Flyers dig themselves an early hole, lose 6-3 to Devils in outdoor Stadium Series

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It’s never a walk in the park for the Flyers.

And why would the Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium be any different?

Just because the Flyers were playing on a rink situated amidst a park setting — with benches, joggers, bicycles being pushed around, and dogs going for walks during the commercial breaks — and under the stars, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t follow their season-long trend of falling behind and trying to come back.

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The Flyers found themselves in an early 2-0 hole before making it 3-1, 4-2, and 5-3. But in the end, it was to no avail, as the Orange and Black lost 6-3 on Saturday night to the New Jersey Devils. Philly now drops to 1-4-1 in outdoor games — the only win coming in the 2019 Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Field.The loss also snapped the team’s five-game point streak.

But the game wasn’t just about playing outside. The game had playoff implications. The Flyers entered Saturday seven points ahead of the fourth-place Devils with New Jersey having two games in hand. Things get a little tighter now in the Metropolitan Division.

The Flyers had their chances in this one. In the second period alone, they put 27 shots on goal to set an NHL outdoor record for shots in a single period. It is one off the Flyers record set in 2019 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flyers finished with 48 shots on Devils goalie Nico Daws, with the rookie stopping 45 of them.

“Yeah, we talked about [shooting from all angles],” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “I think, being outdoors you don’t really know the bounces that are going to happen. I mean, you saw some crazy ones during the game so that was definitely and an emphasis of ours. We had some looks, we just couldn’t capitalize on them.”

Just over a minute into the game, Cam Atkinson had a redirect chance on the doorstep. Ryan Poehling, who was open in the middle of the ice, then rattled a shot off the crossbar with 4 minutes and 6 seconds remaining in the opening frame.

Sanheim had one of the best chances of the second period as he crashed the net but couldn’t find the back of it. The Flyers had four shots on goal — three by Nick Seeler and one by Sean Walker — in a 10-second span near the midway mark. Sanheim then had another chance on net, with a one-handed effort that Daws made a difficult stop on.

The Flyers defense finished with 26 shot attempts, including 17 shots on goal. Nick Seeler had five shots, including one that got past Daws for his first goal of the season.

Although the Flyers poured the shots on in the middle frame, the team took three penalties (one was a coincidental minor). The Devils also took a trio and the constant special team action seemed to stymie momentum.

One of the penalties by the Flyers was a two-handed slash by Travis Konecny on Brendan Smith just 39 seconds into a Flyers power play. The two have some history; Smith was handed a two-game suspension for a vicious two-hander on Konecny back in December.

Postgame Konecny said he “obviously” should not have taken the penalty.

“That’s TK. I’m not getting in the way of his emotion,” Tortorella said. “We have to figure out how to help him in that situation. But just the whole sequence there when there were a lot of penalties by both teams, just took us out of [it].”

The Flyers went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-3 with the man advantage. They recorded a power-play goal for the second straight game.

“We had stretches where we had some good minutes and then you take a few penalties and it kind of gets you out of that a little bit,” Sanheim said. “Your momentum’s kind of killed a little bit. So, yeah, it obviously affected us. We’ll have to stay out of the box a bit more.

It took some time for Owen Tippett to get back to full form. But it’s fair to say the forward is now up to speed. Tippett notched two goals for his third multi-goal game of the season. He recorded 10 shots for the second time this season.

The speedster missed four games after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 20. He returned for the Flyers’ first game after the All-Star break against the Florida Panthers and had scored just one goal in the five games since.

“I think it’s just one of those things that kind of happens and when you miss a bit of time it can take a bit of time to kind of get your game back,” said Tippett who played in his first outdoor game. “But I’m happy with how I’m progressing here and we’ve been playing good hockey so it makes it easier to come back when the guys are playing well.”

On Saturday, under the bright lights, he cut the Devils 2-0 lead in half 7:43 into the second period with a wicked wrister from the high slot. He then made it 4-2 with a power-play goal from a similar spot with just over a minute and a half left before the intermission. Each goal came off passes from Konecny.

“He’s been playing well,” Konecny said. “Tip’s always effective for us no matter what but, yeah, it was a good game for him.”

Sam Ersson had played outside before. When he was a teenager in Falun, Sweden, his team had to play in the great wide open when the local rink needed to be renovated. But you had to think there were some nerves involved for the 24-year-old as he walked out in front of 70,328 fans.

“Obviously, amazing atmosphere,” Ersson said. “It was great to be a part of an event like this here. You got to suck it in when you go out there and enjoy the moment but at the same time, you know you have a job to do. It’s a game that has to be played as well.”

» READ MORE: Sam Ersson’s unflappable mindset to be tested as he takes over for Carter Hart in net

The game didn’t start out well. Devils captain Nico Hischier broke in all alone and scored five-hole just 32 seconds into the game. Ersson’s teammates got trapped too deep in the offensive zone after defenseman Jamie Drysdale pinched and Cam York followed right behind him; Tortorella said, “We were a little aggressive the first shift.” The puck then squirted out of the corner into the neutral zone where Hischier, who had snuck behind every Flyer, picked it up for a full two-line breakaway.

Usually a master at rebound control, Ersson allowed a second first-period goal to Tyler Toffoli after his initial save on a shot from the left face-off circle was directed right to the Devils forward for a tap-in.

“Any time you let in a rebound goal you kind of know you’ve got to put that puck somewhere better. And that’s a couple of those today and obviously, those cost us,” said Ersson who placed the five goals he allowed on his own shoulders. “They were tough goals against. It’s part of what I got to do better in a game like this.”

But Ersson didn’t get much help from there as defensive breakdowns by his buddies gave New Jersey several open looks. Smith crashed down and buried a rebound to make it 3-1 late in the second before a broken play in the neutral zone, and a bad step by Seeler at the Flyers’ blue line allowed Nathan Bastian to make it 4-1 just 72 seconds later.

Hischier’s second of the night, 2:48 into the third, all but wrapped up the two points for the Devils, although, to the Flyers’ credit, they continued to fight back. Seeler cut it to 5-3 before an empty-netter sealed things up.

“We made some mistakes. We had some coverage problems. We certainly weren’t at our best,” Tortorella said. “... These games, they end up being shootouts, right? They think they’re out on the pond playing. So they score, we don’t. I thought we had some opportunities that we hit them. ... We don’t get it done. But they were the better team.”

The Flyers skated with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Olle Lycksell was a healthy scratch but did participate in warmups.

The Flyers head to the Windy City to face Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. on TNT).