they didn’t kill the play. Their defensemen batted away the puck or goalie Carter Hart bailed them out, but the Blue Jackets still kept ending up with the deflections and rebounds. Following the initial attempts, they were often able to string together a series of other attempts.

Coming out of camp, Noah Cates was one of the most impressive Flyers. While he hasn’t been bad since, he’s been quiet. He’s made some rookie mistakes but has been otherwise solid enough. But Tortorella wanted more than “solid enough” and said he wanted to try to help him find his game — which includes offensive production.

Cates scored his second goal of the season Tuesday and also assisted on a goal for his first multi-point game of the year. He then added another assist Thursday when he deflected Provorov’s shot, setting up DeAngelo to score on the rebound.

While Cates was offensively productive in his mini-debut last season (he scored five goals and nine points in 16 games), his calling card was his hard forechecking. That was also especially evident Thursday as he chased down Blue Jackets, including late in the game with the team down, 3-1.

Cates’ weakest point has been his faceoffs, since center isn’t his natural position, but his practice started to pay off, with him winning 8 of 12. He said he was facing off against a younger player all night, which helped him a lot.

After the game, Cates thought he had a strong performance but added he’s still learning how to be mentally and physically tough enough to deal with the NHL schedule and pace.

The Flyers return home to host Claude Giroux and the Ottawa Senators for a 1 p.m. game Saturday.