Flyers Lineup

James van Riemsdyk – Sean Couturier – Joel Farabee

Michael Raffl – Kevin Hayes – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Connor Bunnaman – Nolan Patrick – David Kaše

Samuel Morin – Andy Andreoff – Maksim Sushko

Ivan Provorov – Philippe Myers

Travis Sanheim – Shayne Gostisbehere

Robert Hägg – Erik Gustafsson

Carter Hart – Brian Elliott

Mark Friedman, Claude Giroux (COVID-19), Jakub Voracek (COVID-19), Justin Braun (COVID-19), Oskar Lindblom (COVID-19), Scott Laughton (COVID-19), Travis Konecny (COVID-19)

Morgan Frost (dislocated shoulder)

Game Report

After a 10-day delay, and with six players still on the COVID-19 reserve list, the Flyers were back in action on Thursday night for their first game of the season against the Rangers.

David Kase and Maksim Sushko, both on recall from the AHL, drew into the lineup for their first game of the season, as did Andy Andreoff off the taxi squad. Additionally, it was the NHL debut for Sushko.

First Period

Despite a vastly different look to his lineup, Alain Vigneault‘s team had a remarkably good first 20 minutes of play. Just 59 seconds into the game, the Flyers took a 1-0 lead when Nicolas Aube-Kubel joined a scramble in the crease and got his stick on the puck to put it over the goal line.

The Flyers were doing a lot of the right things, including executing a strong forecheck, making clean passes, and solid breakouts. They struggled, though, at the faceoff dot for much of this game.

Both teams exchanged turns in the penalty box, and it looked like trouble for the Flyers when Andreoff and Robert Hagg both got the whistle at the same time. Luckily Chris Kreider took a holding penalty just 30 seconds into the Rangers’ five-on-three advantage, making it a little more manageable for the Philadelphia penalty killers.

Second Period

Things got a little weird in the second period when Pavel Buchnevich got loose on a breakaway and was slashed on his way to the net by Ivan Provorov. Despite the slash, Buchnevich got a good shot off on Carter Hart, who stopped the puck cleanly. But the officials somehow deemed it worthy of a penalty shot, and Buchnevich had a second attempt at Hart, who stayed with the Rangers forward and denied him a second time.

Before that, New York evened the score in the final seconds of one of their power play chances when Colin Blackwell tipped a puck from in close.

Third Period

The Rangers turned up the heat a bit in the third period, and were rewarded for it when Brendan Smith went to the far side of the net and Artemi Panarin took advantage of all eyes being on him as he drove the net, and backhanded the puck to Smith who put it into a yawning net.

With the minutes ticking down in the game, Joel Farabee got into the mix in a net-front scramble and managed to get the puck across the line with just over a minute left in regulation.

The Flyers penalty killers were put to the task again about halfway through the overtime period when Nolan Patrick took a hooking call, and the PK units did a good job at keep the game tied. Even though Sean Couturier was able to find the back of the net in the shootout, it wasn’t enough to get two points after Panarin and Kaapo Kakko converted their attempts.

What’s Next?

Plus / Minus

▲  Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Sean Couturier, Carter Hart

▼  Nolan Patrick