OTTAWA, Ontario _ They were injured and undermanned. They were supposed to be sick. If the Flyers were designing a team to recover from their ugliest defeat of the season, the current Ottawa Senators, even with Craig Anderson in the net, would seem to check many boxes.
But it's like what Dave Hakstol said before the game: It's not about them, it's about us. And right now "us" at times looks about as lost as a young team in its 10th game of its young season can look. From another stupefying turnover by Travis Konecny to an epidemic of dangerously errant passes by veterans who should know better, the fragility the Flyers vowed was in their inglorious past reared its harrowing head in a 5-4 loss Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
"For whatever reason, we just didn't skate at the start," winger Jake Voracek said. "When you don't skate, you're going to give up chances give up goals. In those games where we don't play our best hockey, we have to keep it simple. We didn't do that."
Three first-period goals by Ottawa, playing without a slew of regulars including Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris, sucked any early swagger from a team that was defined by it over the first eight games of the season. Michal Neuvirth's tentative play, apparent from a harmless point shot that found its way past him in the game's first 91 seconds, also seeped quickly into their overall performance, and the Senators converted two head-scratching turnovers over the next 12 minutes to pad their lead.
With Brandon Manning sent off for a slash in the offensive zone inside of the game's first minute, Ottawa's Dion Phaneuf scored with a harmless flip from the blue line that looked as much an attempt to keep the puck in the zone as it did a scoring threat.
The Senators pushed it to 2-0 at 9:50 after Claude Giroux and Robert Hagg flubbed a chip along the boards that ultimately, with both Voracek and Sean Couturier higher along the boards along the same blue line, created an odd man rush inside their own zone that left Ottawa's Mark Borowiecki unattended in front.
They made it 3-0 after another awful decision by Konecny, who is working real hard to return to Dave Hakstol's doghouse. Asked before the game to assess his talented but defensively indifferent forward, the coach was already in faint-praise mode. "He puts a lot of value on the offensive side of the game," he said. "I like that hunger. But at the same time he's a young player who is still learning and growing with the detail that's needed on a nightly basis in this league."
With the man advantage, Konecny tried a board-to-board pass across the neutral zone that was picked clean by Erik Karlsson in mid-stride. The Senators defenseman skated into the Flyers zone and teed it up for Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the slot. These were juicy chances, but they hardly came in bunches. Neuvirth, who entered the game leading the league in GAA and save percentage and with a career record that mirrored that, fought some of the most benign chances.
The Flyers mounted several comebacks, starting with two goals in less than a minute late in the second period. Voracek finally scored, by banking a shot from behind the net off Phaneuf at 14:30. Then, in what was borderline cherry picking, Konecny took a long pass from Radko Gudas and beat Anderson with a wrister to make it 3-2.
Two minutes later, turnovers left them chasing and out of position again, and Mark Stone's turnaround shot in the crease pushed Ottawa's lead back to 4-2.
Playing their best hockey to start the third, the Flyers appeared to have again pulled to within one when Manning's blistering shot trickled past Anderson. After a video challenge by Senators coach Guy Boucher, it was ruled that Jordan Weal had interfered with Anderson and the goal was disallowed at 11:38 of the final period.
Shortly thereafter Ottawa pushed its lead to 3 again on Tom Pyatt's goal, and soon after that Gudas was ejected for a big hit that crumpled Chris Wideman in the corner. The chippiness continued as Voracek took some extra pops at Pageau after he lingered in the Flyers crease.
Such shenanigans proved their undoing Tuesday night. This time, it triggered a furious comeback as Ivan Provorov's goal at 15:18 and Couturier's at 18:14 pulled the Flyers to within 5-4. Valterri Filppula even had a couple of chances to tie it right after. With 56 seconds left Couturier's tuck-around try paused the game for a video review, but there was no conclusive evidence the puck had crossed the line.
