Five thoughts: Flyers drop Stadium Series, crucial points in the playoff race to Devils

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – The Flyers fell flat under the night sky and the bright lights of MetLife Stadium. 

They dropped Saturday night's long-awaited Stadium Series game against the Devils, 6-3, as New Jersey jumped on Philadelphia's sloppiness at both ends of the ice to collect a valuable two points that suddenly put them not all that much further behind the orange and black in the playoff and Metro division race – the Flyers are at 65 points and still third in the Metro while the Devils move up to 60 and just two shy of a Wild Card spot.

The Flyers have been a revelation across the NHL to this point in the season, but they're far from in the clear yet when it comes to the playoff picture, and still bad when it comes to actually playing well in outdoor games. 

Here are five thoughts from Saturday night's big stage...

Delayed reaction

After practice on Friday, head coach John Tortorella said he would leave the team alone leading up to Saturday night. They knew what was at stake – players acknowledged it repeatedly in the Jets Flyers locker room – and he trusted them to be ready to play. 

After the first 20, they were down 2-0 with the ice tilting downhill for Jersey. 

Travis Konecny, after delivering a jarring check to Luke Hughes right off the draw, got caught pinching down on the boards seconds later while covering for Cam York, which left Owen Tippett (also covering up top for the defense) in no man's land and Devils captain Nico Hischier off to the races on the breakaway. He beat Sam Ersson on the move and the backhand to make it 1-0 jersey right away. 

Then, in the latter half of the period, Tyler Toffoli won an offensive zone draw back to Jack Hughes, who kicked it out to Brendan Smith at the point for a shot that took a perfect bounce right back to Toffoli's stick. Morgan Frost, on the assignment, drifted too far toward the puck side before the shot, which left Toffoli all alone. There was little Ersson could do. 2-0, Devils. 

It wasn't necessarily that the Flyers played a bad opening period. They got some sustained offensive pressure and generated shots and a couple of notable chances, but it was all safe. None of it made the Devils sweat. 

Nic Deslauriers found a couple of opportunities on the bottom six while crashing in, and Ryan Poheling found himself all alone with the puck in front late in the period after Garnet Hathaway knocked the puck loose from New Jersey in the corner, but all three chances were sent sailing wide. 

On the other side, the New Jersey chances, at least initially, were fewer but far more dangerous, and they took greater advantage.

"We had stretches where we had some good minutes and then you go and take a few penalties," defenseman Travis Sanheim, who logged 20:15 of ice time but went minus-3 on his pairing with Cam York, said postgame. "It kinda gets you out of that a little bit. Your momentum is kinda killed a little bit."

Tipp[ing] point 

But if you need to turn the tides, get Owen Tippett alone in the slot. 

That shot is just a nightmare for goalies. 

That sequence was notable for a couple of other reasons, too. 

1) Good sweep of the stick from Egor Zamula to keep it onside and just as good effort and awareness from Travis Konecny to stay with the play and draw attention away. 

2) Morgan Frost had a rough first period with a sloppy high-sticking penalty behind the New Jersey net and then the missed assignment on Toffoli's goal. It looked like he was benched for a bit – again – but was instead shuffled into Sean Couturier's place on the line with Tippett and Konecny. Immediately, they got a goal. 

If this was November, Tortorella probably doesn't send Frost back out for the rest of the game, but he's played a way more complete and aggressive game up the middle of late, which might have earned him a way longer leash to go out and try again midway through February and with the playoff race only getting hotter. 

They do need offense wherever they can get it, after all, and Frost has the skill set to create it. But there is risk that comes with that. Sometimes, it's not going to work, and sometimes it'll get ugly down the other way. 

Brutal bounces

Like on Brendan Smith's second goal of the night when every Flyer on the ice drifted too far to the strong side, leaving Smith all alone when another juicy rebound jumped off of Ersson's pads. 

That was a particularly brutal sequence for Cam Atkinson, too, as he's struggled for most of the season and got completely lost out there. 

Then it compounded quickly when Nathan Bastian picked up the chip at the blue line and beat Ersson glove side to make it 4-1.

It wasn't one of Ersson's best performances either.