An eight-game homestand continued with another loss for the Flyers as they fell to the Blues, 4-1, Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
St. Louis sealed the game with two empty-net goals.
Oskar Lindblom was the Flyers' lone goal scorer.
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The Flyers (15-26-10) have lost six straight (0-4-2). They already have a pair of double-digit skids on their 2021-22 résumé, which continues to take a pounding. The Flyers dropped 13 straight (0-10-3) from Dec. 30 to Jan. 25 and 10 in a row (0-8-2) from Nov. 18 to Dec. 8.
They're 0-2-1 on this season-long homestand that hardly lets up at all in difficulty.
The club is 7-16-6 under interim head coach Mike Yeo, who had the Flyers go wire to wire with the Penguins, Capitals and Hurricanes the last three games.
On Tuesday night, though, the Flyers were clearly outplayed.
NHL
The Blues (30-14-6) visited Philadelphia for the first time since Jan. 7, 2019, when Jordan Binnington made his first-ever NHL start and blanked the Flyers, 3-0. Carter Hart, at 20 years old, was playing just his seventh game.
St. Louis, 17-19-4 at the time, made a huge turnaround under interim head coach Craig Berube and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
• Claude Giroux had a good look on the Flyers' power play at the end of the second period but misfired.
"I had a wide-open net and the puck just jumped on me," Giroux said. "I've just got to find a way to be more clutch than that."
Early in the third period, Lindblom shot over the net after Scott Laughton found him in front.
Later in the period, Lindblom cashed in, finding the back of the net on a long blast for goals in back-to-back games. But the Flyers gave it right back 42 seconds later, falling behind 2-1.
"There's been a number of times this season and even in these last couple of weeks where we’ve given up goals the shift after our goal," Yeo said. "Those are critical moments in the game. You’ve got the momentum, you have to reestablish it right away, you have to get back on your horse and get back on the attack. Obviously we got on our heels right away and it ended up in the back of our net."
The Flyers had a power play after that Vladimir Tarasenko go-ahead goal but came up empty.
Then the empty-netters finished it.
The Flyers came in as the 28th-ranked goal-scoring team in the league at 2.56 per game. Their lack of playmaking and finish were even more prevalent Tuesday night.
• Since their 6-2-2 start, the Flyers have gone 9-24-8 with a minus-55 goal differential.
They're 2-14-5 in their last 21 games.
Tough sledding, indeed.
And there's still 11 more games before the March 21 trade deadline. The Flyers will be aggressively selling.
"I think we’re very frustrated," Giroux said. "Played a good game tonight most of the time, some lines played very well, but again in the third, we just couldn’t get it done."
• If there's a glimmer of good ahead, it's that Joel Farabee (upper body) could be nearing. Four days ago, Yeo didn't rule out Farabee's potential return for this upcoming Saturday.
We'll have to wait and see where Kevin Hayes (abdominal) and Derick Brassard (hip) are in their recoveries come Thursday. Along with Farabee, both participated in portions of practice last week.
• Hart missed his second straight game because of an eye infection.
Starting in his stead again, Martin Jones made 22 saves on 24 shots faced.
Binnington has struggled this season to the tune of a 3.35 goals-against average and .898 save percentage entering the game.
However, he improved to 3-0-1 with 97 saves on 105 shots in his career against the Flyers. The 28-year-old stopped 25 of the Flyers' 26 shots Tuesday night.
• Rewarded for some good work since his call-up, Isaac Ratcliffe saw an audition on the Flyers' top line with Giroux and Cam Atkinson.
The 6-foot-6 winger has shown promising glimpses as a bottom-six guy. Management got a look at him in a top-six role. Ratcliffe finished scoreless with no shots in 14:24 minutes.
• Courtesy of a goal by former Flyer Brayden Schenn, the Flyers trailed 1-0 at first intermission.
They've been outscored 26-12 in the first period since the calendar turned to 2022, a span of 20 games.
• The Flyers are off Wednesday before having a couple of practice days ahead of their matchup Saturday against the Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center (12:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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