|
Flyers Pull Away from Penguins, Win 6-3 in Opener |
|
|
|
|
|
Flyers Pull Away from Penguins, Win 6-3 in Opener
The execution was sloppy at time for both teams, as expected after abbreviated training camps and no exhibition games. However, the outcome was emotionally satisfying for the Philadelphia Flyers as they skated to a 6-3 victory on opening night against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday evening.
The victory was the Flyers' 100th all-time home victory against the Penguins in the regular season. Pittsburgh is the first team against whom the Flyers have reached triple-digit victories either at home or on the road.
Wednesday's win showcased both the Flyers' outstanding forward depth and their resilience. Philadelphia trailed early, 1-0, and then led by scores of 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3 before pulling away in their three-goal outburst in the third period.
Six different Flyers' players scored one goal apiece in the opener, led by a four-point effort (1g. 3a) from second-year pro winger Joel Farabee. The Flyers got a pair of tallies from their second power play unit and even-strength goals at five-on-five from three different lines. Overall, Philadelphia received goals by James van Riemsdyk (PPG, 1st), Nolan Patrick (PPG, 1st), Farabee (1st), Michael Raffl (1st), Oskar Lindblom (1st) and Kevin Hayes (1st).
Lindblom, playing his first regular season game since Dec. 7, 2019, has scored a goal in each of the last three openers. Previously, he scored in the Flyers 2018-19 opener in Vegas (Oct. 4, 2018) and the opener against the Chicago Blackhawks in Prague last season (Oct. 4, 2019).
Before last night, Nolan Patrick's game was in Dallas on April 2, 2019, and his last goal was on March 9, 2019, against the New York Islanders. He missed the entire 2019-20 season due to chronic migraines.
Carter Hart was strong in goal, making his 31 saves on 34 shots to earn the win. Apart from a puck-management gaffe that cost the Flyers a goal early in the second period, Hart had a strong night. Mental toughness and maturity are almost taken for granted by now with the young goalie, but he demonstrated it again in the opener by immediately getting mentally reset after the gifted goal.
Pittsburgh counterpart Tristan Jarry, who trained with Hart during the offseason, had a rough opener last night. Jarry was too far back in his net on Farabee's goal, and seemed to struggle reading plays at times. He was far from the only one to blame for stopping only 19 of 25 shots on the game -- the Penguins did not play well in front of him -- but it was certainly not the type of performance with which he'd have wanted to start the season.
Mark Jankowski (1st), Sidney Crosby (power play, 1st) and Brandon Tanev (1st) scored for the Penguins. Evgeni Malkin in particular, and the Pittsburgh top-six in general, had a quiet night. However, the Penguins gave the Flyers trouble at times by aggressively bringing their defensemen up on the play, and veteran Kris Letang (four shots on goal, seven shot attempts) was buzzing despite not registering a point.
The Flyers went 2-for-3 on the power play. The Penguins were 1-for-3.
1ST PERIOD
The Penguins had the shot on goal (13-10 overall), shot attempt, scoring chance (6-3) and high-danger (2-1) edge at 5-on-5 in the 1st period -- mostly from the stretch of the Jankowski goal and the shifts that followed til TV timeout. But the Flyers' power play was the big difference, as the Flyers struck twice.
Play was even in the early minutes of the first period before Pittsburgh's Jankowski gave them a 1-0 lead at 5:13. The Penguins won a battle behind the net and Jared McCann's pass across the ice out in front changed direction, eluded the defense and went right to Jankowski in point blank range on the low right slot. After a scoring change during intermission, a primary assist was added for Tanev (who touched the puck on its path to Jankowski) and McCann's primary assist was changed to a secondary.
Pittsburgh generated momentum from the goal for about the next six minutes, although the Flyers killed off the game's first penalty. After a television timeout, Philadelphia regroup and went back to work at generating some forecheck of their own.
At 15:11, Gustafsson's power play point shot was tipped home in front by van Riemsdyk for a 1-1 time. Farabee earned the secondary assist.
On a delayed penalty on Pittsburgh's Mike Matheson in the final half-minute of the period (finally whistled at 19:44), Hart did not initially realize there was a Penguins penalty and teammates on the bench banged their sticks on the boards and yelled over at him to get the goalie's attention. Philly then made quick work of the ensuing power play, controlling the draw and then scoring a few seconds later.
