Coach John Tortorella said recently that Ivan Fedotov’s goalie style is weird.
But that wasn’t the only weird occurrence inside the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
The Flyers’ troubles in the second game of back-to-backs — they are now 1-8-1 in those games — continued with a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders. But it was also a night where Morgan Frost and Matvei Michkov did not see the ice after around the halfway mark of the second period.
Toward the end of the second period, there were reports on social media by Daily Faceoff and Sportsnet that the Flyers were working on a trade. Frost did not come out for the third period, but Tortorella said postgame “he just didn’t feel good.” Whether it was related to getting hit by a shot by Rasmus Ristolainen or a hit later in the game, Tortorella was not sure.
In the end, Frost was traded to the Calgary Flames in a six-piece deal that also included winger Joel Farabee. In return, the Flyers acquired forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 second-round pick, and a seventh-round selection in 2028.
» READ MORE: Flyers trade Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Flames for a package that includes Andrei Kuzmenko and picks
Michkov was on the ice for the Islanders’ first goal and started to head out of the zone despite the Flyers not recovering the puck. He sat the rest of the night after he and Tortorella got into a shouting match on the bench.
“There’s certain situations you need to accept responsibility. … In my heart, this is to help him, and I’m going to do the things I think I need to do to try to help him. And we’re going to continue going through the process together,” Tortorella said.
Things didn’t start so bad for the Orange and Black. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers out-chanced the Islanders 29-12 in the opening frame. It included a goal that was called back.
The Flyers thought they took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Michkov, which was scored through a screen by Frost. However, the Islanders challenged for goalie interference, and the video review determined that Frost made contact with Ilya Sorokin in the crease, which prevented the goalie from playing his position before the goal.
And they also got some retribution.
Alternate captain Scott Laughton dropped the gloves with Maxim Tsyplakov off a defensive-zone faceoff in the first period. The Islanders forward recently returned from a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Flyers forward Ryan Poehling on Jan. 16. Since taking the hit, which was somehow not called a penalty on the ice, Poehling has missed the last seven games with an upper-body injury.
But then the Islanders scored a pair in the second period. Simon Holmström put the visitors up 1-0 with a shot from above the circles, and Marc Gatcomb made it 2-0 with his first in the NHL. He beat Fedotov off a pass from Kyle MacLean as both got behind the Flyers defense on a bad change.
Kyle Palmieri made it 3-0 in the third to hand the Flyers their fourth loss in five games. The Flyers have now been shut out in back-to-back games.
Breakaways
Adam Ginning made his season debut after being recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League earlier Thursday. … Owen Tippett did not play. He was injured early in the second period on Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils and did not return. Tortorella did not have an update before the game. … The game marked No. 1,600 for Tortorella, making him the first American-born NHL coach to reach the milestone.
Up next
The new-look Flyers head west for a matchup with the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (3 p.m., NBCSP+).
Source: www.inquirer.com…