The Los Angeles Kings snapped the Flyers’ six-game winning streak on Monday night with a 4-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center.
Alec Martinez, Trevor Lewis, Adrian Kempe and Tyler Toffoli all scored for the Kings.
Although the Flyers outshot L.A., 37-25, the Kings did an excellent job of keeping them out of the middle of the ice.
The game marked a homecoming for Kings coach John Stevens, who still owns a home in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. Stevens was behind the bench as a head coach at the Wells Fargo Center for the first time since Dec. 5, 2009.
Jakub Voracek scored the Flyers’ only goal, which came on the power play.
Monday’s game also marked Brian Elliott’s eighth straight start as he stopped 21 of 25 shots.
NHL
• Travis Konecny tried to run a pick play on Kings defenseman Oscar Fantenberg, a clear interference. The Flyers had been very disciplined regarding their lack of penalties over the six-game winning streak. That was not a good way to start.
• There was a heads-up play from defenseman Robert Hagg as he swiped the puck that was laying on the crease after Fantanberg’s shot hit the post and dropped straight down behind Elliott.
• The Kings scored first as Torrey Mitchell won the offensive-zone faceoff and Martinez uncorked a bullet of a slap shot past Elliott that beat him blocker high. Elliott dropped into his butterfly pretty quickly and once it deflected off Taylor Leier between the circles, Elliott had no chance of stopping the shot.
• Dave Hakstol likes to refer to the Kings as a “heavy” team. There may not be a more aggressive forechecking team than L.A., a club that gets sticks on bodies and makes you work extremely hard in those board battles.
• Once again, the Flyers’ power play showed some different looks. Shayne Gostisbehere moved from the point to the right circle as he essentially swapped spots with Voracek.
• I didn’t like how the Flyers played the Kings’ second goal. As Gostisbehere stepped up to play the forward along the bench, it allowed Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin to make a breakout pass to Nick Shore. Shore then dropped it off for Lewis, who beat Elliott short side on the glove hand. Hagg didn’t pick up the coverage, which allowed Lewis to fire an uncontested shot. However, it’s also a shot that Elliott typically stops.
• The Flyers won a crucial faceoff in the offensive zone during their second power-play attempt. Claude Giroux wristed a shot that deflected off Drew Doughty cross ice right to Voracek, who one-timed a shot past Jonathan Quick. The goalie couldn’t go post to post quick enough to stop the shot. A fortuitous bounce for Voracek and the Flyers.
• The Flyers drew a third power play in the opening minute of the second period when Derek Forbort ran Sean Couturier into the boards for interference. The best chance came when Valtteri Filppula centered a pass that Konecny tried to redirect past Quick through the five-hole.
• With each team’s top line on the ice, the Flyers were caught with a terrible gap with Wayne Simmonds, Giroux and Couturier at the goal line and the defense back at the blue line. The result was an easy 3-on-2, but Elliott robbed Marion Gaborik on a point-blank shot from the slot.
• Elliott came up big again as Alex Iafallo tried to take the puck around Elliott, who extended his right pad to deny the would-be goal. Six and a half minutes later, Elliott stoned Shore on the backdoor. You don’t think of Elliott as an overly athletic goaltender, but he displayed some athleticism in this game — with his glove and his pads.
• Through 40 minutes, the Flyers outshot the Kings, 22-19. However, most of those shots were low-percentage chances. According to the website NaturalStatTrick.com that tracks shot selection, the Flyers had just one high-danger scoring chance to make it a pretty easy night for Quick.
• Gostisbehere made an excellent play to break up L.A.’s 2-on-1 shorthanded opportunity when he peeled off the shooter and then broke up the pass. However, the Kings converted as Kempe jumped out of the box just as the Flyers’ power play expired. Kempe beat Elliott in the same spot as Lewis. Elliott appeared to take a swipe with his glove but just came up empty.
• Giroux was given a grade-A chance when Doughty committed a deadly giveaway at the Kings’ blue line to allow him to skate in and fire a shot from the high slot that went just wide of the net. However, L.A. defenseman Muzzin was called for interference on Giroux, which set up the Flyers’ fifth power-play opportunity.
• The Kings forced a neutral-zone turnover and Toffoli easily converted as he broke in all alone on Elliott and snapped a shot high glove.
Lineups, pairings and scratches
Forwards
Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl-Valtteri Filppula-Jakub Voracek
Jordan Weal-Nolan Patrick-Dale Weise
Taylor Leier-Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny
Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Andrew MacDonald
Robert Hagg-Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim-Radko Gudas
Goalies
Brian Elliott
Alex Lyon
Scratches: Forward Jori Lehtera (healthy) and defenseman Mark Alt (healthy).