Flyers blame breakdowns on defense for loss to Ottawa

RALEIGH, N.C. - Goalie Ilya Bryzglaov has bemoaned his bad luck - a deflection off the stick of teammate Matt Carle, for instance, gave Ottawa a key goal in the Flyers' 6-4 loss on Sunday.

"It's my fate, I guess," Bryzgalov said.

Maybe Bryzgalov has had some tough breaks, but he has come up small numerous times, and his teammates have allowed too many shots and too much traffic around the net in recent games.

"We have to put this past us and get ready for Carolina," said center Claude Giroux, referring to Tuesday's game against the lowly Hurricanes (14-22-7) in Raleigh.

For the most part, the Flyers (24-12-4) have done a solid job without crease-clearing defenseman Chris Pronger, who is sidelined for the remainder of the season because of a concussion.

Lately, however, they have given opponents too much freedom around the net. They are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and Bryzgalov is 2-4-1 in his last seven starts.

In their last four games, the Flyers have yielded 33, 34, 37 and 38 shots, respectively. That's the most shots they have surrendered in any four-game stretch this season.

In their last two losses - they fell to the Rangers in the Winter Classic and to the Senators - the Flyers had leads heading into the third period. Those games marked the first time all season they had lost in regulation after taking a lead into the final period.

"They took advantage of our turnovers right near the blue line," rookie winger Matt Read said after the Flyers coughed up a 4-2 third-period lead in Ottawa. "We have to learn from our mistakes here and learn how to get pucks deep in the third period and how to keep a lead."

"It's not acceptable for a team like us," rookie center Sean Couturier said. "It's just little details. We have to pay attention for 60 minutes."

"We lost our focus," said defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon, another rookie.

Read, Couturier and Bourdon all scored goals Sunday, but the team's late defensive shortcomings erased what would have been a celebration of the rookies' strong showing.

On Tuesday in Carolina, the Flyers will play their 41st game - the halfway point of the season - and their third game in four nights.

The Hurricanes, who are without standout sophomore forward Jeff Skinner (concussion), have points in six of their last seven home games (5-1-1) but are just 10-10-3 at the RBC Center this season. Carolina, 14th in the 15-team East, has scored 24 goals in its last six home games.

The Flyers, fourth in the East and tied with the New York Rangers for the league's best-road record (14-6-2), are 2-1 against Carolina this season, scoring 5-1 and 5-3 wins, and dropping a 4-2 decision at the Wells Fargo Center.

Breakaways. The Flyers, who did not practice Monday, are 16-9-2 without Pronger this season and 8-3-2 with him. . . . Heading into Monday's action, the Flyers were eighth in the 30-team league on the power play, clicking at 19.3 percent; they were tied for 15th on the penalty kill (82.5 percent). . . . Read entered Monday tied for the NHL lead among rookies with 13 goals. . . . Bryzglaov, who has a 3.07 goals-against average and .891 save percentage, has started the last three games over Sergei Bobrovsky (2.56 GAA, .914 save percentage). . . . Couturier's goal in Sunday's loss in Ottawa was his first in 22 games. . . . Giroux, who entered Monday tied for second in the NHL with 48 points, is pointless in the last two games; he has not gone three straight games without a point this season. . . . Carolina's Brian Boucher (lower-body injury) and Joni Pitkanen (concussion), a pair of ex-Flyers, have missed 15 and 14 games, respectively. . . . A fan who threw a banana at the Flyers' Wayne Simmonds during an NHL exhibition game has been fined $200. Christopher Moorhouse lobbed a banana at Simmonds as the player was approaching Detroit Red Wings goalie Jordan Pearce during a shootout in the Sept. 22 game in London, Ontario. The 26-year-old Moorhouse pleaded guilty Monday but did not appear in court. Moorhouse was charged with a provincial trespassing and given 90 days to pay the fine. Police said there wasn't enough evidence to charge Moorhouse with a hate crime.