PHILADELPHIA \u2014 New game, same result.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Lightning raced to a three-goal lead, then cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in the second half of a rare back-to-back home set.<\/p>\n
After Saturday night\u2019s 7-2 blowout loss, the Flyers for just the second time this season lost two straight games in regulation time.<\/p>\n
Both Washington and Pittsburgh were idle, so the Flyers hung onto their slender edge for third place in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n
The Flyers were treating this couplet of games as a learning experience to see where they stood up against one of the league\u2019s top teams.<\/p>\n
So what did they learn? Well, that there\u2019s still a considerable amount of work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these are those games where you look at what you can do better,\u201d Nick Seeler said. \u201cI guarantee we\u2019re going to have a good meeting here. It\u2019s what I\u2019ve been saying, it\u2019s consistency, it\u2019s game management. It\u2019s the little things really good teams do consistently that allows them to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Case in point: The Flyers gave the puck away 19 times to just nine for Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a young group,\u201d Seeler said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting a lot better. This one\u2019s in the rearview. We just need to have a great game in Buffalo (on Wednesday). Get two points and get back on track here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Couturier also was blunt in his assessment. The Flyers\u2019 penalty kill wasn\u2019t great, allowing two goals on three opportunities; the team took too many penalties (12 for 46 minutes) and the offense wasn\u2019t there against Tampa\u2019s second-string goaltender.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo tough games for us,\u201d Couturier admitted. \u201cTwo good challenges. Obviously we have a lot of work to do to get to that level. They\u2019re a pretty experienced team that plays the right way and sticks to their game plan. Something we can learn. I believe in this group that we can get there. Just have to put in that work and get to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of those penalties fell into the lazy classification. That\u2019s not something you want to do against a high-flying outfit like Tampa. Killing so many penalties can be exhausting.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecial teams need to be better,\u201d Couturier said.<\/p>\n
Next up are a couple road games against the Sabres and Pittsburgh. Can the Flyers get things back on track?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cAll year we\u2019ve done it. I still believe if we had played better, we could have made it a tighter match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet is not one to dwell on losses, as long as the effort is there. He\u2019s aware Tampa\u2019s talent level is higher than the Flyers\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good hockey team over there, a good measuring stick,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYou can\u2019t be frustrated, you just got to keep working. Let\u2019s face it, their best players are very good. There\u2019s a level that we have to find some of our guys to get, too. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to try to get to every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for special team breakdowns, Tocchet got right to the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our power play (scoreless in three attempts), it\u2019s nerves,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe just got to relax. That\u2019s my job. Get these guys to relax just a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet is calling on his top players to play a more responsible game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to play a smarter game,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe have too many guys giving up too many turnovers. Especially our high-end guys. If you\u2019re going to turn pucks over, you have to score. We\u2019re giving up turnovers but we\u2019re not scoring. If you\u2019re going to play risky, you better score.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pair of goals in the second period got the Lightning out to that three-goal edge before the Flyers were able to respond. Jake Guentzel\u2019s 20th goal of the season just 33 seconds into the middle session made it 2-0.<\/p>\n
Then, after Rodrigo Abols took a foolish penalty behind the Tampa net, the Lightning scored again. Brayden Point put a shot behind goalie Dan Vladar on the power play, then headed off to the locker room after he appeared to be injured.<\/p>\n
The Flyers finally scored on an unassisted goal by Christian Dvorak, but the Lightning cashed in on a power play with 29 seconds left in the period via Brandon Hagel.<\/p>\n
Like the game Saturday night, the Flyers surrendered a goal before the fans could get settled in their seats. But unlike that game, the Flyers tightened things up defensively for the remainder of the opening 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
A scramble in front of the net led to the Lightning\u2019s opening marker. Pontus Holmberg wound up with the puck just below the left hash marks and connected just 1:10 after the opening whistle.<\/p>\n
The Flyers didn\u2019t have to contend with Tampa\u2019s top goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, but No. 2 netminder Jonas Johansson was equally tough in this match, making 20 saves.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
NOTES >> Matvei Michkov\u2019s offensive slump continues. He has scored only one goal since Nov. 29 and is now a team-worst minus-6.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d like to see him separate in the corners,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe\u2019s easily checked. We have to keep working with him. He\u2019s got to get a little bit more separation, skate away from people. It looks like he\u2019s kind of stuck in mud sometimes.\u201d \u2026 The injured Bobby Brink has been skating but wasn\u2019t ready to play Monday. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale finished up a week-long stint on injured reserve. He\u2019s eligible to return Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 New game, same result. The Tampa Bay Lightning raced to a three-goal lead, then cruised to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-404761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115886366677941394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}