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Some takeaways from Flyers’ 5-0 loss to the Devils

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A good first period kept the Flyers in it, but a hard and questionable hit on Owen Tippett slowly but steadily unhinged the Flyers. The result was an ugly second period, garbage time in the third, and a 5-0 loss to New Jersey.

The basics

First period: No scoring

Second period: 0:54 – Ondrej Palat (Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt) (PPG), 6:27 – Luke Hughes (Unassisted), 12:41 – Nathan Bastian (Timo Meier, Luke Hughes) (PPG), 13:43 – Dawson Mercer (Timo Meier, Brett Pesce)

Third period: 1:58 – Jack Hughes (Jesper Bratt, Brett Pesce)

SOG: 24 (PHI) – 26 (NJD)

Some takeaways

Avoid dumb penalties

Morgan Frost took a rather dumb penalty by lazily hooking a Devils player almost 200 feet from Sam Ersson. And the Flyers were punished for such stupidity, as the Devils scored after a shot deflected off Nick Seeler and took the lead 1-0. Frost was not punished for the gaffe as he ended up on the ensuing shift.

That shift sadly had plenty of action as Brenden Dillon nailed Owen Tippett hard and Tippett left for the dressing room. It looked a bit similar to Seeler’s hit the game before, the main difference being Tippett never looked like he touched the puck which would make it an interference penalty. John Tortorella was rather vocal in his displeasure but Dillon wasn’t dinged for anything.

From there it seemed the Flyers looked like they lost their focus and slowly but steadily New Jersey started getting the upper hand on the ice and on the scoreboard. Obviously, with the loss of Tippett the lines were jumbled up a bit to find another winger for Michkov and Frost. And sadly Tippett didn’t return after the hit as the Flyers made it official to start the third period.

No harm, no foul

Nathan Bastian was in the lineup Wednesday night, so obviously the heavy hit he took from Nick Seeler didn’t cause any long-term damage. However it didn’t stop the Devils from looking to possibly start something from the start. After Tyson Foerster delivered a hard but clean hit on Devils forward Dawson Mercer, fellow Devil Timo Meier crosschecked Foerster but nothing came of it. Meier delivered a clean hit on Noah Cates minutes later and again looked to try to start something.

Hits and hatred galore

The second period took a while to play, but it was filled with venom and vitriol from both sides. Scott Laughton wanted to go with Jonas Siegenthaler (he didn’t). Then Travis Sanheim was cross-checked to the ice which gave the Flyers a power play. They nearly scored on the power play as a seat-of-your-pants unit including Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Rasmus Ristolainen and Bobby Brink had a lot of presence, passing and offensive zone time. Fortunately Sam Ersson was amazing on two golden opportunities the Devils had, including a great save on Jack Hughes with his blocker.

The Devils still looked to be hunting to hurt at times, particularly towards Garnet Hathaway as Siegenthaler narrowly missed nailing him in the head on a check. If this is the toughness the Devils are after, I’m sure they’ll do fine in the playoffs. After all, any team coached by Sheldon Keefe is guaranteed a deep run towards the Stanley Cup.

Richard gets dinged also

Anthony Richard will be sporting a shiner Thursday morning after getting cut under his left eye midway through the third period. Fortunately it wasn’t bleeding and Richard wasn’t getting stitched up.

Michkov has his chances

Matvei Michkov was around the net early and nearly had a goal late in the first. Appearing to have almost a gimme, Michkov tried to stop the puck with his skate but the puck didn’t bounce the way he wanted. In the second period during a four-on-four segment, Michkov made a deft, delicate pass that created a two-on-one. Michkov came in and drew a penalty on Jack Hughes, creating a brief four-on-three advantage for the Flyers.

As the second period went on, Michkov was on the wrong side of the puck a few times, getting in trouble on the Devils’ fourth goal and clearly beaten on another New Jersey odd-man opportunity that Ersson got a piece of.

Couturier back

Sean Couturier was back among the Flyers forwards, and nearly had a goal on his opening shift. The officials delayed the game a few minutes to review the play but realized Devils goalie Jake Allen kept it out. The captain was on the fourth line with Garnet Hathaway and Anthony Richard and, at least in the first period, spent more time in the offensive zone.

Simple, quiet start

The Devils and Flyes each had six combined shots in first nine minutes of play. Philadelphia’s first power play was embarrassing even by Flyer standards, with no semblance of an organized plan. Unless the plan was letting New Jersey have a few good scoring chances. The Devils had two of the three shots 16 minutes in short-handed. So obviously the key to shut down New Jersey is to, er, not have a power play.

The Devils had a stellar chance before the buzzer sounded but the shot was blocked by Cam York. Overall it was a good road period for the Flyers, mirroring the style and flow of most of the previous two games these teams have played.

Fedotov finds action

After New Jersey made it 4-0, Tortorella decided Ersson had enough on this night and switched goalies. It was more of a mercy pull versus a sign he looked bad. It also made the situation for Thursday night’s game against the Islanders a little more problematic as now both goalies will have played consecutive games. Unless Aleksei Kolosov got called up again.

Fedotov, much like Ersson, found himselves with more Devils coming at him than Flyers. Early in the third the Devils made it 5-0 on a play Fedotov didn’t have much of a chance stopping. But by then the Flyers were mentally en route back home to Wells Fargo Center to focus on the Islanders.

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