RALEIGH, N.C. \u2013 Against a team as quick as Carolina, it only takes a lapse or two to wind up on the short end of the score.<\/p>\n
That pretty much summed up Game 1 of the Flyers-Hurricanes series on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Two of the three Carolina goals came off Flyer misplays and that was enough for a 3-0 win over Philadelphia at Lenovo Center.<\/p>\n
Logan Stankoven scored twice for the winners and goaltender Frederik Andersen was hardly tested by the limited number of shots (19) the Flyers put on him.<\/p>\n
Game 2 is scheduled for Monday, 7 p.m. at Lenovo Center.<\/p>\n
The Flyers got off to a horrible start. Carolina had a 2-0 lead just 7:30 after the opening faceoff.<\/p>\n
Flyers captain Sean Couturier said the Flyers knew what the speedy \u2018Canes were going to do but just couldn\u2019t do enough to stop them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the way they play,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cBut I think they were just hungrier than us.\u201dCouturier looked like one of the few Flyers who came to play.<\/p>\n
In fact, coach Rick Tocchet thought his best player was rookie Denver Barkey, which said something about a number of other players with much more experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t win enough one-on-one battles,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cThey won the 50-50 races. That\u2019s what happens. Give them a lot of momentum and you\u2019ve got to find a way to get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet was aware the Hurricanes would be coming with the pedal to the medal. His team just wasn\u2019t quite ready for that all-out approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think early on, we talked about it but we just didn\u2019t live it on the ice,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t quick enough for their speed. Our reaction was a little bit slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good baptism to how our players are going to have to play. Got to play with some quickness and reactionary time. That\u2019s how you have to play against this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stankoven broke through at the 1:31 mark of the first period when he tipped Mike Reilly\u2019s shot past goaltender Dan Vladar.<\/p>\n
Then Jackson Blake made it 2-0 when he eluded defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen outside the red line, raced in and put a short through the Flyer goaltender.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia could muster only one shot through the first 15 minutes and none of the total of four offered a real threat on Andersen.<\/p>\n
A Noah Juulsen turnover led to Carolina\u2019s third goal at 16:16 of the second. Juulsen attempted an ill-advised pass in the Flyer zone. That was blocked and Stankoven had no problem getting a point-blank shot past Vladar.<\/p>\n
Travis Konecny said his team started to up its tempo in the second half of the game but by then it was almost too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we didn\u2019t come out with our best game,\u201d Konecny said. \u201cWe have plenty more (games), so just flush it, regroup and know what to expect now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The slow start created a big problem for the Flyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time, they come hard and you expect it,\u201d Noah Cates said. \u201cWe settled in but you can\u2019t have a lapse like that in a playoff game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cates hopes the Flyers can respond with a better effort in Monday night\u2019s Game 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of playing like the last half of the game (in Game 1),\u201d Cates said. \u201cGetting in on the forecheck, holding onto pucks a little bit better. They\u2019ll come hard in Game 2. We\u2019ll have to weather the storm a little bit quicker. Get to our game a little bit quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tippett out<\/p>\n
Although Owen Tippett took part in the morning skate, he was a scratch for Game 1. No updates about his condition were provided, not even if the injury (or injuries) are upper- or lower-body in nature.<\/p>\n
Tippett is listed as day-to-day and could be a possibility for Game 2.<\/p>\n
Zegras faceoff situation<\/p>\n
Tocchet decided to move Trevor Zegras back to center earlier this season and one issue that has created involves faceoffs. To be blunt, he was terrible at the start. He\u2019s improved but that situation still needs work.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really struggled, especially on power-play faceoffs for a while,\u201d Tocchet said at the morning skate. \u201cI honestly don\u2019t know what his percentage is now (entering Game 1 vs. Carolina it was 21-29, 42 percent).<\/p>\n
York\u2019s rare feat<\/p>\n
When Flyers defenseman Cam York scored in sudden-death overtime the other night to eliminate Pittsburgh, he became just the third NHL backliner since stats began back in 1943-44 to achieve that feat.<\/p>\n
The others: Vancouver\u2019s Chris Tanov in 2020 and Pittsburgh\u2019s Brooks Orpik in 2013.<\/p>\n
York also became the ninth Flyer to score his first career playoff goal in the Penguin series.<\/p>\n
The others: Trevor Zegras, Porter Martone, Cates, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Jamie Drysdale, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler.<\/p>\n
The remainder of the schedule for the series:<\/p>\n
Game 3: Thursday, at Philadelphia, 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 4: Saturday, at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 5: Monday, May 11, at Carolina, TBD.<\/p>\n
Game 6: Wednesday, May 13, at Philadelphia, TBD.<\/p>\n
Game 7: Saturday, May 16: at Carolina, TBD.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. \u2013 Against a team as quick as Carolina, it only takes a lapse or two to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,3065,85,54248],"class_list":["post-646742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}