Flyers suffer season-worst fourth straight loss as Vladar exits with injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
This one felt like a perfect storm for the Flyers.
They lost their No. 1 goaltender to an injury and their losing streak hit a season-worst four games as they fell to the Sabres, 5-2, Wednesday night at KeyBank Center.
Dan Vladar exited after the first period with an undisclosed injury. The Flyers were down 2-0 when he departed and trailed 4-1 at second intermission.
Owen Tippett and Trevor Zegras provided the team’s goals.
The Flyers (22-15-8) are 0-3-1 on this skid and have been outscored 19-6.
Buffalo has won 14 of its last 16 games, a stretch that has included two victories over Rick Tocchet’s club. The Flyers went 1-2-0 in their regular-season series with the Sabres (25-16-4).
• Vladar allowed two goals on five shots in the first period.
The Flyers fell down 1-0 for the 31st time in 45 games. Cam York was whistled for crosschecking and Rasmus Dahlin took advantage 14 seconds later on Buffalo’s power play.
The Sabres made it 2-0 when Mattias Samuelsson scored seven seconds after Zegras committed a neutral-zone turnover.
“You can’t come back all the time,” Tocchet said Tuesday. “I know we’ve had one of the better records coming back, but it’s too hard to play that way, we don’t have the team to do that, so we’ve got to buckle down.”
Samuel Ersson took over at the start of the second period and converted six saves on eight shots. Buffalo’s final goal was an empty-netter.
It probably goes without saying that the Flyers are in trouble if Vladar has to miss time. He has been arguably the most important player to their playoff push, while Samuel Ersson is going through the toughest stretch in his NHL career.
Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 20 of the Flyers’ 22 shots. He robbed Nikita Grebenkin just 6:05 minutes into the game with a glove save, which allowed the Sabres to strike first about three and a half minutes later.
• Jamie Drysdale returned to the lineup after missing the last three games with an upper-body injury.
He played in place of Rasmus Ristolainen, who was a late scratch because of an upper-body injury. The Flyers are considering him day to day.
The 31-year-old defenseman had been out until mid-December recovering from a second triceps tendon rupture.
Bobby Brink missed a fourth straight game with an upper-body injury. Denver Barkey was also not in the lineup as the Flyers gave the 20-year-old rookie a night to watch.
• The Flyers are right back at it Thursday when they visit the Penguins (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).