Flyers get lucky in standings despite loss to Canadiens, refs miss a ‘pretty dirty play,’ and other takeaways

MONTREAL — Needing points, the Flyers left Montreal empty-handed.

The Canadiens defeated the Flyers 4-1 in a game that felt like two halves instead of three periods. And, for the record, this was not a trap game in the normal sense. Yes, the Canadiens are in the bottom third of the NHL and the Flyers are on the cusp of a postseason spot. But Montreal was coming off a 2-1 win against the mighty Colorado Avalanche and, with the win against Philly, has now won three straight, outscoring opponents 11-3.

But as coach John Tortorella said at his pregame presser, the team needs to “try to find a way to get points.” And they did not.

Here are three things to know after the loss.

The Flyers got lucky because while they lost, so did the Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings.

Washington was handed a 5-1 loss by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Red Wings lost 4-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Capitals, who hold the second wild card spot, remain one point behind the Flyers but have two games in hand. The Flyers finish the season against Washington at the Wells Fargo Center on April 16.

The Red Wings sit two points behind the Capitals and have played one more game. The lone winner of the night, who the Flyers should keep an eye on, was the New York Islanders. They topped the Florida Panthers 3-2 and moved five points back of the Flyers and have two games in hand.

The Orange and Black now have eight games left. Before a key meeting with the Islanders on Monday, the Flyers face Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. The Blackhawks lost 2-0 to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Back in February, the Flyers beat the Blackhawks 3-1 in a game Tortorella said in advance “scares the [expletive]” out of him because he was worried the Flyers could potentially take their opponent too lightly.

Now after the loss on Thursday, things are getting tight and times ticking. They’ll need to turn the page quickly.

“We’re getting down to crunch time here, and obviously, we need the wins,” winger Travis Konecny said recently. “Regardless of what happens, I think the one thing that we want to be able to hang our hats on is that we did all the right things.”

As has been the case of late, the third period was by far the Flyers’ best 20 minutes of the game. But it came too late.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had 22 even-strength shot attempts to the Canadiens’ seven in the final frame (75.86% of the total). So how slow did things start for the Flyers? It was 71.43% — in favor of the Canadiens — in the first period.

“They came up pretty hard,” said Morgan Frost, who had a goal overturned in the third due to an offside call. “I thought they did a pretty good job, and I think we’ve bounced back all year when that kind of stuff happens. I think we dominated the second half of the game and just couldn’t score.”

The Flyers had four power-play opportunities — three in the second half of the game — and couldn’t bury one. Tortorella said one of the differences in the game was that the Canadiens, on the other hand, did capitalize on one of their two-man advantages, when Nick Suzuki opened the scoring in the first period.

“These types of games, when teams have been playing a lot, travel, whatever may be, that first goal is important,” the coach said. “First goal is important no matter what. They get it. I think that gives them an advantage.”

Across the Flyers’ four chances, Natural Stat Trick marked down 17 shot attempts, including seven shots. Three of those shots were high-danger chances.

“I think [we] played pretty well for the most part,” center Scott Laughton said. “I thought our defensive game was pretty intact; kept them on the outside for most of the night. [Sam Ersson] was good again for us. ... But we needed to start putting some in. You get one there on the power play it goes a long way. So we’ll work at it and get better at it for the next game.

If you buried your head into your computer or phone at the end of the second period and then looked up real quick, you may have thought the channel switched to a baseball game, with the Flyers and Canadiens meeting at the red line despite the horn sounding. With opening day here, it was reminiscent of the benches clearing, without the pitchers running in from the bullpen, of course.

And while there was no baseball thrown at a batter’s body, not too long before the period ended, Kaiden Guhle was standing on the Canadiens bench and leaned over to slash Konecny as he went by.

Tortorella and Garnet Hathway each said the referees told them they didn’t see the incident, and Frost called it a “pretty dirty play.”

Tortorella declined to comment on what occurred beyond saying that he’s “not worried about that, just really doesn’t matter.” He was seen saying something to the referees as he walked off the ice after the middle frame and talked to them before the start of the third period while showing them a slashing motion.

On Friday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Guhle would be suspended for one game without pay for the incident.

“I didn’t see it. I was on the ice in the corner but when you’re on the bench and you flip your stick over and spear guy, I think you got to look at it,” Laughton said. “... It’s a dirty play and they should be able to review that because, I don’t know, you should be kicked out for that. You can’t spear a guy from the bench.”