Flyers fade quickly in 4-0 loss to New York Rangers

With seven rookies in their lineup, the Flyers came out with youthful energy Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, but that only carried them so far before the New York Rangers’ seasoned, skilled roster wore them down in a 4-0 loss. The Flyers suffered a 40th loss in a season for only the second time in history.

Alexandar Georgiev made 28 saves to post the shutout for the Rangers.

Re-energized by the excitement of three call-ups, two season debuts, and a home debut, the Flyers dominated the more experienced Rangers through the first 10 minutes. Yet the Rangers were the first to score when Kaapo Kakko capitalized on a Flyers defensive breakdown.

After getting on the board, the Rangers were able to even out the play for the rest of the first period. It stayed even through the second until Kakko beat Tanner Laczynski for prime position in the blue paint where he easily tapped the puck in for his second goal. Yet another wide-open player, Artemi Panarin, scored the third Rangers goal — a goal that looked much like those scored by the Washington Capitals against the Flyers the night before.

“I thought we played with some pretty good pace, and then, obviously, we have a couple lapses,” Scott Laughton said. “It happened in the Washington game probably a little bit more, but have a couple lapses. We gave some of their big boys good looks.”

The Flyers stopped the bleeding in the third and earned a power play in the final minutes. They also pulled their goalie, but instead of giving them the advantage, they gave up an empty-net goal by Andrew Copp. Their response to the embarrassing 9-2 loss the night before was to get shut out by the Rangers.

Eight minutes into the game, Chris Kreider (50 goals) broke away for an open shot with just Felix Sandström in the way of the Flyers goal. Sandström, who came in having played just one NHL game, calmly faced Kreider down and made the save. He eventually let in three goals, but all were on defensive breakdowns in front of him, and his calm demeanor remained through the 33 shots he faced, even on a five-on-three.

“I thought he was great,” Flyers interim coach Mike Yeo said. “Looked really calm. I was confident with him in the net.”

Laczynski helped the Flyers create offense in his season debut, but he also helped the Rangers on offense, directly contributing to the second New York goal. He didn’t have any shots in his nine minutes of ice time, but he had one rush attempt, one takeaway, three hits, and two blocked shots.

Egor Zamula, also in his season debut, had two shots on goal and played 22 minutes but also had an obvious delay-of-game penalty that put the Rangers’ dangerous power play unit (25.9%) on the ice. Yeo thought his gaps were good and his stick was good.

“The third ... hanging onto it maybe a bit too long,” Yeo said. “Would liked to get that puck maybe a little bit quicker. But he’s got poise with it. He’s got vision.”

Bobby Brink, who made his home debut in his second NHL game, helped create some good power-play shot opportunities and demonstrated his ability to move the puck. He gave a better showing of what he can bring at five-on-five than he did Tuesday.

“He seems to have like a sticky stick,” Yeo said. “Sometimes we’re a little bit guilty of throwing pucks away too easily. He’s a guy that’s going to hang onto it, not throw it away, not make a hope play, not make a blind pass.”

Early in the game, prompted by two Rangers hits in a row, the Flyers started getting physical, with Joel Farabee and Kevin Hayes getting in the visitors’ faces. While no penalties were called, a bunch of Flyers ended up in the box not long after.

First, Noah Cates was called for holding. Then Hayes was called for slashing. Down five-on-three, Laughton and Travis Sanheim got upset with Kreider, and a scrum ensued. Laughton and Kreider went to the box, resulting in three Flyers in the penalty box at once.

It was the perfect time for the Flyers to fall apart. Impressively, they held off the Rangers power-play unit, which is second in the NHL, on the extended five-on-three. The falling apart came later.

“Would have liked for that to be a turning point in the game,” Yeo said. “That’s a massive kill for almost a full two minutes against a power play like that.”

Sometimes the Flyers’ high shot count hides the fact that they may have been shooting the puck but weren’t creating solid chances. Wednesday night, the shots on goal couldn’t demonstrate how impressive many of the Flyers’ opportunities were.

The problem was they just couldn’t finish on them.

“We’ve got to have a better mentality about shooting the puck,” Ivan Provorov said. “I think we’re just sometimes looking for that extra play or thinking that maybe an extra pass or try to find a guy backdoor.”

There were numerous passes to teammates open in front of the net that missed by inches, deflections amid scrums that were slightly off, and breakaways that the Flyers couldn’t capitalize on. Hayes, Farabee, and Zack MacEwen were among players who got the crowd excited with no reward, but Travis Konecny had the most missed opportunities.

“I’ve talked a lot with the management, too, and we’re trying to work on just watching some clips and getting into more scoring areas,” Konecny said. “I’m getting good shots, but a lot of them are perimeter shots, so I’ve got to work on that over the summer.”

The Flyers fly to Buffalo for the first of their home-and-home back-to-back with the Sabres on Saturday at 7 p.m.