Flyers start off Philadelphia’s Super Bowl Sunday with a 4-3 loss to the Kraken

Energy buzzed through Philadelphia when Super Bowl morning dawned, but the excitement dimmed briefly, at least for the green-clad fans in the Wells Fargo Center, as the Flyers dropped their matinee game, 4-3, to the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.

Decked out in Eagles gear during warmups and bolstered by constant “E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!” chants, the Flyers jumped out to an early lead when Owen Tippett scored on the power play two minutes in. The Flyers had the momentum, and the fans enjoyed the lead by continuing their Eagles cheers.

Then the Kraken punctured the growing excitement with their first goal, scored by Jordan Eberle 12 minutes, 53 seconds in. The fans’ spirits deflated from there as Seattle took over the game, scoring a second goal, by Eeli Tolvanen, four minutes later.

The Flyers managed to tie it in the second. After a long time defending, James van Riemsdyk moved the puck into the Kraken’s zone with a pass to Morgan Frost. Frost redirected it to Tippett while van Riemsdyk skated to the net. Tippett took a shot, and van Riemsdyk tipped in the rebound.

That wasn’t enough to bring the momentum back. The Kraken continued to control the pace and took back the lead at the end of the second when Jaden Schwartz took advantage of Oliver Bjorkstrand’s screen on Felix Sandström and scored from right in front of the net.

Schwartz added another goal to start the third. Patrick Brown’s shorthanded goal closed the gap to one, and the Flyers made a final push after pulling their goalie. However, the game ended in defeat and the fans turned their hopes to the Eagles.

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With two power plays right off the bat, the Flyers were controlling the pace from puck drop. Then Tony DeAngelo turned over the puck at the blue line. The ensuing rush resulted in the Kraken’s first goal and a complete shift in momentum.

From there, the shot count flipped from 4-0 in the Flyers’ favor to 11-4 in the Kraken’s favor. The Kraken didn’t just control the game; the Flyers gave it to them. Tippett turned it over in the defensive zone, got it back, then gave it to van Riemsdyk, who then turned it over. The Kraken scored on a three-on-one.

“They’re a team that’s quick, so they force you into some mistakes,” van Riemsdyk said. “Those are going to happen, and I just think [there’s] certain situational stuff we could have been a little bit better in.”

The Flyers finished with 10 giveaways, and the Kraken were awarded 14 takeaways. In addition to making things tough on the defense, it also hurt the offense because the Flyers had difficulty setting up in the offensive zone because they kept losing the puck.

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Halfway through the second period, the Wells Fargo Center displayed a graphic comparing the Flyers’ and the Kraken’s blocked shots. The statistic made the Flyers look dominant — they had 18 blocked shots at the time to the Kraken’s one. But when looked at in context, those blocked shots weren’t exactly something the team should celebrate.

While it was good that the Flyers were putting their bodies on the line to help out their goalie, it wasn’t good that they had to dive in front of so many shots. You only have to block shots if you’re not the one shooting, and the Flyers certainly weren’t shooting. They had only 18 shots on goal to the Kraken’s 21.

“They hold the puck longer, they make more plays than we do,” DeAngelo said simply.

While the Flyers let the Nashville Predators dominate puck possession on Saturday, they kept the Predators’ shots to the outside, holding Nashville to one regulation goal. They couldn’t say the same after Sunday’s game.

The Kraken’s shot count also was relatively low. They took a number of shots from above the right faceoff circle. But they also slipped through the defense at opportune times for dangerous shots, some of which resulted in goals.

“We didn’t give Sanny much help,” DeAngelo said. “He made some really good saves for us, too.”

While the first two goals were close-range shots because they were scored on rushes, the third goal was the perfect example. Eberle tried to pass the puck to Schwartz, but Wade Allison blocked the pass. Eberle retrieved the puck and immediately made the same pass. This time, it went cleanly, and Schwartz scored.

The Flyers head to Seattle to face the Kraken again on Thursday (10 p.m., NBCSP).