OTTAWA, Ontario — Nothing is going in for the Flyers these days, but it really isn’t from lack of effort.
For the second straight game, the Flyers were shut out as they went into the Canadian Tire Centre Saturday and fell, 4-0, to the Ottawa Senators (see Instant Replay). Two days ago, the Sharks paid a visit to the Wells Fargo Center and stole a 1-0 win.
The Flyers had 34 shots on Martin Jones on Thursday before Melker Karlsson scored in overtime to give the Sharks the win.
Saturday, it was Craig Anderson’s turn to imitate a brick wall with a 36-save performance that handed the Flyers their third shutout loss this season.
The Flyers have now gone 137:34 without a goal.
“We got pucks to the net and some of them were going through and I don’t know how [Anderson] stopped them," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. "He played a good game.
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“We had a good start. I think we played the way we wanted to but then they scored the first goal and it changed the way we were playing. We need to learn from this and keep playing 60 minutes the same way. Once we start doing that we’ll start being successful a little more.”
The first goal came in the final minute of the first period off the stick of Mika Zibanejad, who relieved a little of his own frustration by scoring for the first time in 13 games.
Goals in the second period by Mike Hoffman and Milan Michalek gave the Senators a comfortable lead and a third-period goal from Kyle Turris ended the scoring, unfortunately for the Flyers.
“It will come but we’ll have to work harder," Giroux said. "I think offensively we’re trying to get guys in front of the net and get screen shots. We just have to find a way to put it in the back of the net. It happens and if we want to get out of it we just have to stick together and keep playing the same way.”
Frustration was also rearing its head, as there were three fights in the game as Sam Gagner, Brandon Manning and Wayne Simmonds all dropped the gloves Saturday.
“I think it shows a little bit of frustration," Simmonds, who led the Flyers with five shots, said. "We want to do what we can do and when you're not clicking along like you think, you should know that's going to happen."
He added that as a group they need to get more bodies in front of the net because it’s hard to stop what you can’t see.
“We have to make it a consistent thing and have traffic 100 percent of the time and not 85 percent of the time," he said. "There have to be second and third opportunities. The first shot, if the goalie sees it, he’s going to stop it. If we don’t take his eyes away, it’s not going to go into the back of the net.”
Anderson collected his second straight shutout in the Senators’ goal and knows a little something about how the Flyers are feeling.
“When you can’t score you can’t score. I feel for them and we’ve all been there,” Anderson said.
“Sometimes that’s the way it goes. They hit the post a couple of times and they were getting pucks to the net. Everything goes in cycles and I’m sure they’ll catch a wave here and bury a few and all of a sudden get on a hot streak.”
The Flyers are dead last in the league with just 34 goals in 20 games. The Montreal Canadiens lead the league with 74 goals.