Flyers fall to Anaheim, 4-1, for third straight loss
PHILADELPHIA >> No matter how hard they try, it seems the Flyers can’t keep from streaking one way or another.
It’s not that your eyes are lying, fans. It must have something more to do with their brains.
There’s no denying that the Flyers are playing a steadier and more mistake-free brand of hockey, and that they carry more confidence than they did early in the season.
Yet with every profound pronouncement of consistency and confidence comes the occasional streak of bad breaks or loose play or injury misfortune or just a downright stinker that somehow winds up in a stinking, sinking streak.
It was another classic from the stinker category Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center as the Flyers flopped to the visiting Anaheim Ducks, 4-1. So continues the perpetual uphill walk for this season’s cast.
Since growing out of yet another early season slow-up that featured streaks of four and
three losses over the first six weeks, the Flyers have won a lot of games.
But it was after a run of 5-1-1 that they lost three straight games in regulation on the West Coast (starting with Anaheim) just after Christmas. And it was after another run of 5-0-1 to start anew in the New Year that they lost three straight games from Jan. 19-25, once again falling back in their desperate run for postseason hope.
Those hopes were starting to soar again when the Flyers spent most of a game Saturday jumping all over the Rangers. Then they scored with 12.9 seconds left in overtime and won in a shootout.
The next day featured another well played game by the Flyers, only to have it end in a tough loss in Washington. One encouraging exhale later, the Flyers were essentially dominated by a good Ducks team that nonetheless was coming off a quacky 6-2 loss in Pittsburgh.
Maybe that’s why the Ducks came out and fired 12 of the game’s first 13 shots. The barrage saw Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell score on a backhanded rebound shot at 10:27 of the first, then score again at 15:08 of the period on a circle wrist shot that went through Steve Mason’s legs.
Outshot by 15-5 in that period, the Flyers did get their act together quickly in the second, but were forever frustrated by Ducky goalie Frederik Andersen. The Philadelphia momentum was then curbed when Chris Stewartwas awarded a penalty shot at the 12:48 mark, and he beat Mason on it to make it a 3-0 game.
The Flyers finally got on the board 13:55 into the third period when Wayne Simmonds shoved home a rebound on a power play. Hope sprung briefly again when another Flyers power play followed shortly thereafter, but Andersen and Company locked them down. Then Andrew Cogliano put them away with an empty netter in the final minute...
And another three-game losing streak for the Flyers came to be.