Flyers continue in wrong direction, fall to 0-4-0 on homestand originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers’ woes at home continued with a 3-1 loss Sunday afternoon to the Devils.
Jamie Drysdale scored the Flyers’ only goal with 4:46 minutes left in the game. It was assisted by Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster.
New Jersey finished things off at the Wells Fargo Center with an empty-netter.
The Flyers (27-30-8) are a head-scratching 0-4-0 on their season-long seven-game homestand, a stretch in which they’ve been outscored 17-6. After selling off three players at Friday’s NHL trade deadline, the Flyers were swept in a back-to-back set and scored only two goals.
“It sucks, there’s no hiding about that,” Ryan Poehling said. “I think there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. It’s definitely a gut check. That’s kind of what it comes down to.”
John Tortorella’s club is 1-9-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets and has been outscored 45-25. The Flyers were coming off a 4-1 loss Saturday afternoon to the Kraken, a performance that prompted Tortorella to admit his team was “going the wrong direction.”
The Flyers went 2-2-0 against the Devils (34-25-6) this season. New Jersey is without Jack Hughes for the rest of the season after the star center underwent shoulder surgery four days ago.
• Matvei Michkov didn’t play the final 8:50 minutes of the first period. The 20-year-old winger was slow to get back on the Devils’ game-opening goal by Cody Glass.
Tortorella showed some frustration after the game when he was pressed about the decision to sit Michkov for the rest of the first period.
“Let me tell you guys something, there are a number of things that come into play; not one specific play,” he said. “You are at a disadvantage because I’m not going to give you information. It’s not always the play on the ice that I’m trying to teach, so use that as a context before you start all your bulls–t. There are so many things that go on with me trying to develop that player and I’m going to continue to do it the way I think it should be done.”
Michkov was back on the ice for his regular shifts in the second period. Tortorella has said that the prized rookie will sit from time to time if the Flyers feel he’s repeating a mistake.
“I’m not going to fail him by cowering away from situations that people may second-guess or whatever it may be,” the head coach said at the end of January when he benched Michkov…