March 04, 2016
Early on, Shayne Gostisbehere was the Philadelphia Flyers’ best player during the team’s damaging 4-0 loss to the lowly Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. His positioning and active stick bailed the Flyers out in the defensive zone on more than one occasion.
Yet there he was in the dressing room afterward, answering questions about a minus-3 and two turnovers that led to Oiler goals.
“I thought we were playing well and they would get one bounce, and the puck would be in the back of our net,” Gostisbehere said. “I mean, it just happened.”
Gostisbehere smashing his stick to the ice encapsulated it all. Getting shut out by the second worst team in the league at home is maddening, and the rookie defenseman’s night was a microcosm of the team’s in a way.
When the Flyers or Ghost played well, they couldn’t buy a bucket. When the Flyers or Ghost made mistakes, they proved costly.
“Some nights you get the breaks and you get maybe a lucky bounce and some nights you don’t,” Mark Streit said after hitting a post of his own.
Make no mistake, the Flyers deserved to lose. Their first 20 minutes won’t make for fun viewing on Friday. The Flyers were outshot 14-6, had a difficult time in the neutral zone, allowed odd-man rushes, and turned the puck over in their own end far too many times.
At the end of the period, the Oilers led 1-0 after some Connor McDavid brilliance combined with poor coverage from the Evgeny Medvedev-Radko Gudas pairing.
“I didn’t think we matched their pace in the first period and for a team that hasn’t had a whole lot of success on the road they probably got out of that first period feeling pretty good,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said after the game.
When the Flyers came out of the dressing room, they flipped the script. The forecheck (specifically from the first line) was forcing Oilers mistakes and creating quality chances, while the puck was moving crisply on the power play. And yet, the period’s two goals belonged to the Oilers. The Orange and Black had a right to be at least a little vexed.
“Yeah, obviously it’s frustrating,” Wayne Simmonds said. “You got to be able to push by that.”
Sometimes, it’s not your night. Or more specifically, after a bunch of scoring chances (including a couple of posts), it’s not your period.
“We had a lot of opportunities, we couldn’t buy a break around the net and they capitalized on the opportunities that they had,” Hakstol said. “That’s the difference in the game.”
Again, the Flyers deserved to lose. Add up poor possession in the first period and critical mistakes in the final 40 minutes, and you have what might be the worst loss of the season considering the circumstances.
“I felt like they were better in front of the net and on both sides, and I think that was the difference,” Neuvirth said.
No argument there.
Brayden Schenn took a nasty hit from Oilers defenseman Adam Pardy in the middle of a scrum. Without getting into an argument over intent, a helmet-less Schenn’s head hit the ice very hard (via SB Nation):
Schenn went back on the ice and took a few more shifts, but he was eventually taken out of the game. With a four-goal margin, there wasn’t need to risk anything.
After the game, Schenn was in the dressing room but he declined to speak to reporters.
3:00 pm Friday update: According to the Inquirer, Ron Hextall said that the team in still gathering information and that an announcement on Schenn's status will come Saturday.
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