Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Kings force change to Flyers’ responsible game
PHILADELPHIA » Instead of sticking to the scaled down game that was at the heart of their recent success, the Flyers found themselves chasing a game against the Los Angeles Kings Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Taking advantage of some loose neutral zone play by the Flyers and a poor line change that resulted in a shot that goalie Brian Elliott would like to have another wave of his glove at, the Flyers helped post the Kings with an early lead, something the Kings know how to hold onto for dear life.
Having lost their previous three games on this road trip, the Kings weren’t about let this opportunity go, eventually nailing down a 4-1 win over the no-longer-streaking Flyers.
“They have a lot of experience,” Sean Couturier said. “They’ve won in the past and they know how to win. When you’re down early in the game and you can’t get it back early they’re a tough team.
“They know how to close games.”
With a veteran go-to goalie like Jonathan Quick, that usually isn’t such a tough challenge. Quick was routinely excellent again on this night, stopping 36 Flyers shots while being had only on a bit of a lucky rebound goal on a power play by Jake Voracek.
That goal halved what had been a two-goal Kings jump out of the gate, but would be way too little because the Flyers gave the Kings odd-man rush chances too often the rest of the way.
“In the third we were kind of chasing the game,” Couturier said, “and trying to force plays. But overall we just have to be better.”
This is not the way they had played in the prior six winning games, though they feel what’s really important is to not let this one loss turn into anything resembling the 10-game losing streak that had preceded the six-game winning streak.
“I thought our guys did a really good job (winning) six in a row after not winning for 10,” said Elliott, who was the Flyers’ foremost weapon in that winning streak, being named Monday as a league star of the week (No. 2 this time) for the second straight week. “We just have to really look at the positive and stop this at a one-game loss and look ahead to the next game. I don’t think we need to hang our heads too low here.”
Perhaps not, but while the heads are down they can stare at what was obvious - that for the first time in nearly two weeks their play away from the puck in the neutral zone lacked cohesion, and their play with the puck was even worse. It added up to one very poor defensive outing for the Flyers, and it came against the wrong team.
“I think that’s because we got chasing from behind a bit,” said Elliott, referencing a goal by L.A.’s Alec Martinez that gave the Kings a lead only 5:27 in. “You try to do a little too much sometimes, I think. And they’re a good team that turns pucks over and goes the other way. That’s what they do. They stand up at the blue lines and red lines and just wait for you to kind of turn it over, and they go the other way.
“They’ve done it for a lot of years now.”
So has the team that’s next up on the Flyers’ schedule, the Detroit Red Wings, who come into the Center Wednesday night for an 8 p.m. start. That late call certainly calls for a better start by the home team.
But the Flyers’ trend this season has been one of repeating the highs and the lows. Or does it just seem that way?
“The results would say ‘streaky,’ but we have played good hockey over the whole stretch,” coach Dave Hakstol said of the Flyers’ 0-5-5 slide and immediate follow-up run of 6-0. “Tonight we got to look at ourselves and put our finger on a couple things we have to do better, and that we are capable of doing better.”
They could do that, or follow a different process...
“We have to forget about it,” Voracek said. “You have to play confident and can’t get down on yourself. Obviously today, we lost. Like I said, games like that are going to happen. You can’t win every single game right now. Just refocus. On the other hand, look at it this way, it’s a good team. It’s a good thing we lost to a team from the West. We’ve got an Eastern Conference team on Wednesday and we’ve got to make sure we win.”
*** As they have been for all but six games this season, the Kings were without Jeff Carter Monday night. Carter, the former Philadelphia power center, went out after getting cut by a skate on what Kings coach John Stevens said appeared to be an innocent play against Montreal in a game in midOctober.
Cut by Canadien Jeff Petry’s skate blade, Carter suffered damage to a tendon near his left ankle. Carter, the Kings’ goals leader at 32 last season, underwent surgery and is expected to be out until sometime in February.
As Stevens subsequently told the Los Angeles Times: “It’s a fast game with steel blades on your feet, so things can happen in a hurry.”
The Kings signed longtime Capitals forward Brooks Laich, 34, after Carter went out. He had been in the Kings’ camp on a tryout, but after just 12 games he was waived and mutually agreed to leave the team in late November.
*** Shayne Gostisbehere missed almost all of the second period with an apparent injury, but he did return for the third period and finished it through. “He played a good period and looked good,” Hakstol said.
That said, Gostisbehere spent a lot of post-game time in the trainers’ room, so there’s that concern.