Flyers can’t catch up to Lightning after Hart chased
PHILADELPHIA >> He had missed the last 40 Flyers games. Coming off offseason abdominal surgery, Brian Elliott really wasn’t sound this season until one short November stretch before he incurred another core muscular failure that would essentially throw a wrench into this season of high expectations.
In his first foray in a Flyers uniform Tuesday night in over three months, and knowing he’ll soon be relegated to the club’s third goalie role in a season of drastic change, how could Elliott have expected to get thrown right back into the fire against the NHL’s hottest team?
That’s what happened to the rebuilt-again 33-year-old goalie, who responded surprisingly well but couldn’t prevent what became a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“You get thrown in there, sometimes it’s for the best,” Elliott said after stopping 22 of 23 shots, having entered with the Lightning celebrating a 3-0 lead just 10:23 into the first period.
“You’re not thinking too much then,” Elliott said, “You’re just going out there and playing. I felt good . ... It’s tough. We mounted that comeback, we just couldn’t get it all the way through.”
Blitzed in the first by the Lightning, the Flyers appeared on the verge of a fast blowout loss when should-berusty Elliott replaced downcast rookie hero Carter Hart. Except for two AHL games last weekend on a rehab assignment with the Phantoms, two games in which Elliott gave up seven goals on 57 shots, he had to work through three months of prep work.
All that just to return to a club that had just made a trade for goalie Cam Talbot, who clearly will be the No. 2 guy behind Hart.
Or at least that’s the way it should logically shake out.
“Coach’s decision,” Elliott had said earlier Tuesday. “I’ve just become available and I just want to help. It’s been great having the guys back in the mix, fighting for every point every night. That’s why I’m excited to be part of it again.
“You have to come here with a smile on your face and be ready to play when called upon. So that’s what I’ll do.”
What he didn’t think he’d be doing was facing the Lightning before his bench seat was warm. But rookie of the year candidate Hart was off his game, and the Flyers were blown off their heels at the start of this one by streaking Tampa Bay (46-11-4, 96 points).
“We didn’t show up on time,” Sean Couturier said. “They were all over us in the first period. We got caught in our end, we didn’t win some battles, they made us turn the puck over a lot. You can’t do that against that team. They’re too skilled and they’ll make you pay.”
Elliott’s re-introduction to big league hockey paid quick dividends. He was surprisingly solid while the stop-and-go Flyers started a comeback with an Oskar Lindblom goal 63 seconds into the third period.
“It’s just like every other one you’ve done throughout the career,” Elliott said of his sudden return. “It’s kind of easier sometimes, because you’re not thinking about the game too much, you’re just ready if you need to go in. But you’re not stressing about it.”
His team was pressing the issue again until Tampa got a power play, and a scramble had Elliott flopping in the crease and losing his stick. He recovered in time to get in the way of Yanni Gourde’s nearly 90-degree bullet that slammed into Elliott’s stickless midsection.
“Honestly it like, bruised my palm,” he marveled. “So I don’t even know how it squeaked through.”
It went to 4-1, and the Flyers closed it to 4-2, and then Couturier seemed to score ... until ref Jake Brenk ruled no goal because of goaltender interference. It was backed up by a replay.
Not that the replay helps explain the rule.
“It’s kind of everybody’s different interpretation of it,” Elliott said. “I didn’t see how it went in or where it went in . ... Doesn’t mean much right now.”
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Even though the loss was in the books, the goaltending interference call mattered to Couturier. There was no penalty on the interference, which came with 47.5 seconds to play, because it was ruled “incidental contact.” Whatever that is.
“I don’t know what to say. I saw it afterward again. It was a loose puck. I hit it, I gave it a second whack, and the goalie, I don’t know, he was already on his ass and the puck was already in the back of the net by the second time I hit it,” Couturier said. “I really don’t know what the explanation is. You’ll have to ask the NHL for that one. I don’t know what goalie interference is anymore.”
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NOTES >> Hart on what coach Scott Gordon said to him after pulling him at 10:23 of the first: “He said, ‘It’s not all on you,’” Hart said. “But three goals on nine shots, that’s on me, too. I’ve got to be better. It sucks right now, but you have to put it behind you.” ... Hart won’t have to wait long to put it behind him as the Flyers face the Canadiens in Montreal Thursday night . ... Talbot, still waiting for visa issues to clear up to allow him to enter the U.S., is expected to join the Flyers when they return from Montreal.
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