The Flyers wasted no time on their homestand to mercifully end a protracted losing streak.
To open that five-game stretch at the Wells Fargo Center, the desperate Flyers clinched a 3-1 win over the Islanders on Tuesday night.
The Flyers (8-10-5) eventually ripped their coach at 10 games (0-7-3).
John Tortorella’s club deserves it. New York is one of the best third-season teams in the NHL, and the Flyers overplayed it in the last 20 minutes.
“This is one of our more complete games and finish is the right word,” Tortorella said. “We talked between the second and third in the coaching room about how now we’re going to finish a game and not have to go out the back door.
“I liked that we were on our toes and didn’t give up 15, 16 shots at halftime and went out the back door. It’s a really good stepping stone for us to understand how to end games.”
Travis Sanheim and Kevin Hayes hit the back of the net for the Flyers, who have only scored two goals a game during their 10-game streak. Hayes’ record was the game winner, coming just under halfway through the first period.
He put down an empty net to end the Flyers’ win.
Lukas Sedlak had his third multi-point game (two assists) with the Flyers. The 29-year-old was pulled from waivers on October 19.
The Flyers went 3-8-4 in a November to forget. In the last two seasons, they have achieved a combined 7-14-7 this month.
The Islanders (15-9-0), who beat the Flyers 5-2 three days ago, had ended their four-game winning streak.
More: No respect for hapless flyers? Tortorella ready to eat “that sh…” but not forgetting
• Some bad blood from the end of Saturday’s game carried over into the first eight seconds of Tuesday night’s rematch.
Two fights were orchestrated during the warm-up drills.
Zack MacEwen took on Matt Martin. The fight was no cheapskate. MacEwen is a free swinger and Martin is one of the toughest in the game.
A second later, Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves with Ross Johnston. Another good one.
It felt like all parties decided to settle things early and then play. Fair enough.
Deslauriers spoke to Martin before the game, but a fight with MacEwen was already scheduled. Johnston didn’t play last game and was apparently drafted in from New York to be ready for Deslauriers.
“I’m trying to say I didn’t see Mac talking to me [Martin]but the deal was already done there,” said Deslauriers. “He was kind enough to tell me that someone else had just been added to the lineup for me, so we assumed that was the case.
“I started the whole last game and am always ready to answer the bell. I think [Johnston] would have done the same if I had come into the line-up for that.”
• Hayes stayed on the right wing, Sedlak in the middle and Joel Farabee on the left.
Tortorella explained why Hayes struggled with poor defensive zone coverage.
“He knows,” said the head coach on Tuesday morning. “Kevin is trying. He’s not a stubborn player. He takes care of him and tries to be the best he can be. I think he has some bad habits. It’s not just one year, two years, it’s probably all of his Career.”
Hayes was great for the battered Flyers, who aren’t an offensive team even in full health. The 30-year-old has scored at least a point in 17 of the Flyers’ 23 games. In those 23 games, he has 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists).
“It’s not alien to offensive people to fight defensively,” Tortorella said. “We just don’t have the firepower to overcome some of these things, so we’re asking him to change a little bit and focus a little bit on that.” And he’s focused on that.
“Still makes mistakes, but so do a lot of our other guys. So we will continue to work with him. I’m trying to take some pressure off him because we need his damn offense. I want him to focus on that too and not lose sight of it.
“We’re trying to make better defensive decisions and be as stingy as possible because we just don’t score.”
• The No 1 goalkeepers were back in the net for both clubs.
Carter Hart finished the game with 23 saves and was sharp in a third-period penalty shootout.
“Hartsy has been great all year,” Hayes said. “I think there’s one game he might want to take back, but other than that he’s been the backbone of our team. He was our best player tonight.”
Kieffer Bellows and Rasmus Ristolainen committed two penalties in the first three minutes that resulted in a 5-on-3 goal for New York. Ristolainen then finished with a really solid game on top pair alongside Ivan Provorov.
Sanheim recouped that goal 1:25 minutes later with an underscorer. The Flyers desperately needed that goal as a fresh start of sorts.
For the Islanders, Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 of the Flyers’ 32 shots.
• The Flyers received a much-needed reinforcement in attack with the return of Scott Laughton. The reserve captain missed the last four games with an upper-body injury.
The club were left without Travis Konecny (torso), James van Riemsdyk (broken finger), Cam Atkinson (torso), Sean Couturier (back) and Wade Allison (oblique/hip).
Konecny and van Riemsdyk were rehab skaters. Atkinson was cleared for contact and practiced Monday. More about him here.
“Obviously you don’t want to go on those runners, 10 games like this, but you’re two or three games down from .500,” Laughton said after the team’s optional morning skate. “That’s the positive thing here. We take it one day at a time, try to eliminate it and get some bodies back.
“We got off to a good start, which is positive. We’re really not that far out. You string a few wins together, it goes a long way, you stay in the mix a little bit longer and see what happens. “
While Laughton returned, the Flyers didn’t have Tony DeAngelo on the back end for the first time this season. The top pair defender was unavailable due to a lower body injury. He has been injured since last Friday, when he blocked a shot in the 4-1 loss to the Penguins.
• Tortorella had the long game in mind, slotting in Egor Zamula in defence.
The head coach likes the bright side of the 22-year-old talent and felt it was time to see her back in the line-up. Even if DeAngelo had been ready, Zamula would have played in someone else’s place.
“I want to bring another young man back there because I think that will help us in the future,” Tortorella said Monday.
Zamula saw his first game action with the big club since November 5, playing just under 14 minutes. He and Nick Seeler played some crucial, hard-nosed minutes in the third half.
Tortorella must balance present and future with its backend decisions.
“Are you looking for short-term or long-term?” he said. “And that sometimes changes throughout the year.”
Definitely not a bad thing that Tortorella wants to see the organization’s kids.
• The home stand continues Thursday when the Flyers salute the Lightning (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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