Flyers Lose a Wild One in New Jersey

The Philadelphia Flyers (22-20-7) took on the New Jersey Devils (15-27-7) in a must-win game for much-needed points in their playoff race. Things started well for the Flyers as they would go the power play early after Micheal Mcleod of the Devils high stuck Sean Couturier. After a brief review, the referees deemed blood was coming Couturier and gave the Flyers a 4-minute power play.

The power play, however, was just awful for the Flyers. They only managed one shot on the four-minute major. They made the Devils' lackluster penalty kill look good. The Flyers in the first period alone had three shots total. They came out flat in the first period and finished the first period flat. It was not watchable hockey. They turn the puck over six times in the first period. The Devils would cap off the first period with a power-play goal by Nico Hischier to make it 1-0 in favor of the Devils.

The second period would get underway with a bang as Couturier took a big hit from Micheal Mcleod and Travis Sanhiem took exception to that as the two would drop the gloves for a fight. Both received 5-minute majors for fighting; however, Sanhiem received a 2-minute minor for roughing on Mcleod; Travis Konecny served that penalty.

The Devils would strike on the power play as Pavel Zacha would net his 12th goal of the season. Then three minutes later, the Devils would strike again. Miles Wood would snipe it from the blue line to beat Elliot's glove side to make the game 3-0. Shortly after that, Oskar Lindblom Would net his 8th of the year after a multitude of rebounds.

That answer was huge for the Flyers, and they would cut the deficit to two. However, the Devils thought they had a quick response to the goal, but luckily the hockey gods were shining down on Elliot as the puck would trickle wide as the net came off. The refs awarded the goal first, but then after video review, the goal was waved off. No further action occurred in the second period, but boy, what a wild ride the third period was. Let's take a look at what happened.

The Flyers would spring back to life as they struck gold as Philippe Myers would score his first goal dating back to the last year's playoffs just three minutes into the third period.

It was nice to see Myers score his first goal because he has been on a cold spell scoring all season. Myers, one of the best defensemen for the Flyers, has struggled this season, but it is nice to see him in the goal column this season finally. Then a minute later, the flyers would tie the game at three apiece by the captain Claude Giroux. Giroux beat Blackwood through the five-hole, and the puck just trickled in to make the game 3-3.

Giroux has been the team leader this season. That goal would be the 14th goal of the season for him. He has been one of the bright spots for the Flyers this year. Giroux puts this team in positions to win games, but it is such a shame to see this team on the wrong side of the Playoff line.

The Devils would then proceed to take the lead right after Connor Carrick beat Elliot over the right shoulder to make it 4-3. On that play, defencemen Philippe Myers was really out of position, and so was Elliot. Elliot's angle on that shot was just off and gave too much room for Carrick to shoot it. Elliot wants that goal back. Later on, in the period, the Flyers would strike back as their fourth goal scorer of the night Sean Couturier would bury his 15th goal of the season as he beat Blackwood over his right shoulder. It was an absolute beauty of a shot from Coots.

But then the Devils would respond 11 seconds later as Yegor Sharangovich would beat Elliot glove side to retake the lead 5-4. The defense just broke down on that play. That has been a recurring theme this season. The defense is breaking down and giving up easy goals. I hope this team finished the season strong, but playoff hopes are dying by the game.

The Flyers would pull Elliot with 2:15 remaining in the third period to provide an extra attacker. The Flyers came close on several occasions but couldn't put in the back of the net. The Devils would score on the empty net with 2 seconds remaining in the period to take the win 6-4.

Some other notes from the game are that Defencemen Egor Zamula made his debut for the orange and black today. He wasted no time getting physical in front of the net as he picked up a hit and three shots in his debut on 19 minutes of ice time. He also added a takeaway to his stat line as well.

Jackson Cates was another young play for the Flyers that got some playing time today. He recorded his first career NHL point on an assist for Oskar Lindblom's goal. He also had one shot on goal in his 10 minutes of ice time for the Flyers.

This game does sting for the Flyers' playoff hopes as the recurring theme of the defense and goaltending came back tonight. This team had so much hope going into the season, and then they just completely fell off the rails throughout this season. Although there are still seven games left on their schedule, I feel like this season is over. The Flyers will retake the Devils this Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard time.