Hartnell, Columbus suck energy from sluggish Flyers

EVER THE PEST, Scott Hartnell glided up the red line during warmups and playfully stole the puck from former teammate Claude Giroux.

He also lofted a shot toward Steve Mason - which in the old days might have sparked an Ed Hospodar-style pregame donnybrook.

Anything goes, Hartnell figured, if his antics could take the Flyers off their game and help Columbus rewrite a franchise record book filled with dubious marks.

Whatever Hartnell did, it worked.

The sluggish Flyers were held without an even-strength goal and fell to a Columbus roster littered with AHL fill-ins by a 4-3 score last night. Hartnell won his homecoming to the Wells Fargo Center after seven seasons with the team, snapping the Flyers' three-game winning streak in the process.

The walking-wounded Blue Jackets - who were without Sergei Bobrovsky, Matt Calvert, Artem Anisimov, Nathan Horton, Brandon Dubinsky, Mark Letestu, Jake Skille, Ryan Murray and Cody Goloubef all due to injury - avoided setting a new franchise record with a 10th consecutive loss.

Last night was the Blue Jackets' first win since Oct. 23. They've now taken four of five games against the Flyers since joining the Metropolitan Division last season.

The result was almost predictable, in a way, given the Flyers' 5-day layoff between games, given their struggling opponent, given how good they've felt about themselves during this homestand.

"We were just a little bit slow, sluggish, not sharp," Mark Streit said. "They were a little quicker, first to pucks. We looked a little slow. It can't happen any night, it doesn't matter who you're playing. You're going to lose games like that. It's just unacceptable."

Hartnell quipped earlier in the week that "a 15-year-old could score" playing on a line with Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek. That might be true, but even Voracek and Giroux couldn't break Curtis McElhinney during 5-on-5 play last night.

That was a marked change for the Flyers, who outscored their first three opponents on this homestand by a 9-4 margin. Instead, special teams were the difference last night, with five out of the game's six strikes coming on the power play.

Voracek (23 points) is now one point back of the league scoring lead by virtue of his goal and assist. It was his eighth multipoint game of the young season - he only had 15 in 82 games last season. Voracek now has at least one point in 14 of his first 15 games, with the only blank being the night the Flyers were shutout in Chicago on Oct. 21.

"We couldn't keep up," coach Craig Berube said. "Their speed really got to us. We couldn't break up plays properly. There were times when we had good shifts offensively, but we didn't shoot the puck enough. We looked like we were a step behind.

"I talked to our team about being ready, skating, competing. Like I said, we couldn't keep up."

The flip side is the Flyers also allowed three power-play goals. They began the season by not allowing a shorthanded goal at Wells Fargo Center in 18 straight attempts.

"They took advantage of just having patience," Steve Mason said. "They outwitted us on a couple plays. Games like this are where your penalty kill needs to step up - it could have been a turning point in the game for us, but we didn't do a very good job."

After such a fruitful homestand, the Flyers boarded their flight to Montreal with a sour taste in their mouths.

"We didn't match their intensity," Michael Del Zotto said. "There's no excuse. Five days off, you're rested. It's just a matter of getting your legs under you. There's no excuse as to how we came out at the start. We knew they were going to come our desperate. It doesn't have anything to do with us having days off. We just weren't ready."

Scott Hartnell received a rousing, standing ovation during a video tribute in the first period . . . Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen, who held out at the start of the season with a contract dispute, quietly assisted on all four Columbus goals . . . Flyers forward Jason Akeson had a subpar game on a line with Vinny Lecavalier and R.J. Umberger, making him a possible healthy scratch tonight in Montreal in favor of Blair Jones . . . Flyers coach Craig Berube lashed out at that line postgame, saying they need to "work harder and compete harder" . . . The Canadiens, who acquired defenseman Sergei Gonchar from Dallas this week, sit atop the Eastern Conference with 25 points.

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