The Philadelphia Flyers began their season in the Sunshine State, facing off against defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers. The Panthers won their first game on Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flyers looked to start their season on a positive note, especially against such a strong opponent.
The Flyers started the game in defense-mode and almost instantly took a penalty in their zone. Last season, the Panthers’ power play was 23.5% effective, sitting in the upper half of the league. Just over 15 seconds into their power play, Florida’s Evan Rodrigues took a slashing penalty, sending the face-off down to Sergei Bobrovsky. The 4-on-4 saw a decent bit of dancing back and forth between the teams and the Flyers’ short power play failed to make an impression. The Flyers had difficulty maintaining offensive pressure and struggled with giveaways in the majority of the first period. While Philadelphia struggled to produce in the first ten minutes, their neutral zone protection served them well, avoiding high-danger chances from an offensively lethal Panthers team.
Shortly after the man-advantage ended for Philadelphia, Florida earned themselves a scary chance, giving Dan Vladar his first true save of the evening. In their next chance, Florida knocked Vladar down, but he was still able to make a pad save, showing why he got the starting spot for the team’s season opener. The Flyers appeared to struggle with communication when in the Panthers’ zone, often unable to move passes efficiently and allowing quite a few giveaways. The Panthers maintained possession in the Flyers’ zone for the majority of the final six minutes of the period, earning their second power play 16:55 into the frame. Christian Dvorak was sent off for tripping, but, thankfully for the Flyers, the Panthers were unable to convert. The Panthers found significantly more scoring chances in the first, sending the Flyers to the locker room searching for ways to attack against the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
The Panthers came out of the gate strong to start the second period, showing great offensive pressure and forceful defensive prowess. Following another strong attack by the Panthers, Trevor Zegras, a new face in Philadelphia, took a two-minute minor for interference against Seth Jones. The Flyers were able to clear the puck for the majority of the kill, but with eight seconds left, Anton Lundell was able to sneak past the Flyers’ defense and wrist it past Vladar, giving the home team a one goal lead. Almost immediately after, Dvorak took his second penalty of the night, this time for hooking in the neutral zone, at 5:57. The Flyers were successful in killing their fourth penalty of the night.
Once again, the Flyers struggled with giveaways in all three zones. The Flyers were effective with their face-offs, though, winning 60.5% of the battles throughout the first 35 minutes of play. Florida continued to dominate the final few minutes of the frame, accumulating double the amount of shots the Flyers had. However, in a late face-off to the right of Bobrovsky, a quick shot by Tyson Foerster was saved, but not handled, allowing Noah Cates to slip past his defender and whack the puck into a mostly empty net, tying the game.
The Flyers left the ice with a tied game against an extremely strong team, which should’ve had them in high spirits to start the third.
Philadelphia started the third with a bit more of a spring in their step, with an early shot Sean Couturier off the first draw and another attempt by Cates off his face-off. Vladar also stood strong in his first save of the period, snubbing Brad Marchand of what looked like a guaranteed goal. The Flyers were not so lucky on Marchand’s next shot though, which flew past Vladar thanks to a perfectly timed screen by A.J. Greer. The Flyers did not look defeated following the goal, winning the next three face-offs and showing more aggression in their attack. Throughout the first half of the third, the Flyers did better to manage the Panthers’ attack, only allowing six shots on goal and tallying four of their own. Following the TV timeout, each team found a high-danger chance, but neither could convert.
With just under seven minutes to go, the Flyers got lucky when Marchand failed to score on a clean breakaway chance. To start the final five minutes of the game, the Panthers did not look all too concerned with making risky plays—content to sit with the puck and slow down the pace. Cates managed to fight his way down the right wall and get a shot on Bobrovsky but failed to get the puck past the line. With just over two minutes left, Philadelphia’s new head coach, Rick Tocchet, called for Vladar to leave the ice, leaving the net empty. Foerster earned an interference penalty against Marchand with 1:16 remaining. Vladar was sent back to his net for the kill. Vladar skated to the bench with 25 seconds remaining, but the Panthers suffocated the Flyers in the neutral zone, winning the game 2-1.
Despite being handed a loss in their season opener, the Flyers should look to the positives of the game, including their strong neutral zone presence and the offensive power of the Cates line. The Philadelphia Flyers will look to bounce back on Saturday, October 11 at 7 p.m. against the Carolina Hurricanes.
