Comeback not enough for Flyers to defeat Blue Jackets
Flyers rally for point, but Jones scores OT winner for Blue Jackets
PHILADELPHIA >> Just a few years ago, two of the prospects at the fore of Ron Hextall’s ongoing Flyers rebuilding project were like beacons in a stark room. It’s taken a few years, a couple of terrible injuries, lots of growing pains and the demise of the job Hextall loved so much and apparently was going so well for the lights to start shining.
Finally there are hints that Travis Sanheim and Anthony Stolarz are ready to pay dividends.
Sanheim scored twice and Stolarz was at least relatively solid for a second straight game in net Thursday night as the Flyers put together an impressive third period comeback ... only to blow the game 10 seconds into overtime for a 4-3 loss.
Dividends, perhaps. But there are still a lot of growing pains for young players such as Sanheim and Stolarz, and enough ongoing issues everywhere else for new general manager Chuck Fletcher to have filled his agenda upon seeing his team up close for the first time.
“We showed good resilience to battle back and tie the game up,” Sanheim said, “but there’s a lot of areas we’d like to be better in. I wish it didn’t have to get to that point.”
The point they did get was in the standings, and only because Sanheim — whose last goal was in the playoffs against Pittsburgh and who had two goals in 74 previous regular season games — scored twice in the span of 2:05 in the third period.
Stolarz, who would have liked an early Columbus goal by Seth Jones back, got better as the game wore on and helped give meaning to the two Sanheim goals.
“He made some big saves to make sure we stayed in the game,” Claude Giroux said of Stolarz. “Guys played well and finished the game well. Obviously that’s not the result we want but we did a good job.”
It took only 10 seconds for it to unravel in the 3 on 3 OT, though. That’s because two of the Flyers’ usually steady defensive players (yes, there are at least two) had breakdowns on the same play.
Sean Couturier just had to clear a puck up the boards but instead tries to play back to Ivan Provorov off the boards. The puck simply stopped with Cam Atkinson, who passed to a completely uncovered Jones in the slot, while Provorov hesitated too long to get over to him.
Jones easily beat Stolarz with a snap shot and the game was over.
Another hard lesson on the road to success?
“I was just trying to be patient with it,” Couturier said, “but we screwed it up.”
Oh.
As for Stolarz, there was really nothing he could do except be luckier on Jones’ bullet of a winner, his second goal of the game. But with the Flyers’ top two goalies Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth out of late, and backup Alex Lyon failing an audition and getting hurt before going back to the minors, Stolarz is trying to play like a guy who really is back from a couple of devastating knee injuries.
Just in time, however, always injured Neuvirth returned in this game, manning the bench gate as Stolarz’s backup. Presuming he’s OK to play by Saturday, he could be finally back in net for what would be his second game of the season, this against the flying Buffalo Sabres. Or Sunday in Winnipeg.
Either one should work out fine. So long as Stolarz is along for another ride around the learning curve just in case.
“As a goalie you just want to try to settle in and early on I give up that first goal (the bad one to Jones
5:58 into the game) and it’s not the way you want to start,” Stolarz said. “For me, I just have to keep battling and try to find a rhythm.
“You don’t want to give up those squeakers. It’s still a learning process but I have to kind of settle in and figure that out. The fact that I’m making some big saves is a confidence boost for me. At the same time, at the end of the day you have to make those saves and give the guys a chance to win.”
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Not helping the Flyers’ cause yet again was their recent hunger for taking penalties. Columbus had five power plays, all in the first two periods. Good for the Flyers, though, because their recent uptick in penalty killing continued. They’ve killed 14 consecutive man advantages.
But there are other effects of taking so many minors.
“When you take a lot of penalties like that it kills momentum,” Giroux said. “You have guys taking a lot more ice time (killing penalties) and some guys just sitting on the bench. It’s tough when you’re sitting on the bench. Your legs are not going. If we move our legs, and keep in better position, we won’t have to take those penalties.”
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NOTES >> While the Flyers’ penalty killing is markedly better, their power play is currently on an oh-for-8 skid . ... Ex-Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky, struggling in the Columbus crease, wound up a winner after stopping 23 of 26 shots . ... With a pair of assists, Travis Konecny has 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) in his last seven games.