Flyers need to go Shark hunting and forget Lightning, and other takeaways from a lopsided loss

TAMPA, Fla. — The Flyers will probably want to take the tape from Saturday night’s game, walk a few feet and toss it in the bay.

A 7-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was the Flyers’ most lopsided score of the season, a score that one would think is more commonly seen in nearby Clearwater. But the goals were the least interesting thing in this one.

Here are five words to describe the loss

It was a game that was not only lopsided in the number of goals scored but also in the number of penalties handed out. The Flyers doubled up the Lightning with 43 minutes in penalties to the home team’s 21. Fifteen of those minutes were fighting majors to Nic Deslauriers, Sean Couturier, and Cam Atkinson. Yep, the latter two dropped the gloves. It was the first regular-season fight for Couturier since 2018 and the first ever for Atkinson.

“I think we seemed frustrated for sure,” Couturier said about some of the calls. “But, you know, that’s on us to be better at controlling our emotions and stay focused on what we’ve got to do. Usually, we gain momentum on the penalty kill and tonight we didn’t do our job.”

Whether or not the penalties were justified, the Flyers allowed three goals to the Lightning when they had the man advantage. It was reminiscent of the meeting on Jan. 23 when the Lightning went 2-for-3 on the power play. In the last meeting, just a few days ago, the Flyers made it a point to stay out of the box, giving up two power plays and blanking them on both. It’s a must against a Tampa Bay team that has the best power play in the league.

Everyone knows John Tortorella’s past. A fiery bench boss, the Flyers coach has a long rap sheet of fines and at least two suspensions. He’s been a bit more subdued this year, but on Saturday night, when the game wasn’t even 11 minutes old, a chain of events unleashed the old Tortorella.

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With 9 minutes, 24 seconds left in the first period, Ronnie Attard was called for tripping. It was a rather innocuous play as Mikey Eyssimont went to split the defense and it looked like just their skates got clipped, sending the Lightning forward down. Tortorella seemed to make a diving hand gesture on the bench

“It just looked like two guys skating, hustling for a puck and their skates hit together and one guy fell down and one didn’t. So I wasn’t very excited about it myself,” associate coach Brad Shaw said postgame.

Referee Brandon Schrader originally said the call was on Eyssimont for tripping. He and Attard wear No. 23, so he clearly misspoke and then corrected himself. Fine. Then referee Wes McCauley gave Garnet Hathaway a 10-minute misconduct after he gave Anthony Cirelli a shove on the way to a defensive-zone faceoff during the penalty kill.

Forty-seven seconds after Hathaway was tossed, and then with the Flyers still on the penalty kill, Brayden Point buried one from the slot. Tortorella was irate on the bench and after supposedly saying some colorful words to the referees, he was ejected from the game by McCauley.

As Felix Sandström was coming into the game in place of Sam Ersson, the fiery Tortorella was adamant that he wasn’t leaving. Shaw guessed it was “a bit of a protest on his part to hammer home the point that he wasn’t very ecstatic about the call.” But in the end, he had to leave for the game to continue.

“I don’t know if he really deserved to get kicked out, honestly, after what he said. He didn’t say much at all,” Couturier said.

“Well, I think he was just trying to make a point that we felt like we might not be getting our fair shake,” Shaw added. “But, you know, it’s an emotional game at times and we all get elevated blood pressure. So, it’s just part of the game.”

With Egor Zamula out due to illness and Adam Ginning unable to travel to Tampa due to the weather, the Flyers were forced to play with only five defensemen.

“Yeah, a lot of ice out there for us,” Attard said. “So we knew we had to keep [our shifts] short and try to keep off the power play. So those two penalties I took didn’t help.”

It’s a huge strain on the defense when you’re not only down a man but continually facing the best power play in the league. And it certainly didn’t help that Attard was playing his second NHL game of the season and 19th of his career and Erik Johnson was making his debut with the Flyers after being acquired at the trade deadline.

The one positive was that the second period did see some pushback from the Flyers.

Not a team known to pack it in regardless of the score, the Flyers bested the Lightning in shot attempts at five-on-five with a 65.85% Corsi For and had 71.43% scoring chances for in the middle frame.

“I liked our second period,” Shaw said. “We out-chanced them. I know they outscored us 1-0. It was one of those games where it’s one more play and then it’s a Grade-A scoring chance. I thought they checked really well as a team.

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“I thought they got a few breaks. The [Anthony] Duclair goal [in the second period], it’s a foot in the air and hits Staal’s pants and goes right to Duclair’s stick. Some nights you get those bounces and some nights you don’t get them.”

The Flyers typically have good responses after big losses. When Shaw was asked about what he expects the Flyers’ response to be Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks, the coach responded:

“I will guarantee you that nobody in that locker room is feeling good about anything we did tonight. And so, I agree. I expect a great effort Tuesday and going forward. This is one in that we eat our humble pie, we learn our lessons, we move on, and get prepared for the next game. It’s two points. We didn’t play close to how we would like to play and how we have to play at this time.”

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