Flyers Vs. Kings: Season-Best Point Streak Snapped, Creates Huge Game Against Ducks

Flyers' season-best point streak snapped, creates huge game ahead originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

To open the year of 2022, the Flyers were opened up by the Kings for a 6-3 loss Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The New Year's Day defeat ended the Flyers' season-best point streak at seven games as the club suffered its first regulation loss since Dec. 8.

Prior to Saturday night's outcome, the Flyers (13-13-6) hadn't allowed more than three goals in a game since Dec. 6, when Mike Yeo coached his first game in interim duties. The Flyers are now 5-3-2 under Yeo.

The Flyers started January with the Kings (16-12-5) and they're scheduled to finish the month against the Kings. Los Angeles will visit the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 29.

• In the back-to-back set against the Kraken and Sharks, the Flyers were outshot heavily at 82-47.

On Saturday, they outshot the Kings 37-34, but had to play catch-up hockey all night.

Tuesday's game against the Ducks is a big one for the Flyers, who are 1-1-1 on their four-game West Coast road trip and have reinforcements on the way (more on that below).

"Anaheim's a really good team," Joel Farabee said. "We've got some guys meeting us there, so hopefully they'll bring some energy. If we get the two points there, I think we'll be feeling pretty good coming off this trip."

• Viktor Arvidsson (two goals, two assists) put the Flyers in a 1-0 hole only 12 seconds into the game.

After the Flyers drew even in the first period, the Kings regained the lead just 1:27 minutes later.

The Flyers hurt themselves with two ill-advised penalties in the final 1:15 minutes of the opening stanza. Travis Konecny was whistled for crosschecking and then Rasmus Ristolainen for boarding.

Los Angeles capitalized with a power play goal 46 seconds into the second period to hand the Flyers a 3-1 deficit.

"Very costly," Yeo said of the two penalties. "You look at the game, I just thought that we gave them a lot. Not that they're not playing well, they're playing very well. Watching them in the pre-scout, they do a lot of things very well. We talked about how they throw pucks at the front of the net, how they take pucks to the net and how we have to be strong in front of our net.

"You've got to try to have some momentum going into the period. To put ourselves down 5-on-3, that's pretty tough."

At that point, the Flyers had themselves an uphill climb if they wanted to keep their point streak alive. Brendan Lemieux scored later in the middle frame, giving the Kings total control of the game.

Konecny finished with 12 penalty minutes as he was called for a 10-minute misconduct after barking at one of the officials during the third period.

• The Flyers' power play went 1 for 5 and is 2 for 11 on the road trip.

Yeo had an impressive timeout to give the Flyers some life early in the third period. With the Flyers trailing 4-1 and holding a 5-on-3 power play, Yeo used his timeout to talk strategy. After the Flyers won the faceoff, Yeo pulled goalie Martin Jones to give his club a sixth attacker. The move paid off as Kevin Hayes blasted home a goal.

Yeo is also 2 for 2 in coach's challenges. Solid in-game decision-making by the interim head coach so far.

However, the Flyers' threat of a comeback was extinguished eight and a half minutes later when Phillip Danault scored Los Angeles' fifth goal.

• Jones, who was 3-0-0 with 91 saves on 99 shots in his past three starts, allowed five goals on 33 shots.

When did Jones feel the game went sideways on the Flyers?

"First shift I guess," Jones said. "No, I don't know. I thought we played all right for a lot of the game. Giving up a couple of early goals is tough to come back from."

Kings netminder Jonathan Quick entered with a 2.33 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. The two-time Stanley Cup champion was strong with 34 saves, improving to 11-3-1 lifetime against the Flyers.

• Over the last two seasons, Farabee has 30 goals in 80 games.

The 21-year-old winger scored the Flyers' first-period goal, giving him 10 markers on the season after he put up a team-leading 20 last season.

Farabee, who also had an assist on Ivan Provorov's third-period goal, was the Flyers' best player Saturday night and led the team in ice time (22:38).

Cam Atkinson factored into all three of the Flyers' goals as he finished with three helpers.

• The Flyers wrap up their trip Tuesday with the matchup against the Ducks (10 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

Carter Hart, Scott Laughton and Derick Brassard have exited the NHL's COVID protocol and will join the team in Anaheim, California.

"The guys that we're missing definitely bring a lot to our lineup," Farabee said. "Getting Laughts, Brass and of course Hartsy back I think is going to be huge for our team."

All three, along with Sean Couturier (upper body, injured reserve), haven't played on the trip.

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