At 19:52, Gustafsson's point shot into a layered screen of Jarry was deflected by Patrick and went into the net. Joel Farabee, who got the puck over to Gustafsson, earned another secondary assist. This tally was initially credited to Gustafsson but changed to Patrick during intermission when replays showed he deflected the puck in the deep slot.
2ND PERIOD
An interference penalty on Jakub Voracek for a hit in the neutral zone without the puck gave Pittsburgh their second power play of the game. Philadelphia killed off most of the penalty with authority, but a miscue late in the kill proved costly. Hart handled the puck behind his net and unwisely attempted to clear it past Crosby in front. Crosby swatted the puck down on his backhand and then deposited the puck in the vacant net.
Philly had trouble generating shots in the second period -- they were stuck on two until the latter portion of the period -- but one was a Kevin Hayes breakaway where Jarry robbed him with the pad. Early in the period, Travis Konecny passed up a shot opportunity on a developing scoring chance, trying to pass to Lindblom for a potential tap-in but the play missed connections.
Finally, late in the frame, Hayes won a battle for the puck and passed to Farabee. Moving to his left just in front of the goal line, Farabee found room low to the far side on the deep-in-his-crease Jarry to restore a Flyers lead at 18:54. There was no secondary assist.
Second period shots were 9-6 in the Pens' favor. Through two periods, the Flyers had a 44.1% team Corsi and were outchanced 10-8 (but held a 4-3 high danger edge).
3RD PERIOD
The Flyers failed to make Pittsburgh pay for a too-many-men penalty early in the third period, After a Flyers turnover in the neutral zone by Gustafsson, Tanev took a cross-ice pass from Jankowski and beat Hart high to the glove side from the left circle just above the dot at 3:01.
At 5:37 Raffl got the goal back to put the Flyers ahead yet again, and it seemed to take some of the air out of Pittsburgh's balloon. Great hustle by Scott Laughton to create a chance off the rush for Nicolas Aube-Kubel, retrieve the puck after the play was neutralized and feed Raff for a scoring chance and a go-ahead goal put Philly back on top again to stay.
The Flyers broke the game open with closely spaced goals at 12:14 and 12:34. On the first, Couturier lugged the puck up the ice, Lindblom dug at a loose puck in the crease and Konecny chipped it home off Lindblom in a pileup for a 5-3 lead. After the game, the scoring was changed to credit Lindblom with the goal because Konecny's rebound follow-up went in off the Swedish forward.
On the latter goal, Farabee collected his fourth point. Taking a pass from Giroux, he fired on net from the right wing and Hayes potted the rebound.
The final few minutes of play were very sloppy, but the Penguins made no dent in their their three-goal deficit. Third period shots were 11-9 in Pittsburgh's favor.
TEAM STATS: COMPOSITE
Final 5-on-5 team Corsi was 43.5% for the Flyers, 56.5% for Pittsburgh. Scoring chances at 5-on-5 were 9-8 in the Penguins' favor in the third period (some of that came in garbage time near the end) and 19-16 overall for Pittsburgh with a 5-4 high-danger edge for the Flyers in the third period and 9-7 overall high-danger Flyers advantage.
Credited hits for the game favored the Flyers, 31-23 (led by seven for Aube-Kubel, five for Phil Myers and four for Robert Hägg). Faceoffs favored the Flyers, 29-21 (led by Hayes going 5-for-6).
The Flyers were charged with 10 giveaway, of which two wound up as Pittsburgh goals. Gustafsson was charged with four. Philly had six credited takeaway (no one had more than one). Pittsburgh had 10 charged giveaways (two by Brian Dumoulin and two by Crosby) and eight credited takeaways (led by two for John Marino).
The Flyers blocked 13 shots, led by 3 for Lindblom and two for Hägg. Pittsburgh came up with 11 blocks, led by 3 for Dumoulin and two for Matheson (who had an otherwise tough night).
**********
FLYERS POSTGAME QUOTEBOOK
As always, the Flyers postgame interview transcripts are courtesy of Brian Smith and Alexandra Samuelsson:
Kevin Hayes (Flyers center)
All last year you were a team that got better as games went along. What explains that ability of you guys to get better as games progress?
