Islanders strike twice in 22 seconds to hand Flyers 10th straight loss
The Philadelphia Flyers lost their 10th straight contest after falling 5-2 to the New York Islanders on Saturday.
The Metropolitan Division squads entered the third period tied 2-2, but Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier scored 22 seconds apart to hand Philadelphia another loss.
Zach Parise also chipped in with a two-goal performance.
The Flyers enjoyed a promising start to the campaign - their first under head coach John Tortorella - and were 7-3-2 before the start of their current streak.
Their last win came on Nov. 8 against the St. Louis Blues. Philadelphia has since been outscored 44-20.
Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech opened the scoring in the first period on Saturday, but Lukas Sedlak responded for the Flyers later in the frame.
Joel Farabee gave Philadelphia its first and only lead midway through the second period, but it would soon evaporate as New York potted four unanswered goals the remainder of the way.
"You want to take the positives any time you can, but at some point in time, the positives go out the window," Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo said after the loss, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Olivia Reiner. "You've got to win a game."
He added, "Close, but close isn't good enough, especially if you give up two goals in 20 seconds against a good defensive team."
The Flyers have grown accustomed to lengthy losing streaks recently, with three double-digit slumps coming in the past 12 months:
In the span of a year and nine days, Flyers have had losing streaks of:
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) November 27, 2022
13 games — 0-10-3 from Dec. 30, 2021-Jan. 25, 2022
10 games — 0-8-2 from Nov. 18-Dec. 8, 2021
10 games — 0-7-3 from Nov. 10-26, 2022
6 games — 0-4-2 from Feb. 9-22, 2022
6 games — 0-6-0 from April 9-19, 2022
Their current freefall marks the 10th time in franchise history that they've lost at least 10 consecutive games, per Sportsnet Stats.
Last season, the Flyers fired bench boss Alain Vigneault eight contests into a 10-game losing streak.
Tortorella was diplomatic after his side's loss on Long Island.
"We're gonna keep just banging away at it, that's all we can do," he told reporters postgame. "I saw a lot of good things tonight, I saw confidence with the puck. ... I thought we did a lot of good things, we just have certain situations, we lose ourselves for a few minutes, and it hurt us tonight in the third."
He added, "I am not criticizing my hockey team tonight. There's no way."
Philadelphia's next chance to snap the skid will come in Tuesday's rematch against the Islanders.
The Flyers currently sit in seventh place in their division with a record of 7-10-5.