Flyers lose third straight, 5-1, with a flat effort against the Stars

Everyone wearing orange and black at the Wells Fargo Center was sleepy Sunday afternoon. The fans were quiet and the Flyers were sluggish as they dropped their third straight game, this one a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

The Flyers came out with a brief burst of energy, but the reserves seemed to run out within three minutes, leading to the Stars’ first goal. As the Stars flipped it up the ice, Tony DeAngelo came out to defend the puck carrier, stopping hopes of a breakaway but failing to kill the play. Ivan Provorov covered the other man coming down the other side of the ice. But a third Star, Matěj Blümel, was left open and came right up the center of the ice for a goal at 2 minutes, 36 seconds.

The Flyers gave the Stars another great scoring chance late in the first period. The Stars took the puck behind the net and a battle ensued. All the Flyers’ eyes were turned toward the battle, and when they lost it, they couldn’t get back to stop the low-to-high pass that turned into an Esa Lindell goal from the point.

There were other spurts of energy from there, like on Travis Konecny’s goal when the Flyers’ first line put together an impressive passing sequence to set up the easy look to start the second period. Although the team looked disjointed at times, coach John Tortorella was still pleased with the effort, adding that he thought the team was in it because of its five-on-five play until it gave up a shorthanded goal.

The fans, who only cheered for the one Flyers goal and occasionally yelled, “Shoot,” got the loudest when they booed as the game ended.

» READ MORE: The softer side of John Tortorella: Inside the fiery coach’s passion for helping animals in need

The Flyers stayed out of the penalty box more than the Stars, giving them more time to create momentum with the man advantage. They didn’t take advantage of the opportunity against Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger, who finished with 37 saves.

During the first two minutes the Flyers spent on the power play, they managed to put two shots on goal. On the second, all of the Flyers’ shots were either blocked or went wide. The real killer, however, came on the third power play.

Luke Glendening of the Stars won the opening faceoff against Scott Laughton and his teammates immediately turned up the ice. Lindell cut through the Flyers to move the puck through the neutral zone and then passed it to Ty Dellandrea, who took the shot. Glendening crashed the net and deflected the puck in for a shorthanded goal and a 4-1 lead at 6:57 of the third period. There was no one near him. Jason Robertson scored a power-play goal to close the Stars’ scoring.

The Flyers got a five-on-three in the final minutes of the game and managed only two shots on goal. They were not able to capitalize on the front end or the back end of the five-on-three or when it was a five-on-four, either.

“The power play is something that I believe that we can get going,” Tortorella said. “Those are our guys. You know, we have to try to help them and improve that because I think that’s the only way we can stay in these games offensively is getting some goals kicked in by that power play.”

For three straight games, across nine opposing power plays, the Flyers did not give up a single power-play goal. In the six power plays in the last two games, the Flyers gave up three power-play goals. Their 83% kill rate has dropped to 75%.

“Probably won a couple games there in the first stretch with our special teams and we lost the last two because of it,” Laughton said.

The Flyers held off the Stars’ fourth-ranked power play at first, letting up only two shots on goal thanks to their success in clearing the puck. They got off to a strong start on the second power play, as well, generating a shorthanded attempt. But after Jamie Benn quickly passed the puck to the point, forcing the Flyers to rush to their positions, Miro Heiskanen got a clean shot off, which Joe Pavelski deflected in.

» READ MORE: Ivan Provorov is off to a strong start under John Tortorella, with crashing the Norris Trophy conversation ‘the goal’

Despite his team’s struggles, Konecny has continued to play his game and find ways to shine.

After an offseason dedicated to getting back to his game, Konecny has scored almost twice as many points (17) as he had through 15 games last season (nine). His second-period goal Sunday put him ahead of his 16 points in 15 games during his 2020 All-Star season.

Konecny leads the Flyers in both points and goals. In addition to his production, he’s also been one of the most reliable players across the ice. He creates opportunities for himself (he leads in shots on goal by 10) as well as others, which he displayed Saturday. He also has increased his role to play on the penalty kill in addition to the power play, and as a result, he leads the forwards in average time on ice. In general, he was one of the few players who looked awake.

The Flyers return to Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. for their second game against the Blue Jackets in a week.