The Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday from the perspective of three players and/or inanimate objects.
3. Ray Emery
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On one hand, there was at least one goal Emery would like to have back. Then again, if it weren’t for the Flyers’ No. 2 netminder, the orange and black are probably never in this game in the first place.
Emery helped Philadelphia survive blistering first and second periods where the Kings nearly doubled up the home team in shots, 33-18. The Flyers were trailing 2-0 after two, but would briefly come back and tie the contest during the last frame before Dwight King potted the game-winner for LA on a two-on-one rush—not much the goaltender could’ve done about that.
Overall, Emery was solid while stopping 38 of 41 shots on goal. If only the Flyers had not been so thoroughly outplayed over the first 40 minutes, maybe the effort between the pipes wouldn’t have been wasted.
Emery’s record fell to 8-10-1 on the season as Philly’s winning streak was snapped at five.
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2. Iron
Sure, Jonathan Quick played well in the opposite crease, halting 30 of 32 Flyers shots in victory. That being said, he can thank Vincent Lecavalier, both posts and the crossbar for bailing him out of at least one potential disaster.
The orange and black caught Iron a number of times throughout the contest, but none were more heartbreaking and unbelievable than Lecavalier’s chance that ricocheted around the entire mouth of the goal and ultimately stayed out somehow. The worst part: with Quick caught out of position, Vinny had what amounted to an empty net to shoot at.
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Despite the laws of physics seemingly being broken here, Iron’s atomic number remains at 26 for the season.
1. Jeff Carter
Difficult as this may be to believe, Monday marked the first time Jeff Carter played a game at the Wells Fargo Center since the Flyers traded him to Columbus in 2011. If his play was any indication, the former Flyers first-round pick had been waiting for this day for a long time.
Carter got the scoring started in the second period, although Kings defenseman Alec Martinez’s cross-ice pass did the bulk of the work. It was elementary by the time Carter received the puck in the faceoff circle, snapping a shot past Emery arriving on to the scene late. The marker was Carter’s 25th of the season.
On top of lighting the lamp, the guy seemed to be everywhere, ripping a game-high seven shots on Emery and registering a couple of hits over 18 minutes of ice time. Carter came to play.
Sending Philadelphia a message? Perhaps, but there was always the potential Carter was going to take over a game on any given night. Not sure I’d go that far in describing his performance here, but he certainly was a force.
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