Yeah, we go into every game with a game plan. When you stick to a game plan and keep grinding down teams, things usually go your way. I think all the players in that room tonight stuck to the process and we got rewarded there in the third.
When you consider there were no exhibition games and a shortened camp, were you surprised the power play was so effective in this game?
You can look at it both ways. You don’t get time to work on your power play and you don’t get time to work on your PK. When your power play is working harder than the other team, you should generate options. When you have one more guy than the other team, it makes it easier when everyone is working hard. It makes it easier when you get guys like Nolan Patrick back. He kind of controls that power play and he is an elite player and he wanted the goal tonight.
What have you seen in camp out of Joel so far?
Joel is a hard-working kid. He came into the league as a young kid and he excelled. He has a year under his belt, and he had a long off-season to get bigger and faster. Like I said, he works hard. He works at his craft and he had a career night probably. He had four points. Kudos to him and he is going to keep working hard.
Travis Konecny (Flyers RW)
To be able to pull away like that in the 3rd period, do you think you wore down the Penguins as the game went along with the depth you have?
Yeah, I mean, I think we capitalized on our chances. I still think there is a little more for our group to give. We are going to get better and better. Outworking them and staying on teams. I definitely think when we got those chances, we made sure to capitalize. I think the couple of quick one’s kind of put them back on their heels. That was nice.
I know the playoffs last year didn’t go the way you wanted to. Was it good for you to get one personally and wash that fully out of your mind?
It would’ve been nice, but it is actually Oskar’s goal. So that is better than me getting one. If you watch the highlight, it goes of Oskar’s head and in the net. I would rather him get one tonight. It is well deserved.
You have a close relationship with Nolan Patrick. To see him get on the board, what is that like?
It’s been pretty fun watching Patty. He is in a really, really good spot right now. It’s just really good to see him having fun again and not worrying about all the stats and how he is going to play when he comes back. He is just having fun playing hockey. He is working hard. He deserves to get rewarded. He has put in a lot of time and effort into getting where he is right now. It is scary. He is only going to get better. It is his first game back in a long time and he looks that good. It is incredible to see where has come and it is nice to see him get one.
Joel Farabee (Flyers W, last two questions only)
How much of an impact is that short camp having such an internal competition had on not just you but everyone else? The young guys and vets elevated each other.
Absolutely. When you are battling in camp, that is the best way to prepare yourself for the season. We had a lot of good battles, a lot of good practices and a lot of good scrimmages. A lot to like. Like I said, we are excited for the season and tonight was a great win.
This was a tight game through the first two periods. Did you guys take over in the third. Did you get the sense you wore them down physically or mentally?
Absolutely. We got some bounces that we liked, and they got a little unlucky at times. But they are going to be coming back in two days coming for us again. We have to prepare and get ready.
Brandon Tanev (Penguins LW)
What do you make about their two power play goals? Is there anything that you guys could have done differently?
Obviously specialty teams are a huge part of today’s game. You want to have a good penalty kill. They got a couple there. I think it’s just us there coming together as a group and getting better day by day. Obviously we weren’t happy with how the penalty kill was today. That’s on us, the guys who penalty kill. I think next game, we’ll push the pace and do better in that situation. I think we need to have an onus in the specialty teams, especially in a shortened season and really bear down in situations.
Are the breakdowns in defense tonight a by-product of the shortened training camp? How can you explain some of those?
I think it’s just how the puck goes and the bounces. They weren’t going our way. I thought we played a great game. I thought we had a lot of great chances. We had some momentum at times. I think there was a couple breakdowns in our game, but I think as the group grows and we get better day by day, we try to eliminate those things from our game. We’re looking forward to the next one and hoping to learn from this one.
What was the environment out there like with no fans and just the arena as it was? Was it similar to Toronto during the bubble?
I think it’s a pretty similar to the situation we were in Toronto. At the end of the day, we miss fans but it’s our jobs to go out there and play the game in the situations that we have here. The cards are on the table and that’s what we’re dealt with. Everyone’s health and safety is a first priority. It’s on the players to go out there and do their job in different environments.
John Marino (Penguins defenseman)
Obviously some defensive miscues tonight. Do you think being the first game with two new pairings contributed to that, or is it more just a short training camp and a bad night?
