The Philadelphia Flyers will look to snap a season high-tying three-game losing streak on Wednesday when they visit the Buffalo Sabres.
The Flyers had won five of seven games before dropping three in a row (0-2-1), including getting outscored 12-3 by the Tampa Bay Lightning en route to being unceremoniously swept in a two-game home set.
“Two tough games for us,” Flyers captain Sean Couturier said after his team’s 5-1 setback on Monday. “I think we have a lot of work to do to get to that level. They’re a pretty experienced team that plays the right way and sticks to their game plan. That’s something we can learn. I still believe in this group, that we can get there, just have to put in the work and get to that level.”
Defenseman Nick Seeler told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the team remains confident despite back-to-back blowout losses.
“We still believe in ourselves,” Seeler said. “These two games don’t change that. But we’ve just got to learn from a couple of games like that and be better from it, mature a bit as a group, and we’ll get on the other side of this.”
Christian Dvorak scored an unassisted goal in the second period for the Flyers, extending his point streak to four games (one goal, three assists).
Travis Konecny was held off the scoresheet and recorded 14 penalty minutes in his return after missing Saturday’s game with an upper-body injury. He has fared much better in two meetings with the Sabres this season, collecting a goal and an assist in Philadelphia’s 5-2 home win on Dec. 3 and a goal in a 5-3 setback at Buffalo on Dec. 18.
The victory over the Flyers was part of a six-game home winning streak for the Sabres. That run ended, however, with a 4-3 setback to the Florida Panthers on Monday, just the second setback in 15 games for Buffalo.
“I think we’ve been doing really good things lately and I just don’t think our compete was there (Monday),” Zach Benson said. “Obviously, you want to compete every night, but we’ve had a lot of compete lately and we just got to get back to it.”
Benson joined defenseman Jacob Bryson and Alex Tuch in scoring a goal for Buffalo, which fell at home for the first time since Nov. 28.
Tage Thompson notched an assist on Benson’s goal, boosting the former’s point total to 21 (10 goals, 11 assists) in his last 19 games. The assist also extended his point streak to four games, marking the third time this season he has strung together a streak of at least that length.
Thompson, who leads the team in goals (22) and points (42), scored in his most recent meeting with Philadelphia.
Flyers forward Trevor Zegras, who leads the team in goals (17) and points (41), has totaled a goal and an assist versus the Sabres this season.
Philadelphia could see the returns of both forward Bobby Brink and defenseman Jamie Drysdale from three-game absences on Wednesday due to their respective upper-body injuries.
–Field Level Media
