A slow, uncharacteristic start made the Flyers become the first victim of season for the Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — It was bound to happen. A team was going to be on the receiving end of the San Jose Sharks’ first win of the season.

It just ended up being the Flyers.

“It is what it is. It’s not like they were going to go 0-and-82,” said Sean Couturier, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury. “It sucks that we couldn’t get out of here with two points but five-on-five we played well, it’s special teams that are killing us right now.”

In a late-night feisty, special-teams-filled affair, the Flyers were handed a 2-1 loss thanks to a strong performance in goal by a familiar face. Former New Jersey Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood got the start for the Sharks against a Flyers team he had beaten eight times in 12 games entering Tuesday night.

Blackwood was on his game as he faced 39 shots, including breakaway chances by Joel Farabee with under a minute left in the first period and Garnet Hathaway halfway through the third.

The Flyers picked up their play after the opening period but struggled to beat Blackwood. Farabee eventually did in the second but barely. He cashed in off a Royal Road pass by Travis Sanheim that everyone in the building, including Farabee, thought Blackwood had initially stopped.

“It felt like we had our chances,” Farabee said. “Their goalie played well, so credit to him but it just felt like we were looking for that one bounce and we couldn’t get it.”

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: the Flyers are struggling on the power play.

“Just no execution,” Couturier said. “When lanes are there we’re not making the passes and not finishing at all. So, it sucks.”

Down 1-0, they had an opportunity to quickly even things up when Duclair was called for tripping less than four minutes after scoring. Despite a number of good looks, their five-man units found it difficult to connect and were only able to generate one shot on goal by Tyson Foerster.

Over the course of the first two periods, the Flyers had three power-play chances and were only able to muster four shots on goal amid seven shot attempts. They had another spin with the man advantage early in the third but only had four shot attempts (two on goal, one miss and one blocked).

On the flip side, the penalty kill went 4-for-5 with just a William Eklund one-timer sneaking in from the right circle.

“Power play doesn’t work again, hurts us,” head coach John Tortorella said. “They score a power-play goal, we don’t. That could be the difference in the game. So, we’re just going to keep working at it. But I think this year we have found ways to develop offense, tonight we just don’t finish.”

The Flyers have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams in the first period. But on Tuesday, it was the Sharks that took an early lead just 1 minute, 43 seconds into the game thanks to a goal by Anthony Duclair. Defenseman Nick Seeler tried to make a play at the Flyers blue line as Kevin Labanc took an outlet pass from Mikael Granlund before setting up Duclair as he streaked in down the left side.

Special teams dominated chunks of the game, possibly causing a hindrance to the Flyers’ ability to get back into the game. According to Natural Stat Trick, when the teams did skate five-on-five in the opening frame, the ice was tilted in the Sharks’ favor with a Corsi For Percentage of 54.17%. The Flyers turned it on in the next two periods, outshooting the Sharks 26-15 and tilting the ice in their favor, especially at 5-on-5. But time at even strength was limited throughout the game.

“It was so disjointed because of the penalties. I thought in the third period we got rolling because we were playing 5-on-5 but still not enough sustained quality chances. I mean, we had some chances but I don’t think we had enough quality chances.”

Morgan Frost was a healthy scratch with Couturier returning. Postgame Tortorella replied, “No,” when asked if it was tough to take Frost out of the lineup. ... Farabee’s goal was his sixth of the season. Five of his goals have been the Flyers’ first goal of a game. ... The Flyers are now 0-6-1 when opponents score first. ... Sam Ersson got the start in net and stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced. ... Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny were each given 10-minute misconducts in the last three seconds of the game. Between the two teams, 74 penalty minutes were handed out.

The Flyers head south. After an off day on Wednesday, the team will practice in Irvine, California, before a back-to-back set against the Ducks in Anaheim (10 p.m., NBCSP+) on Friday night and the Kings in Los Angeles on Saturday (10:30 p.m., NBCSP).