‘It’s stubbornness, it’s a lesson that we learned’ — Flyers’ 9-game point streak ends originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers saw their nine-game point streak come to a halt Thursday night with a 4-2 loss to the Predators at the Wells Fargo Center.
Philip Tomasino did damage to the Flyers, scoring the game-tying goal in the second period and the winner with 4:01 minutes left in the action.
Nashville added an emtpy-netter in the final second.
Morgan Frost and Sean Couturier scored for the Flyers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.
The Flyers (18-11-3) went 7-0-2 in their point streak. This marked their first loss in regulation since Nov. 28.
They’ve lived on the edge a bit, playing a ton of close games during their run. Seven of the nine games in their point streak were decided by one goal.
John Tortorella’s club is in second place of a jam-packed Metropolitan Division with one more game to go before the NHL-mandated three-day holiday break.
The head coach didn’t want to hear the word playoffs at morning skate. Too early.
“We’re in the end of December,” he said. “You don’t know what your team is until the end of January, you really don’t.”
The Flyers were swept in their two-game regular-season series with the Predators (19-14-0). They lost to Nashville nine days ago in overtime at Bridgestone Arena, the first of Samuel Ersson‘s five consecutive starts.
• Tortorella’s overarching focus last season was building a foundation, having the Flyers play a smart and structured game.
In Year 2, with those concepts understood, an emphasis has been pushing for more offense.
“I want us to take chances,” Tortorella said in early November. “I didn’t say that much last year because I felt it was so naked in front of Carter [Hart], how we played, the tape I watched when I first came here. It needed to be straightened out. They bought into that, they worked hard at that last year. Now we’re trying to get the other part of the game to come into it.”
But Tortorella knows the Flyers can’t forget when to grind and simplify things as the games get tighter down the stretch.
On Tomasino’s game-winning goal, Sean Walker was stripped at the offensive blue line, which sent the play the other way.
“Nashville, they checked, they gave us a clinic on checking,” Tortorella said. “We were talking about it, all of us were talking about it all game long — we have to get it in deep, we’re not getting through clean, they’re not opening up.
“We’re hanging on, but we…