The Philadelphia Flyers have won their first game of the season and in convincing fashion against Dave Hakstol and the Seattle Kraken. The 6-1 final score perfectly dictates how the game played out as well. It wasn’t the best start as it was a tale of two halves in that first period as the Philadelphia Flyers looked slow, inactive, and unimpressed.
Carter Hart made several big time stops, including a breakaway save on Joonas Donskoi, a shoulder save on a redirected shot by Ryan Donato, and an incredible glove save on Jordan Eberle with most of the net open. The Flyers used that momentum by scoring 3 goals in a span of 5 minutes and 18 seconds on 5 shots.
Claude Giroux ripped a one-time blast top shelf on Philipp Grubauer from a nice feed from Travis Konecny. Shortly after, Konecny pounced on his own rebound and buried a shot past Grubauer after receiving a perfect feed from Keith Yandle. Three minutes later Derick Brassard recorded his first goal as a Flyer as his pass towards the crease was redirected by Carson Soucy’s skate.
The Flyers continued that pressure the rest of the way, especially in the second period, adding another 2 goals. Ryan Ellis scored his first goal as a Flyer from a nice feed from Brassard. The second line kept forechecking and battling for the puck, Farabee won the battle, the puck bounced to Brassard and he found a streaking Ellis in the slot.
Justin Braun added to the Kraken’s misery as he found himself on an odd man rush to make it 5-0, as the puck trickled past Grubauer. Lindblom got the puck out of the zone to James van Riemsdyk, who noticed Braun was up in the play and got to him as quickly as he could. That was all for Grubauer as Chris Driedger came in the game in relief for his first appearance as a member of the Kraken.
Things got chippy quickly after the fifth goal as Nathan Bastian and Claude Giroux got into it right after the ensuing faceoff. Nate Thompson got back at Bastian in the third period, dominating his fight and taking him down. Nicolas Aube-Kubel labelled Adam Larsson with a questionable hit from behind, which led to a fight between Jamie Oleksiak and Nick Seeler. The Flyers have brought the physicality and are showing teams around the league they won’t be pushed around.
The third period was a fast flowing one and the hope was that the Flyers wouldn’t sit back with such a large lead. To their credit, they kept their feet on the gas pedal and kept pressuring the Kraken defense and Driedger.
After winning a face-off near the defensive zone, Yandle stole the puck off a Kraken stick, dished it to Brassard, nd then he sent it up to Atkinson who purposely took a long shot for the rebound. Farabee was on the doorstep and slammed it home to make it 6-1. That was all she wrote in terms of the boxscore, but it was a very convincing victory for a team that struggled to score goals last year and during the pre-season.
Carter Hart was fantastic, which was a sight for sore eyes after his gaffes in the first game. He did make 22 consecutive saves between the third period and overtime against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday and carried that momentum into tonight’s game against the Kraken. He stopped 23 shots to backstop his team to a comprehensive victory but it could’ve been a completely different game if he didn’t make those big saves early the first period. His save on Jordan Eberle was all the Flyers needed to capture momentum and take over the game.
The penalty kill was a very welcoming sight after their struggles in the pre-season and game one against the Canucks. They killed all 4 penalties with relative ease, not allowing the Kraken to swarm, pressure, or get anything going offensively. They were aggressive from start to finish, had a few offensive chances themselves, and lots of clearances to make life a lot easier for Hart.
Derick Brassard finished the game with 1 goal and 2 assists, Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny and Justin Braun had 1 goal and 1 assist. Claude Giroux and Ryan Ellis each added a goal and Cam Atkinson, Keith Yandle, Travis Sanheim, James van Riemsdyk, and Oskar Lindblom all recorded an assist. Ivan Provorov played a team high 25:22, Nate Thompson recorded 25 PIMS, and several Flyers finished with a plus/minus rating of 3.
It was a fantastic game from start to finish and it should bring about a lot of excitement, considering what this team has gone through from the off-season to training camp to the pre-season. Hart was fantastic, the top line was buzzing, and the second line keeps building chemistry. The Flyers play host to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM (ET).