It’s kind of all around. Short training camp, new people coming in and just trying to get the chemistry down. I don’t think anyone in the locker room is worried about it. Like you said, it’s the first game of the year and we have a lot to build off of.
Did you feel good about your game through forty minutes tonight?
Yeah, I thought we definitely had our chances. I think the score is not really indicative of how the game went. I definitely think we have our moments, too. Sometimes we just got the bad bounces. There’s definitely a lot of good safe ways we can get from that game.
What happened on that fourth goal there? It looked like you got tripped up and then sprawled to cover as best you could.
The pass squirted by me. It went underneath my stick. Just tried to chip it with my stick and wasn’t able to get there. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. We have another chance on Friday to get one back.
Mark Jankowski (Penguins center)
Can you just walk us through Brandon Tanev’s goal? How did you even see him jump into the play? What do you think about what he did to finish that one off?
I think the puck just squirted out of the neutral zone so I got it and was going up the wall. Jared had a good net drive. Honestly, I just heard him screaming. Did a quick look out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was open. I just tried to get it over to him. Luckily, it got to him. He had an unbelievable shot there right on to put it in.
To get a goal in your first game, does that add momentum to bring it all together there more quickly?
Yeah, definitely. I think for the most part, our line was good tonight. I think we were hard on pucks in the forecheck. We didn’t give them too much in the D zone. I think we just have to build off that. Overall, as a team, we did a lot of good things tonight. Some mistakes cost us there. We could be better on the PK and some aspects of the game. But I think there’s a lot to build off from that first game.
What was the environment out there like with no fans? Was it similar or different to what you experienced in the bubble in Edmonton?
It feels pretty similar to the bubble. Obviously no fans, but they have the crowd noise and all that Jumbotron stuff going on. I think when you are playing the game, you don’t really notice that stuff too much. You’re just out there, grinding and competing. Maybe when you’re sitting on the bench or in between TV time-outs you kind of notice it. When you are out there and in the heat of the moment, you don’t really notice it. You’re just playing the game.
Alain Vigneault (Flyers Head Coach)
Considering you had no exhibition games, were you surprised how effective the power play was?
I like the fact that we shot the puck and had some net presence on the power play. That enabled us to get both those goals. Great job by JVR and without a doubt Erik shooting that puck and finding that lane and getting that puck towards the net was the right way of doing things on the power play. I thought that was a good start for our group.
What kind of changes have you seen in Joel Farabee since last season?
I believe that him putting the time and the effort that he did this summer shows his willingness to work on becoming the best player he can be. There is no doubt that there is a lot of skill and tools in Joel, but he is putting in the time and the effort and that is what players need to do. Tonight, he came up real strong for us. I thought that line was effective. Their willingness to go to the net and stop in front was evident. There is no doubt that Joel was a big part of that line and the two goals that we got on the power play and getting the job done for us.
It is pretty clear that you are a team that is built around your depth. When you are a team that can do that, does that have the effect of wearing down an apparent either physically or mentally where you can really take advantage of that?
It's tough to say. I believe that we are trying to do is play at a high pace and fast game in the sense that we are quick to check, we are quick to kill plays in the neutral zone and when we get the puck to counter. The effectiveness of being able to roll four lines and play six defensemen is huge.
I thought tonight, both teams from ice level, the speed and intensity was real high. The execution and decision making will get better as we play more games. There is no doubt that I liked the pace we played at. I do think that we are going to need to be better and get better 5 on 5 in our game and I am very confident we are going to be able to do that.
I would say, though, this: my one disappointment in tonight’s game is that Oskar played his first game at Wells Fargo since December 2019 and he did not get a chance to play it in front of Flyers fans giving him the great cheer and love that he deserves after coming back and battling cancer. I thought of that going in. I talked to Oskar a little bit about it after the game. It would have been phenomenal to play this game tonight, Oskar back with this place full of fans and first time he stepped on the ice, he was the starting lineup, I’m sure he would have gotten the cheer that he deserves.
What did it mean energy wise on the bench to see both Oskar and Nolan chip in on offense?
There is no doubt both guys got a big cheer from their teammates prior to the game. Nolan coming back and stepping on the ice and just playing the way he has played since the first day of training camp. Those are all positive signs for those young men. It is definitely positive sings for our team.
