Flyers Fail Rangers' Big Test On Black Friday

The Flyers were no match for the Rangers in a Barometer matchup on Black Friday.

They lost 3-1 to New York at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers (10-9-1) have lost two in a row in the regular season after posting a season-best five straight wins.

Mika Zibanejad continued to haunt the Flyers with two more goals. He has 18 career appearances for the Flyers, the most against any team.

John Tortorella’s stick was caught at 3-0 7:41 into the middle stanza when Zibanejad sank his second marker.

With 2:21 minutes left in the second period, Sean Couturier brought the Flyers within striking distance. With a shot from Nick Seeler, he reduced the Flyers’ deficit to 3-1.

But the Rangers (14-3-1) have been one of the NHL’s best goal-preventing teams so far in their first year under former Flyers coach Peter Laviolette. You finished the job.

The Flyers will face New York three more times this season.

The reported number of visitors on Friday afternoon was 19,032.

Last season, Rangers fans virtually took over the Wells Fargo Center for a game in March.

“Hopefully we can get there along the way. I’m not sure when,” Tortorella said at the time. “But getting it back there is a difficult undertaking. And maybe the Rangers fans just aren’t allowed in the building because we’ve filled it with our people.”

Many New York fans traveled on Friday, but it was nowhere near as one-sided as the game in March last season.

• The Flyers couldn’t afford a bad start and had one.

They gave up a 2-on-1 duel after just 45 seconds. Zibanejad buried the shot. Carter Hart had little to no chance of stopping it.

Ryan Poehling got caught in the middle, leading to New York’s odd-man rush.

“Just way too many weird rushes,” Tortorella said. “It’s really been an integral part of our team this year, our discipline with it. And we were nowhere to be found with our backchecking.”

One minute and eight seconds later, Travis Sanheim scored on a turnover in the defensive zone right to Chris Kreider in the slot.

“He’s the best in the league at jumping faceoffs,” Sanheim said. “Maybe a little more awareness that he’s there and maybe a little more patience and see where he jumps, whether it’s inside or outside.”

The one-time 52-goal scorer quickly got the ball past Hart and gave the team a 2-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.

“There’s a striker there every time. If you watch the games, I notice he plays pretty well every game,” Sanheim said. “I don’t want to sit here and say I shouldn’t make that play because it’s a play I make regularly. He just makes a good read, he turns the ball and sets it perfectly. Unfortunately it ends up at the back of the net.

“Of course I would like to have it again, but I’ll let it play in every game. I will continue to do that.”

Sanheim and Cam York, the Flyers’ best defensive pairing, each finished minus-2.

The first period quickly became physical. Garnet Hathaway took a big hit from Jacob Trouba. The Flyers winger then delivered a goal to Ryan Lindgren. Both hits resulted in fights. Hathaway’s goal led to a Flyers power play that went 0-for-6 on the game and 7-for-68 on the season.

• Hart made 16 saves on 19 shots. He wasn’t a problem for the Flyers; The team’s start was their biggest problem and the power play didn’t help either.

“I think in the first half we talked about how we’ve never seen so many rushes from strange players – 2-on-1, 3-on-2,” Cam Atkinson said. “I think it was just because our D was anticipating the game, trying to surf and hoping our forwards would cover them. But the strikers obviously didn’t. I think we tried to cheat a little instead of erring on the more cautious side and supporting our D.”

Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped 36 of the Flyers’ 37 shots.

The 2021-22 Vezina Trophy winner heard his name shouted by New York fans.

“We probably outnumbered them, but their chances were great,” Tortorella said. “That’s basically where our tracking was nowhere to be found.”

• Tortorella and the Flyers’ video team improved to 4 for 4 in coach tackles this season when Kreider gave up a shorthanded goal for offside in the third period.

• Noah Cates was off the bench to start the third period. However, he was able to return to the bench and play.

The 24-year-old center had to receive around 30 stitches in his upper lip area after a puck hit his face.

“I think they completed the seam right at the start of the third,” Cates said. “I wanted to get some water, regroup and breathe. I don’t know when I got back out there, but basically as quickly as I could.” [The medical team] did a great job.

• Morgan Frost remained a healthy scratch. The 24-year-old center has played half the season and 20 games.

• The Flyers get right back to action on Saturday when they face the Islanders for the second time in four days at UBS Arena (7:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP+).