Travis Konecny snaps goalless drought but is still searching for more after Flyers’ underwhelming February so far

VANCOUVER — Deep in a 5-0 hole on Thursday night against the Seattle Kraken, Flyers winger Travis Konecny temporarily stopped the bleeding, chipping in a pair of goals in the third period. While the Kraken went on to win, 6-2, the significance of Konecny’s efforts transcended garbage time.

Konecny snapped a 13-game goalless drought dating back to Jan. 11, when he tallied a hat trick against the Washington Capitals. The skid was familiar territory for Konecny — last season, he went 20 games between goals, from Nov. 20, 2021 to Jan. 15, 2022. This time around, Konecny is grateful the drought didn’t last as long.

“It’s part of the game,” Konecny said. “Over the course of my career, I’ve done that a few times. So it’s frustrating, but it’s just part of the game. And I was just glad to get it over with.”

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It’s been especially frustrating for Konecny that his scoring vanished amid a rough patch for the entire team. The Flyers are 1-3-1 in February, averaging just 1.8 goals per game. Their ability to capitalize has taken a hit coming off of January when the Flyers went 8-4-2 and managed 3.14 goals per game.

To dig himself out of the scoring hole against the Kraken, Konecny made an effort to get back to the dirty areas of the ice. Fourteen seconds into the third period, Konecny deflected a Noah Cates long shot past Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer from the front of the net. Over 13 minutes later, Konecny scored from the goal line near the post on a rebound from a Cates shot that bounced off of the end boards.

“When things are going your way, you’re just naturally going to the right areas, and you’re going to spots where the pucks going to be,” Konecny said. “And then as you struggle, I tend to get a little more perimeter and the puck stops being near me. And that’s when things get a little slow. So just a little correction there, and then [it] worked out.”

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The goals marked the 25th and 26th of Konecny’s season, establishing a career high after finishing with 24 goals in three consecutive seasons from 2017-18 to 2019-20. But while the Flyers have leaned on Konecny for his ability to find the back of the net, he has grown into an even more important role for the team while leading the way with 51 points.

Konecny, for the first time in his career, also is a fixture on the penalty kill. He has racked up 98 shorthanded minutes on ice this season while chipping in three shorthanded goals. Plus, Konecny has become more of a leader in his seventh season with the Flyers.

“If I can help PK-wise or even just help a little more in a leadership role, being an older guy now on the team, just being being able to help in other ways other than just the score sheet, definitely helps you stay in tune with the game,” Konecny said.

Now, Konecny is looking to take some of the scoring momentum he established in an otherwise dreadful game against the Kraken into the remainder of the western Canada road trip, starting Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks.

Given the Flyers’ lousy effort and execution against the Kraken, defenseman Tony DeAngelo knew he and his teammates were in for a doozy of a practice on Friday.

For nearly an hour at the University of British Columbia’s Thunderbird Arena in Vancouver, coach John Tortorella put the Flyers through high-intensity drills reminiscent of his grueling training camp. As difficult as practice was in the moment, DeAngelo welcomed the opportunity to get back on the ice and move on from consecutive losses to the Kraken this week.

“We’ve got to move forward,” DeAngelo said. “So two sloppy games in a row from us, but we’ve got to find a way to snap out of it.”

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Defenseman Travis Sanheim noted that over the last couple of games against the Kraken, the Flyers’ work ethic has dipped. That’s an uncommon lapse for the Flyers, whose work ethic has kept them in games against more skilled teams all season long. Tortorella, who hasn’t had many gripes with the Flyers’ commitment to working hard, wasn’t quite sure why the team fell off.

“If I knew, we would have stopped it after one game,” Tortorella said. “We would have stopped it after one period. It comes and goes. All teams go through it. We need to try to catch them now before they go down the road further.”

Carter Hart (.911 save percentage, 16-16-9) will start in net against the Canucks, per Tortorella. ... Defenseman Justin Braun will enter the lineup, and forward Kieffer Bellows will come out, meaning that the Flyers will play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Braun, 36, last played on Feb. 11 against the Nashville Predators.