What do you think you have with Nolan? What could his ceiling be?
I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows right at this point. He didn’t play at all. He hasn’t played at all in must be since April the year prior to me getting here. He hasn’t played in quite some time. But I see him walking around. I see him walking around with a jump in his step and a smile on his face. There is no doubt that he is happy to be back. Every day that he is around our team and on the ice and with his teammates, he gets better. Where that will lead, only time can tell.
Mike Sullivan (Penguins Head Coach)
Would you agree that you carried the play on five-on-five for most of the first two periods? Where do you think this game got away from your team?
I thought there was a lot to like about our game tonight. I thought we had periods of the game where we carried the play. The types of breakdowns that we had resulted in some high-quality scoring chances against. We’ve got to do a better job that we minimize some of those catastrophic-type scenarios. As I said, I thought there was a lot of good things in the game, too. We generated some pretty high-quality chances ourselves. We didn’t convert on as many as we would have liked. I don’t think the score of the game is an indication of how it was played.
What is your assessment of Mike Matheson’s night, both good and bad?
He skates really well. I think that’s evident when you look at his mobility. His ability to get back to pucks and his gaps because he’s such a mobile guy. He’s trying to get used to the type of game that we play. We’re going to work with him here, through this beginning part of the season to try to help him simplify his game in certain areas of the rink. To Mike’s defense, he’s trying to learn some of the concepts and the way we’re trying to play here. I don’t think Mike got the benefit of any puck luck tonight as well. That certainly didn’t help him.
You mentioned the breakdowns. How much can you lump that up to the fact that you had a very short training camp? Do you think some of the things we saw tonight could get ironed out with time?
Yeah, I do. I think we will get better. No, I know we will get better. We just have to make sure we learn through each experience. There were those types of plays on both sides tonight. We didn’t take advantage of as many as we needed to. Philly’s a good team. We give them a lot of credit. They are a hard team to play against. We had our chances as well. We just got to take the good things and build on them. We got to learn through our mistakes and make sure we get better through this experience.
How do you keep a guy like Matheson, joining a new team, keep his spirits up and not get too down on himself after he has a tough game like this?
Well we’ll certainly encourage him. It’s a game of mistakes out there. It’s not always going to go our way. We just got to make sure we learn through the experiences. Our coaching staff is committed to helping Mike through some of these processes. This game is not an easy game. It’s not for the faint of heart. You’ve got to make sure you dust yourself off and get back in the fight. That’s the nature of the game we play. That’s the nature of this league. We’ll certainly encourage Mike and support Mike through this process.
How would you assess how Tristan Jarry performed tonight?
I think there were a few that Tristan could have been sharper on. That’s probably an indication that we can say about all of us. I’m not going to over-assess any one player in the aspect of his game. We all need to be better if we’re going to have the success we need to have. I thought Tristan made some good saves early. Even a good save on the breakaway. Those are the types of saves that you need to win in this league. We just all need to be sharper.
Erik Gustafsson (Flyers defenseman)
How much of a confidence builder was it to set up two power play goals with your new team?
Of course, it builds the confidence up. I think it looked pretty good on the practice the last few days. I think all the guys on the ice felt confident. It is nice to see it go in when we shoot it. Van Riemsdyk’s doing a good job in front, too.
You mentioned about things starting to click in practice. Were you surprised how quickly it started to click here in game, or did you feel like you guys were building up to this?
It sort of felt like it was building up to this. When we first started like four, five days ago, it felt like we got to know each other a little bit. But I think the last two or three practices it felt pretty good. We found each other very well, but today on the ice it felt good. Obviously trying to just shoot the puck. They gave me a lane all the time because Voracek is such a threat on the right side. Like I said before, van Riemsdyk did a great job in front, and Patty, too.
To have an empty building is a strange atmosphere, but does that help the defensemen hear each other on those split-second communications?
Yes. I think both teams are pretty used to it now after the bubble. Like you said, you hear the guys on the ice pretty well, even better. Of course, it makes it easier to make plays. I think they are doing a great job with the fans voice and stuff like that. It is the same game. You have to go out there and play hard. But of course, we want the fans to come in. It felt good tonight.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»