Flyers lack cohesion and offensive flow in loss to Montreal: ‘We’re just not working as a group’

Disconnected.

It’s a term the Flyers have often used this season, and it was said again by forward Scott Laughton following Sunday night’s loss.

Separated. Not connected. Incoherent.

Despite having much of the same team as last season, the Flyers have struggled to find cohesion. When asked if he was surprised by that, coach John Tortorella said, “Yeah, a little bit.”

Here are three things the Flyers said after the 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, which saw them drop to 2-6-1 on the season.

» READ MORE: Flyers have little time to explore the lessons learned from snapping a six-game losing streak

One thing that the Flyers did well on Saturday afternoon in their 7-5 win against the Minnesota Wild was breakouts. They transitioned well out of their zone with the defense moving the puck up to one of the wings, who then either carried the puck out of the zone or dished to the center. They looked like a cohesive unit that was all in sync.

A little over 24 hours later, some of what plagued them in their six-game losing streak resurfaced.

“We’re just not working as a group,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “Last year, the reason we were so successful, was it was five-man units, one after another, every line. We had an identity, we were working hard. Other teams knew that. Maybe I guess that’s part of it, is teams are aware of our success that we had last year in doing that.”

If the breakout isn’t working, and the puck isn’t cleared, it creates opportunities for the opposition. Then the opposition gets more zone time and more chances to score. And if the Flyers aren’t working as a five-man unit it leads to guys being left open.

It’s a vicious cycle.

That vicious cycle allowed Montreal’s Nick Suzuki to plant himself alone in front of Flyers goalie Aleksei Kolosov, who stopped 20 of 24 shots in his NHL debut, and bury the puck to put the home team in a 1-0 hole. Five guys in orange lost Suzuki. Five guys watched the puck.

It allowed a barely-touched Brendan Gallagher to skate through the slot uninhibited and get credited with a goal off his leg to make it 2-1. And it allowed a wide-open Gallagher at the right point to send the puck — almost in slow motion because he broke his stick on the pass — to an even more wide-open Jake Evans at the far post for a one-timer. That last one, especially, featured blown coverages all over the ice.

“I think you could see last year that we just had that flow from our own zone,” forward Garnet Hathaway said. “I think it was guys playing roles, identities, and understanding how that worked together, right? I think the disconnection comes when you’re trying to create something instantly.

“You want something to work right away when, I think last game, it was a process. We built our game. We closed quickly in the D zone. Everyone was connected, and then you move up through the zone, and that’s our identity. “We’re great on the rush, but I think we wore teams down with offensive possession [last year], versus probably this year, where it’s probably the other way and I’d say that’s the disconnection.”

Puck support happens all over the ice. Defensively, the Flyers are struggling because, as Laughton said, the forwards are too high on the boards waiting for the outlet and the defensemen don’t have a play. But puck support is the most handy when a team is on offense.

A guy carries down the wall and a teammate follows to support him if he loses it. This was absent on more than one occasion Sunday involving Matvei Michkov, as the winger carried the puck down the right boards, was sealed off, and no one in an orange and black jersey was nearby to collect the loose puck.

Puck support is also about creating options and creating time and space to get scoring chances.

The Flyers’ first goal of the night was a perfect example of why, when puck support is there, good things happen. Sanheim — one of the few bright spots in the game — carried the puck into the left face-off circle before getting poke-checked. Center Ryan Poehling was trailing the play — providing puck support — and corralled the loose puck to send back to Sanheim to score from the point.

On Sanheim’s second goal, there was support again except, this time, the Flyers defenseman retained the puck. Morgan Frost provided the support it before peeling off as a passing option at the far post. Frost’s route to the net opened up room for Sanheim to cut to the middle of the ice. And on Travis Konecny’s marker to make it a one-goal game, he crossed with Owen Tippett who provided the support before he got the puck, carried it around the net, and made a centering pass to Konecny.

“Some guys, I’m sure, a little frustrated, and are gripping their sticks tight,” Tortorella said. “But, it does, it looks disjointed. ... We’ve just got to get a little bit of, what’s the word I’m looking for? Just some smoothness in our game, just some good tempo and puck support. We’re just not supporting the puck offensively, and we’re struggling a little bit as far as defensive support, too.”

This quote from Tortorella is in direct correlation with the first two reasons. But the Flyers have struggled to put pucks on net. In this game, they fired 26 shots — nine in the first period, seven in the second, and 10 in the third — on Canadiens goalie Cayden Primeau, the son of former Flyers captain Keith Primeau. They also had 23 shots blocked and missed the net 18 times.

It’s a slight uptick from Saturday afternoon. In the game against the Wild, the Flyers put just six shots on goal in the first 40 minutes, although three found the back of the net. They finished with 23.

Sunday marked the sixth straight game the Flyers failed to hit the 30-shot mark, which includes a season-low 18 in Tuesday night’s loss to the Washington Capitals. And that’s after putting at least 30 on goal in the first three games of the year.

Part of the issue is the Flyers forecheck has struggled. It looked good early in Sunday’s game, with the starting line of Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Tippett putting pressure on the Canadiens deep. But that was a rarity.

“We’re standing still,” Laughton said. “We can’t get on the forecheck. They set in a set breakout, and they come back the other way. We’ve got to have our F1 and F2 connected in on the forecheck, create battles, create turnovers, and that’s how we play.

“Go back to what made us successful last year and in that third period and it’s simple,” Laughton added. “Get in on the forecheck, winning battles, getting it up high, putting pucks on net, and then we recover from there.”