Ducks have a ball with sloppy Flyers on really sloppy ice
PHILADELPHIA » Certainly no team is going to expect to “win ‘em all,” but maybe the Flyers thought they could at least keep going for a while without embarrassing themselves. Nah. Not when the loss of injured defenseman Andrew MacDonald somehow moved coach Dave Hakstol to reshuffle all three defensive pairings with little practice notice. Not when Sean Couturier seemed to be the only scoring line forward interested in scoring Tuesday night. Oh, and not when an unusually humid morning in South Philadelphia led to something apparently unforeseen circumstances. Not nice ice, baby... “I thought the ice was horrendous Shayne Gostisbehere said.
Such was the honest words of a frustrated Flyers defenseman who no doubt was echoing everyone else in the locker room of a team that lost 6-2 to the mighty vengeful Ducks of Anaheim Tuesday night at not-so sWell Fargo Center.
Making the loss all the worse was the loss early in the second period of top rookie Nolan Patrick, who crashed into the glass face-first and didn’t return to the game. No status report was issued on Patrick by the club.
Despite jumping out in front early on the first of two Couturier goals, the Flyers (5-4) found themselves trying to catch up to the bigger and — on this night, anyway — faster Ducks.
No real explanation for that, unless you listen to what the complainers had to say.
Couturier: “The ice is pretty bad right now, and we know it. We’ve got to make better decisions, play with a conciousness of that.”
Claude Giroux: “It was just a little different. We don’t know what was the issue but at the same time it’s fair for both teams.
“We’ll look into it, but I don’t really want to comment because I don’t know what tonight,” was going on.”
And then came Shayne, part of the defensive unit where all three pairs were essentially unfamiliar with their partners on the ice for the first two periods, and had enormous problems breaking out of the zone against the effectively forechecking Ducks...
“I don’t know what was going on, it’s just sticking to (pucks),” Gostisbehere said. “It’s not an excuse or anything. It’s just something we have to deal with and hopefully it’ll get better.”
It apparently was pretty bad earlier on the homestand, and when the skies around the Delaware Valley were cleared by a good, hard rain ... it was no secret how warm and wet the air would become in the afternoon.
So what, did somebody leave those big doors down on the ground floor open again?
“It wasn’t as bad as (this) before,” Gostisbehere said. “That’s the worst it’s ever been here in my career here. I know it’ll get better again. The big thing is not about the ice, it’s about how we played.” Yeah, there was that. There were clearing passes off the mark, and too many missed assignments to count. The defense seemed particularly off its respective levels of play, but then, these guys hadn’t played together.
So Hakstol, realizing this after the second period ended with the Ducks leading 4-1, made some adjustments. Gostisbehere went back to Robert Hagg, usually reliable Ivan Provorov, playing his worst game of the season thus far, settled in with rookie Travis Sanheim, and Brandon Manning joined Radek Gudas after spending the first two periods looking confused.
“It was their size and speed,” Manning said, “I don’t know that we were quite ready for that. They took advantage of a few opportunities.”
Much of that was done by the standout cohorts Ryan Getzlaf (goal, assist) and Corey Perry (two assists), along with two goals by skilled second-year player Ondrej Kase — a seventh (and final) round draft pick in 2014.
No wonder there was plenty of embarrassment to go around on the Flyers’ bench.
“As a team we could have played a little better, obviously, but that comes from not playing with certain guys,” Gostisbehere said. “I think we just went back to some comfortability level (in the third period).”
By then, of course, the game was essentially decided. The Flyers going zero-for-5 on the power play certainly didn’t help turn the tide back the way it should have gone.
But at least the angered looks on so many faces hints that maybe this low tide can quickly turn, too.
You know, as soon cooler heads prevail.
“We have to do a better job keeping our composure,” Giroux said. “We weren’t happy with some of the calls . ... I was the first one to kind of lose my compusure. And we got away from our game plan.
“They played a good game and we know we can play better. Especially at home, finishing a homestand.”
The Flyers finished it at 3-2, which viewed in the larger scope isn’t that bad, since they usually find themselves swimming as colder ice and upstream by late October.
“Short memory,” Gostisbehere said. “We’ve got a lot of games left here. Obviously this one stings a bit, humbles you a bit. It’s our first bad loss as a team this season. So I think it’s going to show a lot about our team in how we respond.”
*** While rookie center Patrick didn’t come back after taking a nasty dive into a stanchion above the boards after a seemingly harmless shoulder check, he did make an appearance later.
Patrick spent the third period watching from a press box seat. It would be easy to guess, then, that a concussion wasn’t a problem ... except that the Flyers issued no injury report.
General manager Ron Hextall said only Patrick will be re-evaluated Wednesday.
*** NOTES » Couturier scored his second goal of the game midway through the third period, marking his 200th NHL point. The assists were by Travis Sanheim and Jake Voracek — they were the first and 500th points, respectively, for those players . ... Flyers hit the road next, with games in Ottawa Thursday and Toronto Saturday.