The visiting Philadelphia Flyers and the Calgary Flames will each be looking for a bounce-back performance when they meet Sunday in Calgary.
Both clubs are in a skid and coming off blown-lead losses. The Flyers opened a five-game road swing with a 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, while the Flames kicked off a three-game homestand by dropping a 5-3 clash with the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
Philadelphia held a lead more than halfway through the third period before surrendering a pair of goals less than three minutes apart.
“When you’re up 2-1, you’ve got to protect the interior of the ice,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “For whatever reason, when pressure hits us, we forget that. … We were in control of the game, and then, all of a sudden, they make a push, and that’s when we’ve really got to dig in, and got to protect the middle of the ice. That’s just Hockey 101.”
The Flyers had high hopes coming into the campaign after reaching the playoffs last season and beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
After losing the first nine games of this season, they appeared to have turned the corner with a trio of victories but have only one win in the past six outings and have dropped to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
“I think we were trying to defend a lead rather than just play the game and kind of do what made us successful during the other periods,” Philadelphia forward Noel Acciari said. “I don’t know what it was, but we needed to keep the foot on the gas and keep doing what got us there. … It’s not the way we wanted to start a road trip.”
The lead Calgary surrendered was even bigger.
The Flames scored three times in the opening period for the first time this season and had a 3-1 lead over Anaheim past the midway point but were done in by a trio of third-period goals by the Ducks.
“I really liked our first period,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “After that, I thought we stopped moving our feet and I thought the physicality in our game kind of went away. They took over the second and third periods.”
The Flames have charted a similar path as the Flyers, losing their first five games and then finding a groove, and had even won five straight on home ice. However, they have managed only one victory in the past four outings.
Amid the struggles, though, the Flames are seeing some elements they want. Calgary is not pegged as a playoff squad but is looking for young players to prove they can be contributors at the NHL level.
Second-year defenseman Zayne Parekh is starting to show his offensive skills can make a difference and has been a big reason Calgary’s power play is in the top five of the league at 30%.
Rookie forward William Stromgren, a 2021 second-round draft choice, has scored twice in three games since being summoned from the minors, including the opening tally against Anaheim.
He was more concerned about the loss, however,
“We started slacking a little bit, kind of going outside of our game plan,” Stromgren said. “Definitely just watch some video and see what we can do about it.”