Date Published: 10-14-2022
Photo Credit: Rebecca McCormick
Last night, the Flyers opened their 2022-2023 season at home against rising star Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils. Philadelphia was able to pick up the win in the season opener by a final score of 5-2. The division rivals last played in December 2021 with Philadelphia coming away with a 6-1 win.
The Flyers were down 1-0 eight minutes into the game, but rebounded quickly thanks to a goal from Wade Allison. Noah Cates won an offensive zone face-off that went from Tony DeAngelo across to Ivan Provorov for a wrist shot. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped Provorov’s shot but the rebound was right there for Allison to slam dunk home, evening the game at one goal apiece. To be honest, the goal never should have happened as Blackwood allowed a really bad rebound, but credit goes to Allison for being in the right place at the right time.
Provorov’s game was very impressive last night. He registered two assists in his first game with his new partner DeAngelo. After seeing Travis Sanheim sign a huge eight-year extension mere hours prior to the game, one cannot help but wonder if Sanheim has overtaken Provorov in the Flyers’ long-term plans. This is a great start for Provorov either way.
Carter Hart was solid in net. He played well enough for the Flyers to win, but he did not necessarily bring his “A” game. If he was as sharp as he knows he can be, the game would have been a shutout for the Flyers. This is exemplified on the Devils’ first goal. A shot from Alexander Holtz went under Hart’s blocker and leaked into the net. For a team that will not light up the scoreboard very much, Hart is going to have to make those kinds of saves.
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DeAngelo also played extremely well last night. He, like Provorov, posted two assists and was an emotional leader for Philadelphia from the opening face-off. For fans who think he may not fit well with John Tortorella, he looked more than comfortable last night.
In the second period, the Flyers started to pile on the Devils. Travis Konecny scored just after the midway point in regulation after picking up a Kevin Hayes’ neutral zone pass and firing it through a screen (from a Devils’ defender) and past Blackwood to put Philadelphia up 2-1. Seeing these kinds of goals from Konecny is a great sign early on as he has struggled to beat goalies the last two seasons. Nevertheless, a snipe from TK is always exciting to watch. Provorov also made a phenomenal play at the red line “pinching” in to kick the puck to Hayes which allowed Hayes to spring Konecny.
23 seconds later, it was Morgan Frost scoring on a one-timer off a pass from Tanner Laczynski which increased the lead from 2-1 to 3-1. Laczynski made a great play, taking the rim pass from James van Riemsdyk below the goal line and finding a centering Frost who was able to hammer it past Blackwood. Give JVR a lot of credit for the way he has carried himself since the end of last season. It was the worst kept secret in the league that Philadelphia wanted to trade him for literally nothing in return. For him to not only remain professional, but start the season playing with two rookies on his line speaks to the character and professionalism of a guy who has been lauded as being a great mentor and role model for the younger guys to learn from. “Stick taps” to JVR. Frost and his reps knew that this is really his last shot to make an impact in the NHL in the Flyers’ organization; they decided to accept a one-year, “prove it” deal from Chuck Fletcher over the summer. Maybe it was a wise decision as there would be more from Frost later.
An area of concern for the defense is their ability to keep up with elite skaters. Travis Sanheim and Justin Braun, especially, were beaten by Jack Hughes more than once, which resulted in Hughes getting clean looks or setting up a teammate for a good chance each time. Hughes is a rising superstar in the NHL, but the Flyers will have to do a much better job of sealing off opponents’ top notch skaters to keep pressure off of Hart.
“I thought we played our ass off.” – John Tortorella said following the game
A minute and a half into the third period, it was TK connecting again, this time on the powerplay. The Flyers looked like they were making an effort to open up the slot for a shot from him as the bumper guy (slot guy), and he took a touch pass from Kevin Hayes and one timed it past Blackwood, giving the Flyers a 4-1 lead. Konecny’s four shots led the Flyers. For a guy like Konecny, a three-time 24-goal scorer, a high volume of shots is encouraging, especially if he keeps converting on his chances. He won’t be successful on 50% of his shots every game, but if he shoots three or four times per game and converts about 13% of his shots, he’ll have a 37-goal pace. That would be extremely high for a player like Konecny, but he absolutely has the ability to do it.
With 10: 34 remaining, Konecny blocked a shot that took an unfortunate bounce right to Damon Severson who buried his shot to make it a 4-2 game. The shot beat Hart short-side with traffic in front of the net. Better positioning from Hart would have kept the shot out of the net.
It was thought for a moment that Laczynski had his first NHL goal with an empty net, but the goal was later changed to Morgan Frost after video showed it hit the stick of a Devil instead of Laczynski.
John Tortorella picked up his first win with the Flyers in his first game with the franchise. Winger Owen Tippett did not play during the second and third periods due to an upper-body injury. Tortorella had no update on Tippett after the game.
“We played hard,” Tortorella said. “Do we have to clean some things up? Yes. If we can just stay with that type of effort, I do think because I guess it’s a graveyard out here about second periods. I do think we took a step in that second period when it looked like it was going away from us. We came back. Those are important processes for a team that has struggled and has been talked about ad nauseam amount here as far as those second periods. A lot of good things, but they played hard. It’s a find a way league. Nothing’s perfect. Not all minutes are perfect. Sometimes it’s ugly, sometimes it just looks awful. It’s a find a way league and we found a way to win.”
The Flyers will be back on home ice tomorrow as they take on another Hughes brother. Quinn Hughes and the Vancouver Canucks will come to town for a 4pm puck-drop. Carter Hart is expected to start in net while Cam Atkinson and Rasmus Ristolainen look to crack the lineup for the first time this season.
