Kolosov makes NHL debut, but doesn’t get much help as Flyers fall to 2-6-1 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Aleksei Kolosov couldn’t save the Flyers from their up-and-down play.
John Tortorella’s club wasn’t at all sharp or connected and had to play way too much defense in a 4-3 loss Sunday night to the Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center.
Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny scored the Flyers’ goals.
Sanheim’s opening goal sent the game into the first intermission tied at 1-1. Then, with the Flyers leading 4-1 and less than two and a half minutes to play, Sanheim and Konecny struck to make the game interesting.
“This year is the year where the players who improved last year, the young guys, I need to improve even more this year” said Tortorella. “And we’re kind of stuck. It surprises me a little, yes, but that’s how it is. The game is funny, the game is funny, you never know where it will take you.
“I just want us to not try to fix everything. You start to panic when you lose certain games. We just have to calm down and the most important thing is to be together on the ice, to be together to come back in our end zone and play as a group.
The Flyers (2-6-1) have yet to win consecutive games this season. They missed an opportunity to sweep their back-to-back set in Philadelphia this weekend. They ended a six-game skid Saturday afternoon with a 7-5 victory against the Wild.
But they couldn’t rely on that.
“No one’s coming, no one to get us out of there, it’s the guys in the room,” Scott Laughton said. “We need to figure this out quickly. This may not be the best time for this to happen, but it’s happening right now. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but we have to figure it out.”
The Flyers have allowed four or more goals in seven of their nine games and are allowing 4.44 per game.
“We just don’t work in groups,” Sanheim said. “Last year, the reason we had so much success was because there were five-man units, one after the other, on every line. We had an identity, we worked hard. The other teams knew it. Maybe I guess that’s part of it, it’s the teams are aware of the success that we had last year in this area.
“We just have to put our heads down, go to work, get to the dirty areas. Last year we were throwing pucks at tough angles and getting extra rebounds. We’re just not seeing that right now. is something that we need to change pretty quickly because the way we’re going, it’s not a good path.”
Montreal also played on Saturday, winning 5-2 at home against the Blues to end a four-game losing streak.
The Flyers won’t see the Canadiens (4-4-1) again for a while. They will have two more clashes, one at the Wells Fargo Center on March 27 and the other in Montreal on April 5.
“It’s just about trying to find it as quickly as possible, knowing that you can’t go too high or too low,” Garnet Hathaway said. “You’ll hear this, I think it all season long and I’ve heard it throughout my career. It’s never as good as you think and it’s never as bad. The more we let’s find our roles and the more we choose each other that’s when we will move in the right direction.
• After an eventful offseason between Kolosov and the FlyersThe 22-year-old goalie prospect made his NHL debut just nine games into the season. The Belarusian converted 20 saves on 24 shots.
“I thought our goalie played well,” Tortorella said. “I thought he made some really good saves.”
The Canadiens never trailed in the game and dominated the Flyers 3-0 in the second period.
Kolosov had little to no chance of stopping Montreal’s first two goals. The one he probably could have prevented was the third, which came on a Cole Caufield power play. Kolosov had line of sight on the shot and let it slip between him and the post.
On the Canadian’s fourth goal (and third of the second period), Kolosov lost track of a broken pass that headed towards a wide open Jake Evans under the circle.
Linked to a saga dating back to MayKolosov was not in rookie camp and missed more than a week of main camp. But after joining the Flyers, playing a few preseason games and returning to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley, things seemingly improved.
“As far as Kolosov’s attitude and mindset right now, we got some good reports about how he went about his business there,” Tortorella said before the match.
Samuel Ersson was Kolosov’s replacement. Ivan Fedotov, the team’s third goalie on the roster right now, hasn’t been reliable enough in his three starts, what prompted the Flyers to call up Kolosov.
Montreal goaltender Cayden Primeau, son of former Flyers captain Keith Primeau, stopped 23 shots.
• After totaling 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in the Flyers’ win over Minnesota, Konecny, Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov combined for a point Sunday night.
The Flyers just didn’t generate much and went one and done far too many times.
“I’d like to see us play faster, but it doesn’t seem like we’re playing fast,” Tortorella said. “I think it hurt us a little bit. We don’t sneak up on teams. Last year I think we felt like we sneaked up on teams a little bit with our transition game.”
Defensively, Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale are still working to form a more cohesive second pairing.
• Along with Kolosov, Emil Andrae was recalled Saturday night from the Phantoms and was added to the lineup. He replaced Egor Zamula, who fought for eight matches. The 24-year-old has a minus-10 rating and has not shown speed in his decision-making.
“Just the speed,” Tortorella said before the match. “Not just physical speed, but also mental speed as far as reading plays, getting the puck up the ice quicker.”
The Flyers coaching staff used Zamula as an interpreter to communicate with Michkov. Tortorella believes this made the Russian defender’s situation worse.
“We stopped using him as an interpreter, I think we went a little too far,” the head coach said. “It’s time we talk to Mich. It’s just too much and I think it’s affected him a little bit. I just want to put him out there, let him watch a game and try to regroup and then we’ll see what what will happen after this game.
• The Flyers are back in action Tuesday when they visit the Bruins (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
