In the midst of a season-long six-game losing streak, the Philadelphia Flyers head to Las Vegas to start a challenging three-game western road trip with a Monday night game against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Talk about bad timing. Vegas has won a season-high seven straight games, scoring 23 goals over its last four games, and comes in off a 7-2 beatdown of the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s defense has been leaking goals during a 0-5-1 stretch, getting outscored 31-12, including an ugly 6-3 loss to the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday.
New York scored goals on its first three shots in the contest, chasing starting goalie Aleksei Kolosov. Samuel Ersson settled things down after that, stopping 22 of 25 shots. It marked the fifth straight game Philadelphia has allowed at least five goals.
“We sucked,” center Sean Couturier said. “Plain and simple. … We’ve got to be better.”
“We’ve got to get back to our identity, and that’s playing smart hockey obviously, playing disciplined,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “We’re always behind the 8-ball. We’re always losing two or three to nothing before even the game starts and we can’t chase. That’s it in a nutshell, and it’s on me. I’ve got to get these guys back on the rails.”
Despite the recent struggles, Philadelphia heads west just three points out of third place and a playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.
“We’ve just got to stick together, grind harder and we’ll get out of this,” Couturier said. “We’ll get stronger out of this.”
Vegas, led by captain Mark Stone, who has scored 10 goals during a career-high 11-game point streak, tied a team record for goals in a period with five in the third period of Saturday’s blowout of the Predators.
Fifteen different Golden Knights picked up a point in the win, including five with multi-point games. Mitch Marner had a goal and assist to surpass the 50-point mark with the Knights in just 47 games, the fastest to accomplish that feat in franchise history. It was his 19th multi-point game of the season.
Defenseman Shea Theodore also had a goal and assist in his 600th NHL game. Vegas has scored 36 goals during its win streak.
“Sometimes when you’re hot, you’re hot, and I think we’re trying to ride it as long as possible,” Theodore said.
The seven-game winning streak is tied for the fifth-longest in franchise history. The team record is 10 in a row set April 9-28, 2021.
“It’s seven now? Wow,” winger Keegan Kolesar, who also had a goal and an assist, said. “We’ve just been taking it one game at a time, one day at a time. We’re not trying to get too far ahead. I think we’re treating every game like it’s the start of it again.”
Stone, who has 10 goals and eight assists during his 11-game point streak, can tie Jack Eichel’s team record 12-game streak set from Nov. 28-Dec. 21 of 2023 with an assist or a goal on Monday.
“He’s playing some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen,” Theodore said. “It’s coming at a good time, and he gets everything that he’s earned.”
–Field Level Media
