As Monday’s trade deadline approaches, the Flyers are making general manager Chuck Fletcher’s sell-or-buy decision easier as they continue their slide.
They played well after another shaky start Thursday, but the bottom line wasn’t what they needed: a 3-2 shootout loss to the new-look New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
Brock Nelson scored the winner in the shootout for the Islanders, who got a power play with 1:58 left when Kevin Hayes hooked Ryan Pulock as he was trying to blast a dangerous shot.
The Flyers survived the power play, but not the five-player shootout.
The Isles, who moved past Washington and into first place in the East, increased their winning streak to five games, and they are now 17-1-2 at home this season.
The Flyers, who slipped six points out of a playoff spot, are 7-11-3 since the beginning of March.
The Flyers, helped by Carter Hart’s big save on Mathew Barzal, killed off an Islanders power play in the final 1:58 of overtime, sending the teams into a shootout.
The teams went beyond regulation for the fifth time in their seven meetings this season. Six of the games have been decided by one goal.
The Flyers’ power play had a chance to snap a 2-2 tie but did little with man advantage that started with 16:25 left in regulation. Joel Farabee had their best scoring chance, but Ilya Sorokin stopped his redirection in front. That left them 1 for 16 on the power play in the last six games.
After allowing two early goals, the Flyers gained momentum by killing a questionable five-minute penalty and eventually tied the game at 2.
Jake Voracek finished a two-on-one with Claude Giroux to knot the score at 2-all with 16:38 to go in the second period. The Flyers had a slew of odd-man rushes against the usually stingy Islanders in the first part of the game.
The goal gave Voracek 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his last eight games, and made him the team leader with 32 points.
Carter Hart, aiming for his first win in his last six starts, was outstanding in the second period. He stopped Mathew Barzal and Jean-Gabriel Pageau from in close in the first half of the stanza, and made his best save of the night when he kicked out his leg and denied Anthony Beauvillier with 3:20 left in the period. The Isles were on a power play when Beauvillier weaved around Shayne Gostisbehere and went in alone.
The Flyers’ first periods have looked like Groundhog Day. They fall behind. Over and over. They chase the game and expect the result to change.
More times than not, it doesn’t.
They allowed two early goals 63 seconds apart Thursday and fell into a 2-0 hole. At the end of the period, they faced a 2-1 deficit.
They have led after the first period twice in the last 21 games. They have allowed the first goal in eight of the last nine games.
They are playing with fire and burning themselves with their awful starts and head-scratching execution.
Nelson opened the scoring with a one-timer from the right circle with 13:50 left in the first. Pulock circled around the back of the net and found an uncovered Nelson in the right circle. A little over a minute later, after defenseman Ivan Provorov fell down and lost the puck, Jordan Eberle took a feed from Leo Komarov and made it 2-0 by beating Hart from out front.
Samuel Morin shoved Casey Cizikas into the boards with 12:33 left in the first and was given a controversial five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct. Cizikas returned later in the period.
During the penalty, the Flyers actually had the better scoring chances, but Kevin Hayes and Michael Raffl couldn’t connect on a two-on-one, Claude Giroux fired wide on another two-on-one, and Raffl was stopped by Sorokin on a short-handed breakaway.
Later in the period, Sorokin gave the Flyers a gift goal as Nic Aube-Kubel’s shot from above the right circle, which was going wide, hit off the knob of the goalie’s stick and went into the net, cutting the Isles lead to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining in the first. It was Aube-Kubel’s first goal in the last 23 games.
“I was just truing to put the puck between the D man’s legs,” Aube-Kubel said after his third goal of the season, “and luckily the goalie mishandled it.”
With a little over four minutes left in the first, Farabee had a wide-open net from the doorstep, but he put his shot off the right post. Farabee, goal-less in his last eight games, looked to the rafters in frustration.
The Islanders were playing their first game with Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac in the lineup; the veteran forwards were acquired in a deal Wednesday with New Jersey, and they played on the same line Thursday.
