Flyers set franchise blocked shot record as they fall, 4-2, to St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS — In his first game with the Flyers this season, Ronnie Attard experienced the difference between the 2022 and the 2023 teams despite a 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.

Attard played in 15 games in 2022 following his NCAA season and experienced a team that had been beaten down by injuries and losing streaks and that couldn’t win a game when it fell behind. This year’s team may have one of the worst records in franchise history, but its locker room has been much more resilient.

At first, the Flyers looked like last year’s team, playing lackadaisical hockey, only showing life in spurts, and making dangerous mistakes.

The Blues opened the scoring just over six minutes in after Noah Cates made an uncharacteristic turnover in the defensive zone and Jordan Kyrou took advantage. They padded their lead in the second when Tyler Pitlick scored on the rush, and Justin Faulk scored seconds after a Blues power play ended. The Flyers almost went into the third down, 4-0, but assistant coach Rocky Thompson challenged for offsides and won.

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Thompson, who ran the bench for the first time, had to abandon the “good guy” role he gets to play as an assistant and take a firmer stance as the game wore on.

“I kind of took that identity on after the second period, to tell you the truth, because I was very disappointed in how we were performing,” Thompson said. “I said, ‘Quite frankly, it looks like some guys in here don’t even care.’ They’re just not trying. And I said, ‘I’m not going to call anybody out individually, but your teammates know.’”

In the third, the Flyers tapped into their resiliency. Cates had a good scoring opportunity, but his goal was called back because he batted it in. The Flyers kept pressing, and two minutes later, James van Riemsdyk deflected in a goal. Just under 12 minutes into the third, Morgan Frost scored another, making it 3-2 and giving the Flyers plenty of time to tie it.

Thompson pulled Sam Ersson with just over two minutes to go, and the Flyers created several dangerous scoring chances, but the Blues tacked on an empty-net goal to seal the win.

The Flyers’ only shot on goal on the first power play was a powerful one-timer from Attard.

Attard, the always-smiling rookie, was given 2:08 of power-play time on the second unit. He and Cam York showed off their familiarity with each other, working together to get the unit set in the offensive zone and create scoring chances. Attard had another one-timer on the next power play.

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Attard also had a few shorthanded shifts, clocking 41 seconds on the penalty kill. He finished with four shots on goal, two hits, and two blocked shots. But, most importantly, he brought energy even when everyone else was lacking.

“I thought he held himself well in not a great situation where our team wasn’t playing good,” Thompson said. “And that’s not easy.”

Once again, Ersson was left to try and save the day too many times, though he had multiple big saves.

Cates’ defensive-zone turnover meant the defensemen weren’t ready to stop Kyrou’s shot from close range on the first goal. The second was scored off the rush when Attard tried to stop the pass to Alexey Toropchenko at the blue line and got beat by Pitlick. The third was scored by an undefended Faulk in the slot. On the goal that was called back, Tony DeAngelo completely lost track of his man, who was on Ersson’s blind side.

“If he didn’t play as well as he did, they would have kicked us in the face a lot earlier,” Thompson said of Ersson. “It would have been over before it even began. So I thought he kept us relevant throughout the game.”

John Tortorella has developed a reputation across the league for his affinity for shot-blocking. In his introductory interviews, he reinforced it when he pointed out the Tampa Bay Lightning found success in the playoffs by being willing to block shots. He said it sets a standard when players are willing to sacrifice themselves.

So it is fitting that in Tortorella’s first year behind the Flyers’ bench, they set a franchise record for blocked shots in a season. The record was 1,317, set in the 2010-11 season. The Flyers went into Tuesday with 1,309. They blocked 14 shots and now sit at 1,323.

The Flyers head to Dallas for a game against the Stars on Thursday (8:30 p.m., NBCSP).