In order for the Philadelphia Flyers to achieve their goal of being a more competitive team than they were a season ago, the start of their campaign loomed especially large. The league’s schedule makers gave the team a chance to set the tone early if they could survive four season-opening meetings against Cup contenders, with nine of the team’s twelve early-season games taking place at the newly created Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Finishing with a 6-5-1 record keeps the Flyers out of an early hole like the one the Calgary Flames have fallen into this season. But losing to the Flames on Sunday, who improved to 3-9-2 a 2-1 winthey missed an opportunity to be positive about their overall play through their first twelve games.
Summary of the game
The Flyers came out of the gate in good form, with Nick Seeler and Nikita Grebenkin hitting the post and trading in the opening five minutes. But they failed to test Dustin Wolf at all in the latter half of the period, even when Christian Dvorak had a late breakaway chance which he missed wide. The Flames quietly racked up a respectable 10 shots, with MacKenzie Weegar responsible for a dangerous closing look and a post hit of his own. But neither team did much to remove the zero next to their logos on the scoreboard.
The game got an offensive injection early in the second period, with Jonathan Huberdeau slotting in his third goal of the season from the left circle just 2:15 into the game. However, that was more of an anomaly than a norm. The teams came together for the same disappointing 13 shots on goal they registered in the first period. While Natural statistical trick Even though the Flyers had five high-risk scoring chances, they still felt like they were stuck in gear for the vast majority of the frame.
Rick Tocchet had no choice but to shuffle Philadelphia’s forward group, which felt the loss of Tyson Foerster hard due to a lower-body injury suffered in Saturday’s game. But Huberdeau’s second of the game, doubling his total from his first eight games, on a deflection just 2:15 into the frame, left the Flyers seriously behind the eight ball.
The goal didn’t exactly serve as a wake-up call, as the Flyers still struggled to create chances deep into the period. But with 5:40 to go, Travis Konecny broke the goose egg and ripped the puck immediately after a Noah Cates faceoff win. Ultimately, they ran out of time, with Dustin Wolf making a couple of big saves to produce his second-best game this season in terms of save percentage (0.944%). Aleksei Kolosov had a respectable performance in his first start of the season for the Flyers, stopping 19 of 21 shots.
Unsurprisingly, the Flyers now have a lot of road hockey on their horizon, starting with a two-game road trip to Montreal and Nashville. The Flames get a nice reprieve after a four-game road swing of their own with two days off before hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. However, they too will be frequent fliers in November, playing ten of their fifteen November games outside the Scotiabank Saddledome.
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