Though Sunday’s game between the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers took place in the City of Brotherly Love, many visiting fans made the 90-120 minute drive up the Jersey Turnpike in hopes of making their presence known. After all, the Devils are in good but not great shape, jousting for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s odds have plummeted after losing the first three games of their seven-game homestand and selling at the trade deadline for the fifth straight season.
Both teams kept moving in the same direction on Sunday. The Devils got some puck luck and a strong performance from Jake Allen in goal. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s offensive woes continued as they didn’t score for the first 55 minutes and ultimately couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to their Metropolitan Division rivals by a 3-1 final.
Game Recap
The first 10 minutes had an exciting, even tempo, with some chances for both sides and very few stoppages of play. But just after that, the Devils struck. Cody Glass, making his New Jersey debut, got a fortunate bounce on an attempted centering pass that found him just below the near hash marks at the right circle. Glass made no mistake, wiring home just his fifth goal of the season. It would be massive for the Devils if he could provide some consistency down the middle. This is a huge weakness for the team now that Jack Hughes is out for the season.
Allen made two of his best saves early in the second period, denying a Tyson Foerster breakaway and a clean chance from Ryan Poehling just above the crease. Those stops loomed even larger when another unlikely scorer took advantage of a fortuitous break, as Erik Haula scored his first goal and point since Nov. 25 by ripping in a loose puck at the side of the net six minutes into the middle frame. New Jersey finished the second period with a strong 11-6 edge in shots on goal and a convincing 65.46% expected goals share, proving deserving of their 2-0 lead at the end of 40 minutes.
John Tortorella tried to pull some strings to snap the Flyers out of their malaise. He benched Matvei Michkov for the back half of the first period after he couldn’t keep up with Glass on the opening goal, then promoted the slumping Travis Konecny (two goals since Jan. 7) to the top line with Tyson Foerster and Noah Cates to start the third period. The player moved off of that line, Bobby Brink, was actually the one who helped the team break through. His clean pass led Jamie Drysdale to the net unimpeded, and he beat Allen to deny the shutout and make things interesting with 4:46 to go.
But before the Flyers could pull Ivan Fedotov for the extra attacker, Travis Sanheim took Philadelphia’s lone penalty of the day with a cross-check on Brett Pesce. As a result, the Flyers didn’t get their goalie off until the final 30 seconds and that only brought them back to 5-on-5. They couldn’t muster a shot during the Sanheim penalty, suffering their fourth straight loss while being held to one goal or less for the third consecutive game for the second time this season.
Things won’t get any easier for the Flyers as the back part of their homestand pits them against three more teams currently in playoff spots – the Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Carolina Hurricanes. New Jersey also has a couple of playoff teams on its docket this week, including a pivotal showdown with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Prudential Center on Tuesday.
