Flyers' nightmare with Lightning finishes on a 5-1 loss
Flyers' nightmare with Lightning finishes on a 5-1 loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers will be happy to be done with the Lightning this season.
They were outclassed by Tampa Bay again in a 5-1 loss Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Christian Dvorak provided the Flyers’ lone goal when the Lightning already had a 3-0 lead.
The Flyers (22-14-8) couldn’t rebound from their worst loss of the season, a 7-2 drubbing right here two days ago to this same Tampa Bay team.
“Two tough games for us, two good challenges,” Sean Couturier said. “Obviously I think we have a lot of work to do to get to that level. They’re a pretty experienced team that plays the right way and sticks to their game plan. It’s something we can learn. I still believe in this group, that we can get there. We’ve just got to put in the work.”
Rick Tocchet’s club has dropped consecutive games in regulation for just the second time. The Flyers are now 9-2-2 in games following a regulation loss.
“We’ve just got to learn from a couple of games like that and be better from it,” Dvorak said. “Mature a bit as a group and we’ll get on the other side of this.”
A banged-up Travis Konecny returned to the lineup after he missed his first game of the season with an upper-body injury. Konecny, though, is now dealing with a lower-body injury after he took a puck to his knee Sunday at practice.
It didn’t keep him out Monday night. His game ended early with 9:24 minutes left in the third period when he was tossed for “abuse of officials” after being whistled for crosschecking.
The Lightning (28-13-3) are on an absolutely torrid stretch in which they’ve scored five goals per game over 10 straight wins.
The Flyers were swept in their three-game regular-season series with Tampa Bay and were outscored 15-3.
“I guarantee you we’re going to have a good meeting here,” Nick Seeler said. “It’s consistency, it’s game management, it’s those little things that really good teams do consistently that allow them to be successful.
“We’re a young group, we’re getting a lot better, but this one’s in the rearview. We need to have a great game in Buffalo and come out with two points and get back on track here.”
• Dan Vladar could do only so much for the Flyers.
He wasn’t at his best, but he really wasn’t a problem. The 28-year-old finished with 21 saves on 25 shots.
The Lightning’s final goal was an empty-netter.
The Flyers fell behind 1-0 for the 30th time. Tampa Bay’s game-opening goal came just 1:10 minutes into the action when the Flyers couldn’t locate a loose puck at the feet of Pontus Holmberg.
Then, only 33 seconds into the middle stanza, Erik Cernak’s shot went off Jake Guentzel and past Vladar. Not even four minutes later, Brayden Point padded the Lightning’s lead to 3-0 on the power play. Vladar made the initial save on Point, but he had little to no chance at stopping the next shot off the rebound.
Dvorak stemmed the tide for the Flyers with a goal. The Flyers had a chance to trim the deficit to 3-2 with a couple of power plays, but they didn’t record a shot on either one.
Tampa Bay took advantage, extending its lead back to three with another power play goal in the final minute of the second period.
“Our power play, you can tell some guys are nervous out there,” Tocchet said. “We’ve just got to relax them. That’s my job, we’ve got to get these guys to relax a little bit.”
Lightning netminder Jonas Johansson stopped 20 of the Flyers’ 21 shots.
“That’s a good hockey team over there,” Tocchet said. “It’s a measuring stick. You can’t get frustrated, you’ve just got to keep working, you’ve got to do the proper things. We’ve got to hold onto pucks. Let’s face it, their best players are very good. They’re on the scoresheet. There’s a level that we’ve got to find for some of our guys to get to. That’s what we’re going to try to get to every day.”
• Matvei Michkov was held without a point.
Since the start of December, the 21-year-old winger has just one goal — an empty-netter — in 19 games. Michkov has eight assists over that span, but the Flyers could really use his goal-scoring ability.
It just hasn’t been there right now.
“He’s trying,” Tocchet said. “I’d like to see him separate himself in the corners. He’s easily checked and I know there are some reasons because of it. We’ve got to keep working with him.”
• Rodrigo Abols and Nikita Grebenkin both dropped the gloves for the Flyers simultaneously in the third period.
• The Flyers are back in action Wednesday when they visit the Sabres (7:30 p.m. ET/TNT).
