The Philadelphia Flyers collapsed in the third period, allowing the Ottawa Senators to come back from a 3-1 deficit by surrendering three unanswered goals over five-and-a-half minutes in the second half of the final stanza to drop the first game of the post-Hextall era 4-3.
Things started well for the orange and black. Claude Giroux made a beautiful play to set up Travis Konecny for his fourth goal in the last five games, and even though Thomas Chabot tied the score shortly after, the Flyers appeared in control for most of the first 40 minutes.
Jakub Voracek and Radko Gudas tacked on goals in the second period to give Philly what seemed like a comfortable lead heading into the third period. The Flyers outshot the Sens 27-15 through the first two periods and seemed poised to add to their advantage.
But then the third period happened. Brady Tkachuk netted a pair of goals two minutes apart and Matt Duchene batted a puck out of the air to give Ottawa a lead with three minutes remaining that they would not relinquish.
Listen to the postgame reaction for takes on the game, as well as Paul Holmgren and Dave Scott’s press conference from earlier in the afternoon, and the direction of the organization after Monday’s surprising shake-up.
