Flyers fall flat in a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens

With four injured players watching from the press box, the Flyers reached the point where they played a defenseman at wing over any of their forward options and fell, 5-2, to the Montreal Canadiens, the fourth-worst offensive team in the league, Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Sean Couturier (back), Cam Atkinson (neck), and Travis Konecny (upper body), all leading forwards, and Zack MacEwen (jaw), an important part of the fourth line’s identity, sat up top as their team came out flat in their first home game in over a week. Meanwhile, Justin Braun came off the healthy scratch list as an extra defenseman.

Typically, seventh defensemen rotate in with the other pairings. But whenever Braun was on the ice, there were three defensemen and two forwards.

The lack of offensive players came through on the scoresheet in the 1 next to the Flyers’ logo through the first two periods. However, the extra defense wasn’t apparent, either. While several players stepped up and battled hard, there were lapses at critical points.

“They played with the puck,” Scott Laughton said. “We watched. Didn’t move our feet. They made us pay.”

The Canadiens’ David Savard beat Carter Hart with just over two minutes left in the period by taking advantage of a line change. Shortly after, Michael Pezzetta and Chris Tierney caught the defensemen watching again. Pezzetta won a battle on the end boards and passed it back to Tierney. Two Flyers watched as he scored on an open shot. The Canadiens added a third in the second period when Nick Suzuki shot it off Ivan Provorov’s stick while Wade Allison was in the penalty box as an instigator.

A change of lines brought some life to the otherwise flat Flyers in the third period. On the first shift, Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost cleared the way for Owen Tippett’s snap shot. But the Canadiens responded with Jesse Ylonen tipping in Justin Barron’s shot six minutes later. With about seven minutes left, Josh Anderson put the game away with a wide-open, point-blank shot. Provorov scored a garbage-time goal in the final two minutes to set the final score.

Contrary to the shot count that favored Montreal 31-26, the Flyers had their chances. There were numerous breakaways and passes to open players in front of the net. They just couldn’t get their shots on goal.

Some of that was because of the Canadiens’ defense. On Olle Lycksell’s and Joel Farabee’s breakaways, the Canadiens caught up enough to restrict their shooting movement. Others were execution errors. Kevin Hayes passed to Lycksell right in front of the net, but they just missed each other. Tippett shot wide on his breakaway. Others were missed because they were never taken. Hayes got the puck at center ice with an open look but hesitated to shoot.

“Just got a little sloppy in areas,” Farabee said. “I thought the effort was there. But, at the end of the day, just didn’t make enough plays.”

A benching in front of family and friends Monday in Calgary probably isn’t the way Travis Sanheim would have wanted it to happen. But it served its purpose. Tortorella said there was a month when Sanheim showed him who he could be, an aggressive two-way defenseman. Since he was benched, Sanheim has looked more like that player, especially Friday night. He was jumping up on the rough and competing hard in battles.

While Farabee wasn’t a healthy scratch, he dealt with something similar when he was sat for half of that same game. He made the news again for a report that his camp was unhappy with the Flyers’ treatment of him this season. After addressing the report before the game, Farabee also went out and played with speed. He created opportunities for his teammates and helped on defense, getting back on breakaways.

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Two games after Tortorella benched Farabee and scratched Sanheim, he cut down more players’ ice time. Braun, who was playing on the wing, did not play in the third period. But Braun has been a healthy scratch throughout the season, playing in just 38 of the team’s 60 games.

However, Hayes and James van Riemsdyk also saw shortened minutes in the third. Hayes has been both benched and scratched, but not since before he played in the All-Star Game. He and van Riemsdyk have played a significant amount of time on the top two lines but were treated as bottom-six players in the third.

Meanwhile, Tortorella leaned on Tippett and whoever was playing with him, which shifted through the game. Tippett finished with the most ice time of any forward.

“Tip was a concern [for Montreal] all night long,” Tortorella said.

The Flyers head to Newark on Saturday to play the New Jersey Devils for the final time this season (7 p.m., NBCSP).