The Philadelphia Flyers were without a few key players on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it showed. The team suffered its worst loss of the season, falling 7-2 at home, largely due to an awful effort in the third period.
The Flyers’ previous season-high in goals allowed was five, which happened seven times, but Tampa Bay lit them up a touchdown and an extra point on Saturday night.
It was a particularly rough game for goaltender Sam Ersson. He has been battling through some struggles all year long, and those came to a head against a red-hot Lightning team.
Philadelphia didn’t allow a ton of shots, which only made Errson’s night tougher. It seemed that most shots the Lightning were taking had a good chance of going in, as they scored seven goals on just 23 shots in the game.
It’s obvious to everyone, including head coach Rick Tocchet, that Ersson is struggling to find his confidence right now.
“Yeah, he’s struggling. You can tell a little bit,” Tocchet said after the game. “You’re going to have tough nights. It’s a tough night.”
Tocchet stressed that it’s important for Ersson, or anyone, to continue to work to get out of the mud.
It doesn’t make it any easier when the mud is being slung from the home crowd.
The Flyers fans showered Errson with some sarcastic cheers in the first period after allowing two goals on three shots, and then again in the third period after the Lightning poured it on. Tampa Bay scored a pair of goals just 94 seconds apart to break open the game early in the final frame, and then two more within two minutes in the middle of the period.
While Ersson is certainly not on top of his game, the Flyers didn’t put up a strong effort in front of him.
“We’ve got to be better in front of him. Those are tough games to play,” Owen Tippett said after the game. “Obviously, I think he deserved better, and I don’t know if sarcastic cheers are really appreciated, but we got to do a better job in front of him and not put him in those situations.”
Tippett scored on the power play in the third period once the game was out of reach, but he is one of the players who needed a better overall performance on Saturday night.
The winger was on the ice for the Lightning’s first goal early in the game. His pass was mishandled by Denver Barkey, and Brayden Point was right there to battle the rookie for the puck. Instead of getting into that battle along the boards or staying in a more defensive position, Tippett flew past as the rookie was checked, leading to Point dishing the puck to a wide-open Nikita Kucherov for the opening tally.
Tippett isn’t at fault for that goal, but when Sean Couturier was already in the neutral zone, he needed to be more aware of how quickly Point and Kucherov can make you pay for a turnover.
After Garnet Hathaway tied the game with his first goal of the season, the Lightning struck again, once again off the stick of Kucherov. This one, however, was one that you’d want Ersson to stop.
The veteran winger was one of a few Flyers players to offer his support to the netminder both during and after the game.
“Keep his head up. I don’t think we played as defensively sound as we needed to against a very offensive-minded team,” Hathaway offered. “That’s not on him.”
The Flyers kept it at a one-goal game until the latter portion of the second period, when Nicolas Paul put home a bad rebound in front. Once again, it was the Couturier line on the ice for a goal against as Paul split the center and Tippett to pounce on the rebound.
And then things really unraveled in the third period. The Flyers got away from their defensive structure, and Ersson failed to stop any of the three one-on-one looks he had.
“Awful third period. We’ll just move on. It’s one of those games you’ve got to forget quick and come ready to play,” Couturier said. “We’ve got a chance to play the same team Monday and get two points back… If you look at the goals, we gave up some quality chances. That’s not all on him. It’s on us to be better in front of him and support him better, and limit the quality chances. That’s on us.”
Saturday night’s performance showed the difference between where the Flyers are at right now — especially with Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink, and Jamie Drysdale out — and a team like the Lightning, which won its ninth-straight game on Saturday night and is atop the Eastern Conference in terms of point percentage.
It looked like Konecny might be able to return on Monday night, but he left practice on Sunday after taking a shot off his knee. Hopefully, it was just a temporary issue, but he could once again be a game-time decision against the Lightning.
The good news for the Flyers is that they’ve only lost back-to-back games in regulation once this season. The bad news is that they’ll once again try to stop this red-hot Lightning team for a second straight time on Monday night. But if they’re able to learn from their mistakes, play more defensively sound, and get Dan Vladar in net for the rematch, we could see a bounce-back win to end the homestand.
