Oh, we were cocky coming into tonight's game.

The Flyers scratched their captain! What a mess! This will be a cakewalk, eh?

The Flyers got the home crowd on their feet and happy with this start after the Leafs went down by one within seconds of the puck being dropped. I barely had time to finish insulting these ugly Flyers jerseys before the puck went in the net. Ugly goal, ugly jerseys.

Nicolas Deslauriers and Ryan Reaves then faced off at centre ice, with Reaves ending up on the ice on his back shortly after it started. TSN shows the two having a chat setting up the bout pre-game. You could feel the lack of passion and reason when they squared off.

John Tavares and Matthew Knies get in close to the Flyers net, and Tavares send the puck to Knies who's in front of the net, but they can't complete the play.

It's not a particularly exciting game, a little sloppy, not even interestingly physical. Shots are 4-3 Flyers midway through the period.

The Leafs are picking up the defense, and not giving the Flyers anything solid to play with after that first goal. Forwards hurrying back more, doing their share.

Then we head back down to the Flyers zone, where everyone is kept busy passing the puck, throwing it on net, but Samuel Ersson keeps making saves. On break, Ryan Reaves leaves the penalty box and goes right to the dressing room with a swollen right eye.

Ilya Samsonov is plenty warmed up, making saves that have the crowd "ooohhhh"ing at how close things looked for Erik Johnson, but no more goals for Philly. A Cam York backhand just goes off the crossbar as the Flyers bring their full offense to the slot in front of the Leafs net.

Leafs are shooting consistently high and wide of the net tonight, this is far from the Leafs team that beat the Flyers 6-2 last Thursday.

A puck goes over the glass, and that reminds me of this terrible idea brought up at the GMs meeting.

The first period comes to an end, without anymore goals scored after the first 19 second, and Flyers lead in shots 8-7, and goals 1-0.

Another period, another early goal. Travis Sanheim scores just under a minute into the second period, squeezing it into s small gap between Samsonov and the post.

2-0 Philadelphia.

The Leafs get a chance to play catchup with a powerplay after Morgan Frost is called for tripping John Tavares. It's not much of a help, the powerplay is scrambly, and sees players reaching for passes and bobbling them like they're playing in my "Adults who are bad at hockey" league.

No goal, still 2-0.

John Tavares has a great chance to cut the lead, but the post makes another save on the Leafs. They get a chance to try and score occasionally, but can't get anything to connect.

Owen Tippett and Travis Konecny team up to get past the Leafs defenders who have to skate full blast to catch up, and thankfully the shot goes just wide of the net.

Midway through the second it's 2-0 Flyers and they lead 18-12 in shots.

Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies team up to almost score (theme of the night) but Ersson is in the way again.

There's a big scrum behind the Flyers net, players jumping on each other; the Flyers take offense to Leafs getting too close to Ersson who slides out of his net to make a save.

William Nylander sits for slashing, giving the Flyers their first powerplay. The Flyers aren't as sloppy as the Leafs were, but they are getting a chance or two that gets the crowd excited. No goal however, so we're still at 2-0.

Bobby McMann had a shorthanded breakaway, but he gets the puck right into the pads.

William Nylander is sprung from the box and comes into the Flyers zone, and...hits the post. A lot of Leafs action in the few seconds after he's free but posts, saves, no goals.

It's a late goal this time for the Flyers, as Morgan Frost catches a pass at the blueline and is undefended as the skates it to the centre of the zone and shoots.

3-0 Philadelphia.

John Tavares takes a shot with one second left, but it's easily saved by Ersson.

After two it's 3-0 Flyers, and they lead 23-19 in shots.

Third period begins. 30 seconds without a goal against. This is our time to comeback.

David Kämpf gets hooked, and makes sure the refs know it, and the Leafs get their second powerplay of the game just over a minute into the third, and this time it's the Leafs turn to score early as William Nylander scores seconds into the powerplay.

The goal against didn't get the Flyers down on themselves, they're still attacking the Leafs net like they're the ones behind by two goals. Samsonov is making the necessary saves, thankfully. The Leafs are a bit more invigorated by breaking the shutout, and going harder at the Flyers net, crashing, shooting from close up.

The Leafs had two powerplays, now it's the Flyers turn for a second chance as Philip Holmberg gets called for high-sticking.

The Leafs do a good job of keeping the Flyers out of their end, and Auston Matthews almost notches a shorthanded goal but - you guessed it - hits the post. That's the most offense we see this Flyers powerplay, still 3-1 halfway through the third.

The Leafs get it back into the Flyers end once we're at even strength and Tyler Bertuzzi pots a pass from Morgan Rielly to bring the Leafs within one.

3-2 Flyers.

Off of this face-off, the Leafs charge the Flyers net, making the host team scramble to block shots, make saves, and Scott Laughton gets caught up in the moment and overplays, so he's going to the box for hooking.

The Leafs powerplay is a little sloppy again, they keep mishandling pucks at the blueline and go offside. They have a couple good chances, but don't tie things up, and will have to try at even strength.

Once again they lose the puck at the blueline, and Scott Laughton is there coming out of the box to take advantage. He puck handles his way in, spins around, passes it, and gets a pass back right in front of the net with a sprawled out Samsonov, easily scores to make it 4-2 Flyers.

The Leafs keep trying, but they seem to have lost the magic they had for that brief window of time. The Flyers are intercepting passes, and the air has been sucked out of Toronto's sails.

As we near the end of the third, the Leafs pull Samsonov, and after a minute of six on five John Tavares scores off an Auston Matthews rebound, and it's 4-3 with two minutes left.

Samsonov leaves the net after the Leafs win the face off, and the top line stays out after almost two minutes of of ice time leading to the goal. We get a quick shutout with 90 seconds remaining.

The Leafs are running passes around the perimeter, but the Flyers finally intercept and start clearing the puck down the ice. The offensive bursts are too few and far between, and for the first time in months the Maple Leafs have lost back to back games.

4-3 Flyers is your final score or the night. It wasn't a great game, spotted with highlights here and there, but overall a sloppy effort, and it stresses the powerplay needs to be worked on in practice.

It's a quick turnaround for Toronto, they're in Washington tomorrow night and it should be another hard game as the Capitals are fighting for a playoff spot.

Hopefully the Leafs have just as much fight in them.

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