Flyers dismantle Thrashers again

The Thrashers have changed coaches, changed players and changed systems.

One thing hasn’t changed, though. The Philadelphia Flyers own them, anytime, anywhere.

The Flyers beat the Thrashers for the 11th consecutive time Tuesday night. This one was a 7-0 blowout, the worst beating in a streak that began in December 2005 and the Thrashers’ worst home loss to any team since October 2005.

Only one NHL team has a longer current series winning streak: Montreal with 12 consecutive victories over Boston.

“I don’t think I can look at anybody and say they played a good game, from our goaltender right through our whole team,” said Thrashers coach John Anderson, who saw his team lose by more than two goals for the first time this season.

The Thrashers chose a bad time to play their worst game. Tuesday night was one of only two Versus network TV appearances on this season’s schedule. The national TV audience and a Philips Arena crowd announced at 13,207 saw Philadelphia score in virtually every way known to man.

The Flyers scored off Philadelphia forward Simon Gagne’s leg, off Thrashers defenseman Ron Hainsey’s skate and off a shot blocked by sliding defenseman Niclas Havelid that slid across the crease to a grateful Mike Knuble.

But the Flyers also scored off Thrashers mistakes. On the first goal, Tobias Enstrom couldn’t handle a pass from Eric Perrin, and Joffrey Lupul took advantage by blasting the puck home from the slot. On the third, the Flyers jumped Ilya Kovalchuk’s pass along the blue line and turned it into a two-man shorthanded breakaway, with Gagne scoring.

Kovalchuk said he was hooked on the play. Anderson described it as “can opening.”

“You stick your stick in one hand and put it on his pants and flick his stick with it,” Anderson said. “It was clearly a can open. … That should have put us up 5-on-3.”

Instead, not only did Philadelphia go up 3-0, Kovalchuk lost his temper. He immediately drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, then picked up another when the period ended 15 seconds later.

Philadelphia converted that into two power-play goals, and a game that had been within reach had become a rout.

“We can’t have arguably our best player taking extra minutes,” Anderson said. “You saw what happened.”

“I can’t take those kind of penalties,” Kovalchuk said. “It’s going to be a good lesson for me. It’s a horrible game. We just have to forget about it and focus on the games in front of us.”

Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki stopped 24 shots for the shutout to improve to 10-0 against the Thrashers. Kari Lehtonen made 24 saves, too, but allowed seven goals.

“We just have to go forward,” Lehtonen said. “It’s a bad game for everybody. It’s over now, and we have to go for the next one.

“We couldn’t put the puck in, and they seemed to put the puck in every time.”

It’s the first game in a four-games-in-six-days stretch. Road games at the New York Rangers and New Jersey await, then a Sunday home game against Florida.

The scary game doesn’t come until Nov. 16. That’s when the Thrashers play in Philadelphia.