Flyers lose big to Maple Leafs as difficult stretch begins originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers had an inauspicious start to a gauntlet of a schedule over the next 13 days.
They were blown out by the Maple Leafs, 6-2, Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers gave up three goals in the first and third periods.
“At this time of year, you’ve got to be ready to play, you can’t just go out there and put your stick on the ice and hope for the best,” Scott Laughton said. “The last three games haven’t been good enough. Even against San Jose, we get a win, but it’s not good enough at this time of year, especially in the stretch we’re in.
“Everyone’s got to look in the mirror here and figure out what we need to do collectively as a group to get better. Especially on home ice, it’s just not good enough, it’s not hard enough.”
Samuel Ersson was pulled for the second time in the last three games.
Owen Tippett (power play) and Tyson Foerster (shorthanded) scored the club’s goals.
The Flyers (34-25-8) haven’t won consecutive games since Feb. 6-12, when they ripped off four straight out of the long break. They’re 5-6-2 since then, a stretch that started with an overtime loss to Toronto.
In this one, 12 different Maple Leafs recorded at least a point.
“This time of the year, whether you lose 7-0 or 2-1, it’s a loss,” Sean Couturier said. “You’ve got to move on. We’ve got a big game in Boston here coming up. We’ll be ready.”
Assistant coaches Brad Shaw, Rocky Thompson and Darryl Williams ran the Flyers’ bench again as John Tortorella served the second game of his two-game suspension.
The Flyers are 0-1-1 against Toronto and face it once more in five days back at the Wells Fargo Center. They’re 0-7-1 and have been outscored 39-17 in their last eight matchups with the Maple Leafs (38-19-8).
“Part of what we have to learn is what’s necessary as far as effort at this time of year to have success,” Shaw said. “Toronto’s got a battle-hardened group there that has been through some hard knocks for the last whatever stretch time of time, half dozen years. We’ve got a lot of guys that still have to learn all that. They have to recognize how hard you have to play to have any chance at this time of year. Hopefully it’s a good lesson.”
• This was the first of seven straight games against bona-fide contenders for the Flyers.
If they’re able to survive this part of the schedule and nail down a playoff berth, they’ll have certainly earned it.
“Regardless that the group of games we have in the next couple of weeks are fairly daunting, when you look at them one game at a time, we’re capable of winning any night when we play our A-game,” Shaw said after morning skate Thursday. “That’s our challenge, is how close can we get to our best game with as many players as possible, as often as possible?”
Here are the club’s next six games:
Two vs. BOS
One vs. FLA
One vs. NYR
One vs. CAR
One vs. TOR
The Islanders lost to the Sabres, 4-0, Thursday night, so the Flyers are still four points up on New York in the Metropolitan Division race. The Islanders, though, have played two fewer games.
The Flyers have held third place since the end of January and entered Thursday with an 81.5 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to Hockey-Reference.com’s probabilities report.
• Ersson just seemed off in the first period, surrendering three goals on 12 shots.
The third was a Timothy Liljegren shot from distance. It felt like a backbreaker considering the Flyers had a Maple Leafs goal overturned 2:58 minutes prior for a hand pass, keeping the deficit at a manageable 2-0.
“It’s a clear shot from way out,” Ersson said. “Definitely one I want to have back.”
Ersson has yielded nine goals on 56 shots over his last three outings. He was taken out in the first period of the Flyers’ 7-0 loss last Saturday to the Lightning.
It’s easy to forget he’s a 24-year-old rookie who was thrown into No. 1 duties and has been very reliable. The Lightning and Maple Leafs can put up crooked numbers on established goalies.
Once again, Ersson will have to respond and not let this one bleed into his next start.
“I think I’ve done that all year,” Ersson said. “It’s something, as a goalie, you’re going to have to do. You’re going to have tough games. I don’t like it, I want to play good every game, especially how important these games are for us. But it’s in the past now, I can’t control it. I can just look forward and go ahead and meet the next challenge.”
Felix Sandstrom took over at the start of the second period and held Toronto off the board for those 20 minutes. However, Auston Matthews and William Nylander struck for goals within an eight-second span early in the third period to bury the Flyers.
Matthew Knies tacked on a sixth goal after a Maple Leafs power play expired and three Flyers had lost their stick.
Because of injuries and the trade deadline, the Flyers are facing a real gut check on defense.
Toronto netminder Ilya Samsonov stopped 26 of the Flyers’ 28 shots.
• The Flyers head to Boston for a matchup Saturday against the Bruins (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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