Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
Saturday night the Flyers much anticipated Season Home Opener took place at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philly. Fans had been outside the arena all afternoon enjoying the beautiful Fall day. Tail-gating, corn-holing, making general merriment, all that good stuff.
Forty minutes before game time it was chaos with folks trying to find a parking lot that was not already full. Fans were out in force primed to get a look at the first regular season home game and the new much talked about players who would be officially taking home ice for the very first time.
This was actually the 5th game of the Flyers 2024-25 season. The first four were played on a western road trip which ended on Thursday. This was the first chance for the Flyers to play host. The visiting Vancouver Canucks actually had more of a chance to settle into Philly than the Flyers did before the game.
The crowd was plentiful and boisterous. The energy level in the building was supercharged. The players entered the ice through a flaming gateway and the fans cheered wildly as the newest Flyers Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko were introduced. It was team captain Sean Couturier’s 800th NHL game.
Before the game started there was a tribute to Matthew and Johnny Gaudreau and their family. The crowd was asked to cheer in celebration of their lives. The crowd roared and eventually broke into chants of “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny”. Lauren Hart sang both the Canadian and US national anthems and the place was on fire. Hockey season had finally returned to Philadelphia.
Philly vs Vancouver
Things kind of went downhill from there. The Canucks outshot the Flyers in the 1st period 16-7. The Flyers had been on the road for over a week playing games in a different time zone ending their last match after 1:00 AM Friday morning. Now they were back on the ice trying to find their bearings and looking like the schedule had taken its toll.
There were lots of individual efforts. Coots and Travis Konecny were both offensively dangerous on the first Flyers penalty kill. Samuel Ersson was playing a solid and stable game keeping himself square to the shooters and making it look easy. Vancouver wasn’t doing anything exceptional to keep the Flyers at bay it just wasn’t coming together for them.
At 16:09 of the 1st period Nils Hoglander found himself totally alone on the doorstep with the puck and easily scored the first goal of the game. The fans were quickly turning on the Flyers. It went from peek excitement to vocal frustration before the first 20 minute session expired.
The Flyers came out stronger in the 2nd period enjoying some sustained pressure in the Vancouver zone but they were unable to get on the board. There were some giveaways but the bigger problem was incomplete passes. Their timing was just a little off. The puck seemed always just out of reach. When things did go right Canucks netminder Kevin Lankinen was up to the challenge.
Brock Boeser scored Vancouver’s second goal 8:40 into the second period. He found himself behind a sprawling Ersson and without coverage and simply backhanded the puck into the gaping net.
This took more wind out of the sails. Less than a minute later Vancouver struck again. Kiefer Sherwood scored directly off of a faceoff at 9:30 to make it 3-0. The fans were letting the Flyers have it. There were flurries of chances by the Flyers but there were many broken plays and missed opportunities as well.
The 3rd period felt like a formality at times. Again there were flashes and individual efforts but they could not pull it together as a team. And when they did Lankinen seemed to have all the answers. The building started to clear out and many of those who remained booed as time ran out with Vancouver holding the puck in their own end and no Flyer going in to attempt to retrieve it.
This was not the home opener that anyone wanted. Not the fans, they players, or anyone involved for that matter. The Canucks played well but again it was not an exceptional performance. The Flyers had constructed an invisible barrier around all the areas they needed to get to. They were not dominated. They were their own worst enemy at times. They were tired and disjointed and not meshing as a team. There will be better days ahead.
