Four games into their restart, the Flyers are playing as if the nearly five-month pause never happened.
Call them the Boys of Summer.
August isn't supposed to be a time to be on the ice, but it agrees with the top-seeded Flyers, who opened the Stanley Cup playoffs with a hard-earned 2-1 win Wednesday over eighth-seeded Montreal in Toronto.
Oh, they had a sloppy second period, but they regrouped and, thanks to Carter Hart's outstanding goaltending, held off a Montreal team that was coming off a shocking play-in-round win over Pittsburgh.
The Flyers, coming off a surprising three-game sweep that gave them the Eastern Conference's top seed, got goals from Ivan Provorov and Joel Farabee at Scotiabank Arena.
Teams that win Game 1 in a best-of-seven series own an all-time series record of 478-219 (68.6%). In their history, the Flyers have won 72% of their series when they win Game 1.
After being thoroughly outplayed in the second period, the Flyers steadied themselves and had the Canadiens on their heels for much of the third period. When the Habs did have a late scoring chance, Hart (27 saves) answered. He made his most difficult third-period stop when he denied the ever-present Brendan Gallagher on a point-blank backhander with 4:24 remaining. He later stopped Phillip Danault in a scramble in front.
The Flyers were also fortunate. Montreal's Nick Suzuki fired a shot off the crossbar with 26.4 seconds left.
Sixteen seconds after the Canadiens tied it at 1-1 on Shea Weber's power-play rebound, the Flyers took the lead on a veteran-type play by Farabee, who is actually a 20-year-old rookie.
Farabee deftly deflected Travis Sanheim's point drive to force Carey Price to make the save, then deposited his own rebound with 5:06 left in the second.
Until Farabee's goal, Montreal dominated the second period. The Canadiens, taking advantage of their speed and several Flyers turnovers, played as if they had a man advantage for much of the period.
But Hart, the night before he turns 22, was flawless until an uncovered Weber knocked a rebound into an empty net.
Montreal had a 17-7 shots advantage in the second, and it was a true indication of how they controlled play.
Earlier, the Flyers snapped their 0-for-11 power-play funk in the postseason on the first playoff goal of Provorov's career, a point drive that beat Price with 11:06 to go in the first period.
"We have to get in Price's eyes," center Kevin Hayes said before the game, before the Flyers did just that.
Jake Voracek and Sean Couturier got in front of Price as Provorov unloaded his shot, which deflected off the stick of Montreal winger Paul Byron.
The Flyers, aiming to win their first playoff series since 2012, controlled the first three-quarters of the opening period before the Canadiens had a handful of scoring chances in the last five minutes of the session.
In the opening period, the Flyers outshot the Habs, 11-5, and outhit them, 15-10.
Hart made two saves on close shots by Artturi Lehkonen in the game's first 21 minutes. Hart had to be sharp as Montreal swarmed the net in the second, and the unflappable goalie robbed Byron of a two-on-one chance.
The Flyers were sloppy and a turnover led to a 2-on-0 break with 13:35 left in the second, but Lehkonen fell on the poor ice and lost control of the puck. The Flyers got a reprieve.
Until Weber's power-play tally.
For all of Hart's second-period heroics, the best save of the period belonged to an out-of-position Price, who somehow made a diving stop with the blade of his stick to deny Scott Laughton as he appeared to have an empty net.
Coach Alain Vigneault kept Farabee on the top line and put Voracek � who missed the previous game with an undisclosed injury/illness � on the third line to start the game. Connor Bunnaman was a healthy scratch.
Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, coming off a two-assist game in a 4-1 round-robin win over Tampa Bay, remained in the lineup as Robert Hagg was scratched.
The Flyers have won 13 of their last 14 games, and they have been one of the league's elite teams for a long time. Since Nov. 1, they have the NHL's second-best record, and from Jan. 8 until the end of the regular season, they went 19-6-1, tying them with Boston for the league's best record in that span.
Hence, their postseason motto: Anytime, Anywhere.
