Maple Leafs fail to combat a motivated Flyers team in loss in Philly

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The Philadelphia Flyers were out for revenge, all right.

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The Maple Leafs had an idea the Flyers were going to be motivated after Toronto beat them handily in Philadelphia last Thursday.

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What should be concerning, considering we’re in the last charge to the Stanley Cup playoffs, is that the Leafs couldn’t do much about it on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers scored on their first shot in the game’s first minute when Owen Tippett beat Ilya Samsonov on a wrist shot that should have been stopped, and the home side kept up the energy for much of the night, beating the Leafs 4-3.

It was an inexcusable effort by the men wearing Leafs sweaters.

“We weren’t sharp mentally, couldn’t pass the puck, couldn’t handle the puck, didn’t defend, didn’t compete, so not a lot to like,” coach Sheldon Keefe, subdued in his post-game availability, said to media in Philadelphia. “Forwards, defence, goaltending, I didn’t like anybody.

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“It shouldn’t be (hard to match the Flyers’ urgency). It’s the NHL. Don’t think it was anything to do with urgency necessarily, we clearly weren’t sharp, especially on our half of the ice. We weren’t willing to do the things necessary from the start of the game. I thought we competed pretty good on the offensive side.

“We have to do a better job in our own zone with and without the puck and we were very poor in that area. We weren’t ready to go. That’s on me.”

Three Toronto goals in the third made the score more respectable, the final one coming from captain John Tavares with two minutes to play and Samsonov on the bench in favour of an extra skater. But the Leafs couldn’t beat Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson, who they chased last week, again.

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William Nylander scored the first Leafs goal, and in doing so, recorded his career-high 88th point. Nylander had 87 points in 82 games in 2022-23; he has played in 67 games this season.

“You want to get better and better, don’t want to slow down,” Nylander said of reaching a new milestone. “Just keep pushing, that’s what I think I’m doing.”

Following a shootout loss to Carolina on Saturday, it’s the first time, since a four-game losing streak from Jan. 11-16, that the Leafs have lost consecutive games.

It won’t get any easier on Wednesday night in Washington against a Capitals team that has won three in a row to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

TAKEAWAYS AND OTHER NOTABLES

The Leafs, at last count, hit the iron five times behind Ersson. That’s some bad luck and counts as not good enough. And not good enough summed up the Leafs’ work ethic … Not quite an hour after the NHL trade deadline passed on March 8, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving laid bare the state of the club’s defence corps. “It’s going to continue to be a work in progress,” Treliving told those of us in the media who gathered at the team’s offices that afternoon on Bay St. “Now, we’ve got to do it by committee.” The committee was slow on Tuesday, unable to keep a fast, hungry Flyers team in check. What should be worrisome for the Leafs is that the group as a whole isn’t suddenly going to make leaps and bounds between now and the start of the playoffs. This is what the Leafs have, and as we’ve said before, it’s a lot of depth D-men but not enough legitimate top-four skaters … With Ilya Lyubushkin sick and not in the lineup, Keefe went back to a pairing that has had struggles and again was not good. That would be veterans Morgan Rielly and TJ Brodie, who handled the puck like a live grenade before Travis Sanheim scored the Flyers’ goal at 56 seconds of the second, and then were aimless in their play when Morgan Frost made it 3-0 at 16:26. Rielly and Brodie should be the leaders on the blue line. Together, they’re not getting it done … Simon Benoit was the Leafs’ best defenceman after he was a healthy scratch for three games. He shouldn’t have come out of the lineup in the first place … Surprise, surprise, the Leafs scored a power-play goal when Nylander wired a shot past Ersson at 1:11 of the third. That was just the second goal with a man advantage by the Leafs in 26 chances. Auston Matthews and Tavares assisted, and Keefe has to hope it’s the start of a run for a club that should be scoring more, considering its talent, when an opposing player is in the box. And never mind that Mitch Marner is injured … If Nick Robertson’s defensive instincts were in line how he thinks on offence, his lineup spot would be secure … Tyler Bertuzzi, set up by Rielly, scored the Leafs’ second goal from what the club hopes will be his office in the post-season — the edge of the crease. That got the Leafs to within one briefly in the third before Scott Laughton restored a two-goal Philly lead less than three minutes later … There are many reasons that can lead to a player’s departure from a game, but getting hurt in a staged fight has to be among the more embarrassing. That’s what happened to Ryan Reaves, who was taken down in a scrap with Nicolas Deslauriers five minutes into the first period and had some obvious swelling on the right side of his face as he went to the dressing room. And no, the Leafs didn’t get any momentum from the fight. It was a bad development for Reaves, who needs every minute he can get to convince Keefe he should be in the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs. Keefe said after the game he had no update on Reaves … The Flyers played without captain Sean Couturier, who was a healthy scratch. Coach John Tortorella had to exhale, even if just a bit, when the final horn sounded … The Leafs had won eight in a row against the Flyers … Joseph Woll, expected to start in Washington, didn’t dress, as Martin Jones backed up Samsonov … The Leafs head into D.C. with a winning record in the second game of back-to-back sets, going 5-4-0 this season.

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