Another 2-1 game, but Flyers on the wrong end of it with an OT loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers’ struggles to score bit them Saturday afternoon in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Predators at the Wells Fargo Center.
Matt Duchene scored the OT winner just 34 seconds into the bonus session. The puck may have gone off a Flyers skater.
Kevin Hayes continued to produce. He drew the Flyers even in the second period with a slew of dekes on Nashville netminder Juuse Saros.
Since the calendar turned to 2023, the Flyers’ All-Star has put up 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) and a plus-6 rating in 17 games.
Joel Farabee and Patrick Brown assisted Hayes’ marker.
The Flyers (22-22-10) are 1-1-1 on their four-game homestand. They’ve scored just three goals in the three games but have surrendered only four.
John Tortorella’s club is 1-9 in overtime this season and 5-4-9 when it enters the third period in a tied game.
The Flyers saw some — but not complete — carryover from one of their best performances of the season, a 2-1 shootout win Thursday over the Oilers.
That win had real building block potential, but the Flyers need to string those types of efforts together if they want to take more strides.
“We get to talk about it. That’s all we do is talk,” Tortorella said of the coaching staff. “But they get to lean on it because they did it. We didn’t do it. We direct them and try to give them what we think is the best way to play against a team, but they did it.
“You need results, too, for them to believe.”
The Flyers went 1-0-1 against the Predators (25-19-6) in their two-game regular-season series.
• Carter Hart finished with 23 saves.
He has been very good in his last four starts. The OT winner is a tough one to give up.
Saros stopped 23 of the Flyers’ 24 shots.
• The Predators grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second period when Nino Niederreiter scored at Hart’s doorstep.
Travis Sanheim was slow to get back in coverage.
The 26-year-old defenseman had an all-around good game against Edmonton, highlighted by his aggressiveness offensively.
The Flyers want to see it defensively, as well.
“Then you get the guy we saw for about a month this year,” Tortorella said Friday. “We saw it, both sides of the puck. As I told him then, now we saw it, now you’re screwed. Because now we want to see it all the time.”
• Near the end of a scoreless first period, Rasmus Ristolainen delivered a clean hit on Filip Forsberg along the corner boards.
Nashville’s leading goal scorer was visibly shaken up. He left the game and did not return.
As a result, Nicolas Deslauriers and Tanner Jeannot, who chatted before the game, found a good reason to drop the gloves 13 seconds into the middle stanza.
Later in the period, Joel Farabee fought for the eighth time in his NHL career as he took on Juuso Parssinen.
• Tony DeAngelo appeared hobbled when he went up the tunnel during the third period.
He returned a couple of minutes later.
• The Flyers placed Kieffer Bellows on waivers Friday for the second time this season. He cleared and will report to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley. Filling in for Zack MacEwen (fractured jaw), Bellows didn’t get a long look on the Flyers’ fourth line.
The club called up Olle Lycksell from the Phantoms but he did not suit up for Saturday’s game. He played Friday night for Lehigh Valley, which would have made Saturday’s 12:38 pm ET puck drop a pretty quick turnaround.
So Tortorella rolled with 11 forwards and seven defensemen as Justin Braun entered the lineup.
• Plenty of Eagles chants were heard Saturday. In the first period, the team’s fight song was played during a brief stoppage. When the action resumed, fans finished the chant on their own.
The Eagles take on the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night.
• The homestand wraps up Sunday when the Flyers host the Dave Hakstol-led Kraken (1 pm ET/NBCSP).
The Flyers are 2-7-0 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season.
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