Flyers Lineup

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jake Voracek

Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk – Derek Grant – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Michael Raffl – Nate Thompson – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ivan Provorov – Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim – Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg – Justin Braun

Carter Hart – Brian Elliott

Andy Welinski, Andy Andreoff, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Shayne Gostisbehere, Egor Zamula, Mark Friedman, Connor Bunnaman, Alex Lyon, Kirill Ustimenko

Oskar Lindblom

Game Report

Just like the Philadelphia Flyers were the first team to play an exhibition game in the NHL’ s Return to Play this week, they also had the honor of playing in the first Round Robin game on Sunday when they took on the Boston Bruins. While these game could be considered an extended “pre-season” for the top four seeded teams, there is an ability for teams to move up or down in seeding positioning to begin round one of the playoffs.

Both teams looked a bit unsteady for the first five or six minutes of the game, although the Bruins seemed to get an early upper hand as they peppered young Carter Hart with a barrage of shots. He held firm, though, and allowed the Flyers to get their skates underneath them and begin to apply some pressure later in the period. In one of the more exciting moments of the frame, Claude Giroux wound up for a big point shot on the power play, but found iron.

The second period is when things really opened up for Philadelphia, and not in ways that most analysts or fans may have predicted. It wasn’t the big names who made their mark on this day for the Flyers, but the bottom six really stepped up when needed.

Michael Raffl kicked off the scoring for the Flyers after Travis Sanheim skillfully navigated the blue line and fed the puck to Raffl. The forward then patiently stickhandled around the crease and put the puck past Jaroslav Halak. Nate Thompson followed that up with a goal of his own from the circle.

With just over a minute left in the second period, the Bruins managed to get on the board with a wraparound goal by Chris Wagner that deflected off of a skate and into Hart’s net. But just eight seconds later, Phil Myers took the puck down the ice and fired a perfect shot from the slot that beat Halak top shelf.

In the final period, the Bruins seemed to have difficulty finding any kind of rhythm to mount a comeback, which was just fine for Philadelphia. Scott Laughton put his stamp on the day when he took the puck from the neutral zone, skated over the blue line, and roofed a shot into the Boston net.

While parts of the game lacked the intensity of a true playoff game, the Flyers showed their depth, with all four lines clicking, with Hart also performing well.  The one negative out of the game came late in the third period when Jeremy Lauzon sent Raffl awkwardly into the boards. Raffl could not get up on his own, and needed assistance getting off the ice. No word has come from the team on his status, but if he’s not able to play come their next round robin game, on Thursday against the Washington Capitals, we can expect to see Joel Farabee make an appearance in the lineup.

Plus / Minus

▲  Michael Raffl, Travis Sanheim, Philippe Myers

▼  Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek