The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 4-2 to get their 2023-24 season off on the right foot. Travis Konecny scored 2 goals, Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson chipped in with a goal apiece, and Carter Hart stopped 31 shots to propel the club to a 1-0-0 start.
Farabee opened things up with a nifty 2-on-0 rush with Sean Couturier to get the game’s first goal just 3:33 into the first period. Jake Bean would tie things up on a sloppy rebound by Hart but Konecny responded right back with his first of the season in tight on Elvis Merzlikins. No goals were scored for well over 2 periods before Cam Atkinson seemingly iced the game with an empty netter after Ivan Provorov mishandled a Carter Hart clearance. Patrik Laine would give the Jackets some life with 42 ticks remaining but that’s all they’d get as the Flyers were able to shut the door. Konecny did add an empty netter with 0.1 seconds left on the clock for his 2nd of the night.
Couturier paced the forwards with 20:39 TOI, while Travis Sanheim saw 26:17 to pace the backend. Cam York played 22:31, Marc Staal at 20:14, and Sean Walker 19:55. Patrik Laine fired 5 shots on goal in 19:11, Adam Fantilli recorded his first career point, a shot on goal and 2 blocked shots in 13:40 TOI, and Merzlikins stopped 33 shots.
The Flyers kicked off their 57th regular season on the road against divisional-rivals, Columbus Blue Jackets. The lead-up to tonight’s game was around the returns of veterans Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson, Bobby Brink making his season debut after spending last season split between rehabbing an injury and playing for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and this being the first game of their supposed rebuild under Daniel Briere and Keith Jones.
As expected, Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink were flanked with Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett and Cam Atkinson were paired up with Morgan Frost, Noah Cates was centering Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny, and Nicolas Deslauriers, Garnet Hathaway, and Ryan Poehling rounded out the forwards. With Rasmus Ristolainen on IR to start the season, Cam York and Travis Sanheim made up the top pair, newcomers in Marc Staal and Sean Walker made up the second pair, and Egor Zamula was paired up with Nick Seeler. Carter Hart was between the pipes for his 4th consecutive season opener.
On the opposite side of the rink we have the Columbus Blue Jackets who acquired Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson in the off-season to shore up the back-end, drafted Adam Fantilli with the third overall pick – who was making his NHL debut – and at one point in time had Mike Babcock slated to be the head coach before he was let go after crossing the line with his team.
Speaking of Provorov, he made some interesting comments before the game stating that the Flyers played a game that didn’t suit his playing style over the last 3 years and that pegged him down with the rest of the team. Head coach John Tortorella refused to divulge but maybe something to look out for as the game goes by.
FIRST PERIOD
As the Columbus Blue Jackets tried entering the offensive zone, Egor Zamula used his long reach to disrupt the forward at the blue-line. The poke check freed up the puck for a 2-on-0 rush between Joel Farabee and Sean Couturier.
Farabee walked in, passed it to Couturier who dished it right back to Farabee for the finish to put the Philadelphia Flyers on the board early at the 3:33 mark of the first period. Should be noted that Carter Hart weathered the early storm from the home team that fired 5 shots before Farabee’s tally.
With 11:38 remaining, Jake Bean jumped on a bad rebound to tie the game at 1. It was a very simple play orchestrated by the Blue Jackets as Kirill Marchenko rushed into the offensive zone before dropping a pass to Adam Fantilli. The rookie fired a shot that Carter Hart stopped but he left out a juicy rebound with no white jerseys around. Bean was able to jump all over the loos puck and finished the play blocker-side on Columbus’ 11th shot in 8+ minutes.
1:09 later, the Blue Jackets came storming right back into the offensive zone with Cole Sillinger ripping a shot off the post that many in the building believed had crossed the line, fortunately for the Flyers, it bounced off the post and out.
On a counter rush of their own, the Flyers re-took the lead after a great shot in tight by Travis Konecny. Konecny jumped on a turnover in the defensive zone after Patrik Laine’s attempted a pass to Cole Sillinger missed the mark. Konecny sent an outlet pass to Scott Laughton who came into the offensive with speed, slowed down as he waited for reinforcements, dropped back on Ivan Provorov before dishing it to a streaking Konecny.
The team’s leading scorer from 3 of the past 4 seasons, had to make a move around Sillinger before ripping it low glove-side past Elvis Merzlikins, who might have been screened by Noah Cates as he moved out of the way right as Konecny took the shot.
Shots:
Columbus: 15
Philadelphia 13
Hits:
Columbus: 6
Philadelphia: 3
Faceoffs:
Columbus: 7
Philadelphia: 10
SECOND PERIOD
The second period started out with some aggression and fisticuffs as Travis Konecny and Erik Gudbranson each received 2 minutes for roughing with punches being thrown and the referees having to intervene right in front of the Flyers bench.
With 10:13 remaining in the middle frame, Sean Couturier was whistled down for a tripping minor on Boone Jenner in the defensive zone, sending the Blue Jackets on the first power play of the game. Columbus had several chances but they mostly missed the net, not really troubling Carter Hart.
Blue Jackets defenseman, Zach Werenski – who hurt himself last season against the Flyers and ended up missing the rest of the year – was down on the ice after Garnet Hathaway’s hit attempt turned into a knee on knee collision. After a conference, the referees called a major penalty on Hathaway – almost a safety net to be able to review the play. After reviewing the play, the referees changed it to a minor penalty, sending the Jackets back to the power play with 5:38 remaining.
Over a minute into the penalty kill, Laughton was sprung on a breakaway by Noah Cates and as he came in on Merzlikins, he attempted his patented move that the young goaltender was able to thwart. Then about 50 seconds later, Ryan Poehling turned on the jets along the board to get past Adam Fantilli before trying a wrap-around attempt that Merzlikins somehow kept out of the net.
The second period came to a close with no change to the scoreboard but plenty of action nonetheless.
Shots:
Columbus: 24 (9 in the 2nd period)
Philadelphia 27 (14 in the 2nd period)
Hits:
Columbus: 11
Philadelphia: 6
Faceoffs:
Columbus: 20
Philadelphia: 19
THIRD PERIOD
3:30 into the third period, Travis Sanheim was whistled down for a high sticking minor. With 30 seconds remaining in the Blue Jackets power play, Alexander Texier was called for a holding minor negating the rest of the man advantage. The Flyers had a few chances as they set up right away but Merzlikins was able to shut them down.
The Flyers went back on the power play with 8:14 remaining in regulation after Bobby Brink was impeded with by Johnny Gaudreau. The rookie made a dazzling move to get to the front of the net but Gaudreau’s slash did just enough to alter the original chance. Lots of passing and not much shooting as the Flyers whiffed on a golden opportunity to increase the lead late in the game.
Moments later, Marc Staal was called for a tripping minor with 5:29 left to play. Once again, Columbus negated their own power play as Marchenko was called for a hooking minor after turning the puck over in his own zone to Scott Laughton. Given 65 seconds of power play time, it took the Flyers 30 seconds to set up but still managed a few scoring chances.
After the Flyers iced the puck with 2:19 remaining, the Blue Jackets pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker. The Blue Jackets had several chances but the Flyers jumped on an Ivan Provorov blue-line mishap as Cam Atkinson raced down the ice towards the loose puck and slammed it into the empty net.
Carter Hart made a great play where he rimmed it off the glass and Provorov – who had issues at the point in Philadelphia – failed to corral the puck to Atkinson’s benefit.
Atkinson’s goal meant that much more because with just 42 seconds remaining, Patrik Laine scored in tight to give the Blue Jackets life.
Konecny scored his 2nd goal of the game with just 0.1 seconds left on the clock to seal the deal after he jumped on a loose puck after the Flyers had barreled it off the glass to get the puck out of the zone.
Shots:
Columbus: 33 (9 in the 3rd period)
Philadelphia 37 (10 in the 3rd period)
Hits:
Columbus: 15
Philadelphia: 9
Faceoffs:
Columbus: 30
Philadelphia: 24
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