Hart pulled as Flyers fail to put dent in Isles’ playoff push, lose 6th straight originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers finished a dreadful road trip with a 4-0 loss Saturday night to the Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Carter Hart allowed three goals through two periods. Felix Sandstrom took over in the third period and surrendered the final marker.
John Tortorella’s club has lost six games in a row (0-5-1).
The Flyers (29-37-13) went 0-4-0 on their four-game road swing and were outscored 16-5. They haven’t won away from home since Feb. 20, a stretch in which they’ve dropped 10 straight road games (0-9-1) and have been outscored 43-14.
The Flyers went 1-3-0 against the Islanders (41-30-9) in the four-game regular-season series.
The victory was huge for New York, which holds the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot by a point with two games remaining.
• In the last two seasons, the Flyers have had the following losing streaks:
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13 games — 0-10-3 from Dec. 30, 2021-Jan. 25, 2022
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10 games — 0-7-3 from Nov. 10-26, 2022
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10 games — 0-8-2 from Nov. 18-Dec. 8, 2021
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6 games — 0-5-1 (current)
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6 games — 0-6-0 from April 9-19, 2022
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6 games — 0-4-2 from Feb. 9-22, 2022
As Tortorella said in November, the Flyers have “got to eat that s—.”
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• Somewhat surprisingly, Hart was yanked after two periods. The 24-year-old made 15 saves on 18 shots.
Scott Mayfield’s game-opening goal in the first period came on a shot that changed direction through a ton of traffic.
Brock Nelson and Samuel Bolduc made it 3-0 Islanders during the second period. They both had grade A looks as the Flyers were beat in coverage.
Hart can probably stop one of them, but the shots are coming from skaters barreling down on him untouched.
Perhaps Tortorella made the move in part because he felt Hart could be better and he also wants to use his No. 1 goalie Sunday.
New York netminder Ilya Sorokin stopped all 27 of the Flyers’ shots for the shutout. The Flyers were blanked for the sixth time this season.
• Owen Tippett and Rasmus Ristolainen led the Flyers with four shots apiece. The club’s power play, which ranks last in the league, went 0 for 2.
• Interestingly, Tony DeAngelo was sat for a second straight game.
The 27-year-old defenseman was a healthy scratch for the team’s 4-1 loss Thursday night to the Stars because the Flyers wanted to get another look at prospect Ronnie Attard. But on Friday, Attard was sent back to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley to rejoin the Phantoms’ playoff push.
DeAngelo, though, stayed out of the lineup against the Islanders as veteran Justin Braun got the nod.
With 42 points, DeAngelo has led all Flyers defensemen in goals (11) and assists (31). But defensively there have been moments in which Tortorella has wanted more out of DeAngelo. He owns a minus-27 rating.
This is the first season of DeAngelo’s two-year, $10 million deal with the Flyers.
Four days before the trade deadline, Tortorella expressed his belief in DeAngelo being a part of the solution moving forward.
“He competes, he does all the things and the personality shows — it’s what we want,” the head coach said in late February. “Do I think he’s a big part of trying to get us on the right track? Absolutely.”
• Ian Laperriere’s Phantoms clinched a playoff berth Saturday night.
• The Flyers are right back at it Sunday when they host the 62-win, 129-point Bruins (6 p.m. ET/TNT).
Tortorella’s club is 2-11-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets.
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