Flyers drop sixth straight game in 7-2 blowout loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Flyers scored the game's first goal before Toronto blew the game open with six unanswered goals. The loss was the Flyers' 11th over the last 12 games.
TORONTO — The Flyers’ woes continued north of the border on Tuesday.
Facing Scott Laughton and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Orange and Black were handed a 7-2 loss in a sloppy, ugly hockey game. It is the Flyers’ sixth straight losing effort and 11th loss in the past 12 games.
Ryan Poehling did give the Flyers a 1-0 lead 25 seconds after the Flyers’ power play put up its 32nd straight goose egg.
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Skating on a follow line, Jakob Pelletier pressured Toronto’s John Tavares and turned him into the body of the third Flyers forward, Rodrigo Ābols, on the boards. Tavares turned the puck over and Pelletier picked it up, sending a backhand pass to Poehling for the one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle.
But then the wheels came off.
Tavares and William Nylander each scored twice. Nylander’s second goal was 40th of the season. Bobby McMann and David Kampf rounded out the Leafs’ scorers.
On the first Tavares goal in the first period, the Flyers won a defensive-zone faceoff, but Cam York lost the puck behind the net while being pushed away by McMann. Nylander picked up the puck and fed Tavares, who had his shot go off the skate of York as he was tying up McMann at the right post.
York sat on the bench the rest of the night. Flyers coach John Tortorella would not comment on the benching postgame and York was not made available by the Flyers.
Nylander’s first goal came on a power play later in the first — after a too-many men call on the Flyers — when his pass attempt to Tavares at the right post went in off the skate of Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler. Flyers goalie Sam Ersson got pulled out of position after Toronto’s Auston Matthews’ shot hit Matthew Knies in front, and Knies sent a pass to Nylander in the left circle.
In the second period, the Flyers had a three-on-one, and Travis Konecny sent a pass over to Sean Couturier for a surefire goal, but the pair couldn’t cleanly connect. The Maple Leafs scored to make it 3-1 just 34 seconds later when Nylander picked off an Emil Andrae wraparound and started the play that led to McMann’s goal.
Konecny then made another nice setup to Matvei Michkov, but the Flyers again couldn’t score. Tavares scored his second goal not long after to make it 4-1, when Knies got past Egor Zamula and Mitch Marner had the primary assist.
Nylander’s second came after an offensive zone faceoff to make it 5-1, and Kampf got behind the defense after a bad line change to extend Toronto’s lead to 6-1.
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Couturier did find the back of the net late in the middle frame, scoring on a deflection past former Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz for his 12th of the season to make it 6-2. Toronto’s Max Domi made it 7-2 when he outmuscled Andrae for the puck and beat Ersson in the third period.
Breakaways
Forward Garnet Hathaway missed his 12th straight game with an upper-body injury.
Up next
The Flyers head home for a game against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP).