Playoff Hopes Take A Crushing Blow In New Jersey

"Not sure which is worse; blowing a two-goal lead after one period to the Washington Capitals or taking a one-goal lead late into the third period before losing in regulation to the New Jersey Devils? Doesn't matter because the Philadelphia have done both in the last 24 hours to get their post All-Star break push off on the wrong foot.
Alex Lyon had a shaky start to his evening with a couple of early rebounds and he was a bit slow going post-to-post on the first goal of the night at 3:42 of the first period. While the Devils were on a power play, the puck was moved from the left boards to Kyle Palmieri in the right circle, where he roofed a wrist shot into the near corner of the net.
About three and a half minutes later, the Flyers got a 5-on-3 advantage for a full minute and they took advantage of it at 6:47 to tie the game. Jakub Voracek tried to center the puck to Wayne Simmonds in the slot, but Ben Lovejoy lifted his stick. This caused the puck to go all the across to Claude Giroux at the back door who fired the puck into a wide-open net. Simmonds picked up the secondary assist on Giroux's 15^th goal of the year which snapped a nine-game goal drought for the captain.
The first period took a physical turn about 13 minutes in after Radko Gudas appeared to jump in order to avoid a collision with Simmonds, but nailed Palmieri instead. After the ensuing pleasantries that included a roughing penalty on Voracek and Brandon Manning dropping the gloves with Damon Severson, the Devils wound up with a power play.
Just over a minute later, Drew Stafford gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead by getting to the front of the net and redirecting a John Moore shot in behind Lyon.
When Gudas was released from the penalty box, he was challenged to a rather spirited bout by Travis Zajac. The Flyers went to the power play as Zajac was given an extra two minutes for roughing. Simmonds tied the game on the ensuing power play as Simmonds got to the rebound off a Voracek shot and backhanded the puck past Keith Kinkaid. Shayne Gostisbehere was credited with the secondary assist on Simmonds's 17th goal of the year.
The two teams combined for four goals, 15 shots and 36 penalty minutes in the opening frame.
Gostisbehere was the recipient of a fortunate bounce at 7:01 of the second period to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Valtteri Filppula's centering pass from the right circle for Taylor Leier hit off the skate of Severson and went right Gostisbehere who ripped a one-timer past the stick of Kinkaid for his 10th goal of the year.
Severson made up for his bad luck in the second period by tying the game 11 minutes into the third period. After the Flyers lost a 3-on-2 board battle, Pavel Zacha found Severson wide open in front of the net for the one-timer goal.
Nico Hischier scored the eventual game winning goal with just 1:27 left in regulation as he got inside position on Robert Hagg and redirected a shot from Blake Coleman in between the legs of Lyon, who was just a tad too slow to close the five-hole as the puck trickled over the goal line.
Brian Elliott cannot return from injured reserve soon enough as it Lyon will likely not be trusted by Dave Hakstol to start again unless it is necessary. The Flyers will be off until Saturday afternoon when they host the Ottawa Senators, who beat the Anaheim Ducks in overtime tonight. "