POSTGAME 5: Devils Blank Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers ran into the business end of a buzzsaw as they got picked apart by the New Jersey Devils, 7-0, at the Prudential Center on Saturday evening. The final 40 minutes of the game were dominated by New Jersey in every aspect after Philly had the better of a scoreless first period.

The Devils controlled the vast majority of the second period, and took a 3-0 lead to the locker room on goals by Jonas Siegenthaler (3rd), Jack Hughes (36th) and Dawson Mercer (19th).
In the third period, the Devils kept their foot on the gas. They added four four goals: Nico Hischier (18th), Dougie Hamilton (17th), Jesper Bratt (24th) and Nathan Bastian (4th).
Samuel Ersson suffered his first losing decision in the NHL and was the unfortunate victim of seven goals against on 36 shots. Akira Schmid shut the Flyers out on 25 shots on goal.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. The Devils were 0-for-1, scoring all seven of their goals at 5-on-5.
Elliot Desnoyers made his NHL debut. He skated 14:44 of across 20 shifts and gave a solid accounting for himself on a brutal night for the team. Desnoyers was moved up in the third period to play with Owen Tippett (16:50 TOI, 2 shots on goal) and Joel Farabee (16:37 TOI, 0 shots attempted). The debuting rookie was credited with a team-high six hits.
Cam York and James van Riemsdyk were scratched from the lineup. Elliot Desnoyers made his NHL debut. Kieffer Bellows returned to the lineup. Justin Braun moved back to defense after playing fourth line right wing on Friday against Montreal.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 57 Wade Allison
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
21 Scott Laughton - 73 Elliot Desnoyers - 62 Olle Lycksell
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
33 Samuel Ersson
[79 Carter Hart]
PP1: Tippett, Frost,Ristolainen, Farabee, DeAngelo
PP2: Laughton, Cates, Hayes, Sanheim, Provorov
TURNING POINT
The second New Jersey goal, a spectacular one by Hughes one-on-one with Ersson after a turnover up-ice was when the game started to rapidly spiral out of control for Philadelphia. Leading up to that goal, the Devlis had a lengthy forechecking shift in the Philly zone and the Flyers never regained their bearings even after finally getting the puck out of the defensive zone.
Late in the second period, a Frost turnover at the red line started a New Jersey counterattack that led up directly to their third goal. From there, the rout was on for the Devils.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Jack Hughes fired a center slot shot about 90 seconds into the game. Ersson denied unscreened point shots by Dougie Hamilton at 2:11 and 2:16.
The Flyers' first scoring chance came as Patrick Brown dug the puck out behind the net and centered a pass to Deslauriers near the net at 3:40.
Philly started to take over the play. At 6:34, Desnoyers picked off the puck in the neutral zone and put the puck at the net in the New Jersey zone.
The best scoring chance of the first period unfolded as Frost won an offensive zone left circle faceoff against Hughes cleanly back to the point. Seeler fired a shot on net. Frost was stopped on a backhanded followup at the doorstep as a scramble ensued. Dougie Hamilton blocked a followup by Frost. Tippett had a crack from in close but was unable to direct it on net.
The Flyers went on the game's first power play at 12:04 as Tippett put on a burst of speed and was taken down by John Marino. The Flyers' Frost won the first faceoff but the Flyers could not maintain possession. Philly never really got set up.
Hughes tested Ersson from the slot. The Flyers goalie also stopped Hamiliton from the right circle at 15:25 and Bratt from the slot at 17:00.
Philly went back to the power play at 17:33 as Bellows got a step on Damon Severson and was taken down. This time, the Flyers lost two faceoffs and, again, never generated much of note.
2) At one juncture of the first period, the Devils were held without a shot for more than nine minutes. The Flyers played well in all aspects except the power play, which was a momentum killer. First period shots were 11-6 Flyers. Shot attempts were 22-18 Flyers. Scoring chances were 13-12 Flyers per Natural Stat Trick with a 5-2 Flyers edge in high-danger chances. However, all that good work resulted in was a scoreless deadlock.
3) Lycksell and Desnoyers combined for a steal and a potential scoring chance early in the second period. From there things went pretty much straight downhill for the Flyers.
The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 2:59. A Siegenthaler shot appeared to deflect off Justin Braun and into the net. Miles Wood drew the lone assist.
At 10:45, Seeler and Michael McLeod dropped the gloves behind the Flyers' net. A spirited fight ensued. Seeler landed some heavy shots but McLeod never gave an inch.
The Flyers got hemmed in their own zone on a long shift. When they finally got the puck out, Laughton was taken off the puck just inside the attacking blueline by Siegenthaler. Ristolainen, who'd been out on the ice for a long time was trying to go off for a change and got caught. Siegenthaler passed ahead to Hughes who went in on Ersson and scored at 8:35.
Frost, who had an extremely rough second period, committed a high-sticking penalty behind the New Jersey net at 15:00. The Flyers killed the penalty off. The best stop by Ersson came against Palat at the doorstep.
Frost had a disastrous shift entering the final minute of the period. First, he attempted to step out from behind the Flyers net with the puck and lost it. The Flyers survived that scare. Shortly thereafter, Frost was taken off the puck near center ice and the Devils countered. Hischier fed Mercer, who scored from the slot.
4) As solidly as the Flyers played in the first period, that's how much the Devils took over in the second period. Shots on goal were 16-6 New Jersey. Shot attempts were 23-15 Devils. Scoring chances were 14-4 New Jersey with an 8-3 high-danger edge. Most importantly, of course, New Jersey stashed three goals in the cash register.
5) There was no suspense as the final outcome of the game by the time the third period started, It was only a matter of how bad it might get and if the Flyers could muster any sort of a push. The answers: very ugly and the third period saw little if any competitive pushback.
At 4:05, Hischier scored a right circle goal hight to the blocker side. Marino and Graves collected the assists.
The Devils made it 5-0 at 5:16 on a play where Ersson had no chance at a save due to contact at the net by Bastian. The contact came about because Provorov pushed Bastian into Ersson. The assists went to Siegenthaler and McLeod.
Hughes twisted, turned and spun at will in the Flyers zone and fed Bratt for a tap-in goal at 13:49 as the score became 6-0.. Yegor Sharangovich drew the secondary assist. The Flyers skaters (Brown, Tippett, Bellows, Seeler and DeAngelo) were collectively turned inside out and were essentially spectators by the end.
Wade Allison made a good move on Hamilton for a self-created scoring chance: the Flyers' only mini-highlight of the third period. Later, Allison painfully blocked a shot off his leg and hobbled off. He seemed OK.
The final goal of the game came off a Bastian deflection of a Kevin Bahl shot. The secondary assist at the 16:00 mark was credited to Tomas Tatar.
Third period shots on goal were 14-9 Devils. Shot attempts were 22-17 New Jersey. Scoring chances were 10-4 Devils. High-danger chance were 8-2 Devils.