Instant reactions: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brandon Hagel too much for sluggish Flyers

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This is the Philadelphia Flyers‘ 21st game of the season, and only their eighth on the road. Honestly, it has felt like the split (13 home, seven away) was even steeper than that. This is the first of four straight on the road to close November, and then they’ll start December with a six-game homestand before heading out on their annual holiday road trip with Disney On Ice taking up residence in the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

They will play nine of 10 on the road after the early-December homestand. So we really don’t know what kind of road team this is, but we might start figuring it out this week.

Man, even without Brayden Point and Victor Hedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning are very good. No, this was not the best performance of the season for Rick Tocchet’s club, but sometimes you do have to credit the opponent. Their defense denied time and space all night, Andrei Vasilevskiy made every save, and the Bolts did what they had to do, on limited shots, to extend their winning streak to four.

First period

Not a ton of action in the first half of the first period, with Tampa Bay carrying the better of the play, and getting a flurry of chances around the 12:00 mark, but Sam Ersson has been up to the job so far, stopping all three of the Lightning’s SOG in the opening eight-plus minutes.

FIGHT!

Nic Deslauriers squares off with 6-foot-9 Curtis Douglas. DLo battled through the an eight-inch height disparity to get the decisive shot in to hopefully wake up his team. The enforcer did his job, now it’s time for the skill guys to step up. The Flyers still only have 1 SOG with nine minutes left.

Matvei Michkov’s line gets the first legitimate chance of the night, with a puck bouncing out front and Andrei Vasilevskiy out of position, but nobody could quite make the play in time after J.J. Moser turned the puck over after a handoff from his goalie below the goal line. A little chaos for a second, but ultimately nothing. After a few up-and-backs that could’ve turned into chances but didn’t, we’re headed to the break with 5:42 left, and Tampa leading the shots battle 6-3.

This game isn’t exactly the same pace as Flyers/Devils from Saturday night.

Tampa scores first with four-and-a-half minutes left, playing right into Philly’s hands. Foolishly, Brandon Hagel nets his tenth of the year through heavy traffic in front of Ersson. The Flyers are 8-4-2 when allowing the game’s first goal. Got ’em right where we want ’em.

The period ends 1-0 Tampa Bay. Not a ton of shots or attempts or action outside of the fight and lone goal, with four of the Flyers’ 12 attempts, and seven of the Lightning’s 16 attempts reaching the opposing goaltender.

The Flyers are doing a lot of their Andrew MacDonald back-in style defense tonight, and it bit them on the one goal. I get trying to keep a skilled team in front of you, but they’ve got to be a little more aggressive in the final 40 minutes.

Second period

The Flyers are a bit more aggressive to start this period, and have already posted two shots in the first two minutes, after totaling four in the opening 20.

Outside of a few forrays in which something almost happened in the offensive zone, the early aggressiveness hasn’t continued. The Fl;yers haven’t recorded a shot on goal since those early pair, and Tampa is playing a lot of keep away, with Philly content to keep them on the perimeter. Ersson has stopped nine of 10 through the first eight-and-a-half minutes, and we just still haven’t seen too much worth highlighting since the fight.

A replay of the fight appeared to show Deslauriers yelling “WAKE UP!” at the Flyers’ bench. So far, they haven’t.

Right. around the midway point the Michkov line, along with the pairing of Emil Andrae and Jamie Drysdale, seemed to build a little momentum, with Drysdale walking and and firing a wrister at Vasilevskiy for one of the Flyers’ better chances. The momentum carried over to the Foerster-Cates-Konecny line, with some sustained offensive pressure. But they still need to get more movement and traffic to beat Tampa’s star netminder.

The Flyers have been spending a lot of time in Tampa’s zone for the last three or four minutes, but chances have been hard to come by. Despite the recent time of possession, the Orange & Black have registered four SOG this period, with six minutes left. As soon as the Flyers try to make a play, the time and space evaporates.

“They’re starting to play with the necessary jump… uh-oh.” That was the conversation in studio between Charlie and I as the Bolts were preparing to make it a two-goal game.

The Flyers are getting more possession time, but the Lightning turn it over, with Nikita Kucherov springing Hagel on a rush, and when the Flyers d-man goes into the patented odd-man rush defense slide, Hagel waits it out and feeds to Anthony Cirelli on the back door to make it 2-0 with four minutes left.

This arena is a library. Not even Blink 182 can wake these Floridians up. The period ends with Tampa up 2-0, and leading the shot count 12-11. Neither goalie nor the officials have been busy tonight. The only penalties called through 40 minutes remain to be the first period fight. Yawn.

Third period

No increased jump on the forecheck in the third’s first couple of minutes, with Philly unable to establish itself offensively by retrieving pucks behind Tampa’s goal line.

Matvei Michkov, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny nearly connect on a pair of chances right out in front of Vasilevskiy’s crease, but neither can go after Ersson answers an odd-man rush off of a Michkov turnover. Shots are 14 a piece with 13 minutes left.

Philly has picked up the pace, but even when they get chances through, it’s to an undistracted Vasy, who is unlikely to be beaten clean by many shots. But finally a power play! Charle-Edouard D’Astous goes to the bo for getting his stick under Drysdale’s chin, and the Flyguys get the game’s first power play.

Tampa is playing keep away after a Cam York bid gets blocked and the Lightning take play the other way, and suddenly we’re playing 4v4, with Foerster headed to the box for slashing.

Right away, Owen Tippett plays his favorite instrument, clanking a puck off the post, just missing a chance to cut the deficit in half.

The Flyers are trying to pressure with under seven minutes to go, but still can’t seem to combine traffic with shots on goal. Nick Seeler is trying to make plays on offense and is throwing his weight around defensively, taking out some of his frustrations at both ends and willing this team to life. But Tampa, even without a few premiere players, is out-classing their opponents from Broad Street.

Philly is going to the penalty kill with 3:54 left as Zamula cross-checks Hagel. Great. That’ll basically do it, I’d assume.

Yup, Hagel adds the empty-netter to make it a three-point night (2G, 1A) with 16 seconds left to put it away. Vasilevskiy hands the Flyers their first shutout loss of the season, and has blanked them in back-to-back starts. Ok, that’s enough for tonight.

Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame