Flyers takeaways: There’s diversity in the offense, a good thing amid several injury concerns

TORONTO — The Flyers saw their four-game win streak come to an end on Thursday night, following a 4-3 overtime loss to the Leafs.

Down by two late in the third, the Flyers mounted another late-game comeback to secure a road point against an Eastern Conference rival but fell less than a minute into overtime.

“We teetered there,” said Flyers coach John Tortorella. “We teetered when they surged, but we grabbed ahold of ourselves in between periods.”

Here are some takeaways from the loss.

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While all four of Toronto’s goals were scored by their two highest-producing — and soon-to-be-highest-paid — players, the Flyers had some diversity in their offense.

Auston Matthews, the league leader with 45 goals on the season, scored a natural hat trick in the second period. William Nylander, who has a team-high 68 points, tallied the overtime winner.

By contrast, it was Travis Sanheim and Garnet Hathaway scoring the first two goals for the Flyers at the other end of the ice, each notching just their fifth goal of the season. Sanheim had a shorthanded tally, trailing the Flyers’ rush and tucking in a feed from Scott Laughton, while Hathaway buried the rebound from a Nick Seeler point shot.

“[The Leafs are] going to score,” Tortorella said. “They want to play that wide-open style. I thought for the most part we played the way we want to play, but to get people chipping in, not from just the regular guys that are scoring, [is] very important for us.”

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Tortorella has said in the past that the Flyers lack a superstar offensive player. While Travis Konecny and his 26 goals — including the tying marker on Thursday — might have something to say about that, the Flyers can’t expect him to put the team on his back every single night.

“We wanted to put them into a grind,” Tortorella said. “That first half of the game was played on the wall. We kept the middle clean because they’re such a dangerous team as far as playing in the middle of the ice. We really played well and lost ourselves like we’ve talked about, but then we get back to grinding a little bit and get a couple of power plays, and score.”

Thursday’s game was a matchup between one of the league’s top penalty kills and one of the league’s top power plays. The Leafs boast a 26.4% efficiency rate on the power play, good for fourth in the league, while the Flyers’ 86% penalty kill rate is second in the NHL.

Both units lived up to the hype. The Flyers struck in the first period with their league-best 13th shorthanded goal, and then the Leafs answered with a power-play goal on their second time with the man advantage.

In his first game as alternate captain, Konecny had multiple shorthanded opportunities. Though he hit the post on a shorthanded breakaway in the first period, it was his effort that set Sanheim’s ensuing goal in motion.

“We’re looking to go make it hard on every team that’s on the power play and it doesn’t always happen that way. But we got a few opportunities today,” Konecny said.

On the flip side, the Flyers’ power play looked solid. Across three opportunities with the extra man, the Flyers were able to maintain offensive zone pressure and had some quality scoring chances. Konecny finally converted when it really mattered, burying a loose puck with less than five minutes left in the game.

“I think we’ve all been saying the same thing, just staying hard at work and just sticking to the basics, trying to work through the growing pains, and it’s paying off for us,” Konecny said.

It was a highly physical game, with multiple scuffles breaking out throughout the night. Hathaway had eight hits, and Nic Deslauriers had seven in just 4 minutes, 25 seconds of ice time. Sanheim recorded six.

After Simon Benoit crushed defenseman Cam York in the corner in the third period, Deslauriers dropped the gloves. The ensuing misconduct ended Deslauriers’ night, but it also served as a spark for the Flyers to get back in the game.

York did not return to the game after the hit.

“That’s something that we rely on him so much for and we have all year,” Hathaway said. “... York is a huge part of this team. So for him to go down, and then for us to lose him, but for D-Lo to step up, it just shows the cohesiveness of our team, how tight we are, and the momentum.”

New captain Sean Couturier also left the game early, after taking a slash on the knee with just over 10 minutes remaining in the third. Couturier was visibly in pain and hobbled back to the bench. He took one more shift, appearing briefly on the power play, but did not return for the remainder of regulation or overtime.

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