More NHL draft lottery chatter with loss to Chicago
More lottery chatter as Flyers lose to Blackhawks, fail to win 3 straight again originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
A rare spurt of consecutive wins came to an end Monday night for the Flyers as they lost to the Blackhawks, 3-1, at United Center in Chicago.
Both clubs came into the matchup playing out the string on their 2021-22 campaigns.
Kevin Hayes, who in the morning was announced as the Flyers’ Masterton Trophy nominee, scored his team’s lone goal.
With a 4-1 victory Sunday over the Penguins, the Flyers (25-44-11) had just won back-to-back games for the first time since March 5-8. They’ll finish the season with only one winning streak greater than two games. They pulled off three straight wins from Dec. 10-14.
The Flyers split with the Blackhawks (27-42-11) in their two-game regular-season series (1-1-0).
• Joel Farabee angered Sam Lafferty in the final minute with a crosscheck on the Chicago forward as both raced for the puck. After Lafferty slammed into the boards, he put Farabee in a headlock.
Farabee was penalized for the crosscheck and Lafferty was whistled for roughing.
The play probably won’t warrant any kind of suspension for Farabee, but you never know. Maybe a fine at the worst.
• With two games left, the Flyers’ chances of finishing in the bottom three of the NHL standings are still pretty decent. That, of course, would only help the team’s 2022 NHL draft lottery odds.
The Flyers, 29th in the league’s 32-team standings, are three points ahead of the expansion Kraken, but Seattle has two games in hand with four remaining. Three of those four matchups are against non-playoff clubs.
The Blackhawks’ victory pushed them four points up on the Flyers. The Devils are one point up on the Flyers with three games to go.
More: When the Flyers will learn spot of their 2022 1st-round pick
• The Flyers’ kids — Morgan Frost, Noah Cates and Owen Tippett — were quieted after combining for three goals and three assists in the Flyers’ upset of Pittsburgh.
