The Flyers' struggles to score bit them Saturday afternoon in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Predators at the Wells Fargo Center.
Matt Duchene scored the OT winner just 34 seconds into the bonus session. The puck may have gone off a Flyers skater.
Kevin Hayes continued to produce. He drew the Flyers even in the second period with a slew of dekes on Nashville netminder Juuse Saros.
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Since the calendar turned to 2023, the Flyers' All-Star has put up 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) and a plus-6 rating in 17 games.
Joel Farabee and Patrick Brown assisted Hayes' marker.
The Flyers (22-22-10) are 1-1-1 on their four-game homestand. They've scored just three goals in the three games and have surrendered five.
"I feel like we're playing a lot better," Rasmus Ristolainen said. "We've just got to get some results this time of the year."
NHL
John Tortorella's club is 1-9 in overtime this season and 5-4-9 when it enters the third period in a tied game.
"I just don't think we were sharp enough as we were the other night as far as making sure we get the puck in [the offensive zone]," Tortorella said. "A lot of turnovers at the blue line that kind of put us on our heels. When you're not scoring goals, that's just got to go in and we've got to grind. That's where I thought the weakness of our game was today."
The Flyers saw some — but not complete — carryover from one of their best performances of the season, a 2-1 shootout win Thursday over the Oilers.
That win was a real building block, but the Flyers need to string those type of efforts together more consistently if they want to take bigger strides.
"We get to talk on it. That's all we do is talk," Tortorella said Friday of the coaching staff. "But [the players] get to lean on it because they did it. We didn't do it. We direct them and try to give them what we think is the best way to play against a team, but they did it.
"You need results, too, for them to believe."
The Flyers couldn't get the final result Saturday. They went 1-0-1 against the Predators (25-19-6) in their two-game regular-season series.
• Carter Hart finished with 23 saves.
He has been very good in his last four starts. The OT winner is a tough one to give up.
"Sneaks under my pad. It's got to be a save," Hart said. "It is what it is."
Duchene's shot appeared to hit Cam York's skate.
"That's what they said, but I've got to look at the replay," Hart said. "Still, it goes under me. That's a goal that you've got to stop."
Saros stopped 23 of the Flyers' 24 shots.
• The Predators grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second period when Nino Niederreiter scored at Hart's doorstep.
Travis Sanheim was slow to get back in coverage.
The 26-year-old defenseman had an all-around good game against Edmonton, highlighted by his aggressiveness offensively.
The Flyers want to see it defensively, as well.
"Then you get the guy we saw for about a month this year," Tortorella said Friday. "We saw it, both sides of the puck. As I told him then, now we saw it, now you're screwed. Because now we want to see it all the time."
• Near the end of a scoreless first period, Ristolainen delivered a clean hit on Filip Forsberg along the corner boards.
Nashville's leading goal scorer was visibly shaken up. He left the game and did not return.
As a result, Nicolas Deslauriers and Tanner Jeannot, whom chatted before the game, found a good reason to drop the gloves 13 seconds into the middle stanza.
"I hope Forsberg is OK because that was ugly when he hit the ice," Tortorella said. "But that's a clean hit."
Later in the period, Farabee fought for the eighth time in his NHL career as he took on Juuso Parssinen.
• Tony DeAngelo appeared hobbled when he went up the tunnel during the third period.
He returned a couple of minutes later.
• The Flyers placed Kieffer Bellows on waivers Friday for the second time this season. He cleared Saturday and will report to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley. Filling in for Zack MacEwen (fractured jaw), Bellows didn't get a long look on the Flyers' fourth line.
The club called up Olle Lycksell from the Phantoms but he did not suit up for Saturday's game. He played Friday night for Lehigh Valley, which would have made Saturday's 12:38 p.m. ET puck drop a pretty quick turnaround.
So Tortorella rolled with 11 forwards and seven defensemen as Justin Braun entered the lineup.
• Plenty of Eagles chants were heard Saturday. In the first period, the Eagles' fight song was played during a brief stoppage. When the action resumed, fans finished the chant on their own.
The Eagles take on the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night.
• The homestand wraps up Sunday when the Flyers host the Dave Hakstol-led Kraken (1 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
The Flyers are 2-7-0 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season.
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