Anyone who tries to say your first game as a head coach against your former team isn’t emotional is lying, Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said before the Monday night’s meeting with the expansion Seattle Kraken.
Unfortunately for former Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, the emotions he walked away with were not happy, victorious ones. In an extremely chippy game for two organizations with no prior on-ice history, the Flyers dominated the Kraken 6-1.
Before the game, Vigneault admitted to watching the Kraken for reasons other than film study. He was “intrigued,” he said. But his time studying the new opponent paid off because his team came out well-prepared.
After giving up a few dangerous rushes early, the Flyers locked the Kraken down and dominated the rest of the game. They outshot the Kraken 27-25, won 61% of the faceoffs and finished with one more hit than the Kraken’s 25 in the game full of fights.
50 for Hart
Carter Hart’s first win of the season and 50th win of his career was well-earned. Although Hart did not face as many shots as the Kraken goalie, he made some big saves on dangerous shots.
Early in the first, Joonas Donskoi broke away with the puck, heading down the ice a step ahead of Keith Yandle and Nick Seeler. Hart got in front of the point-blank wrist shot and made the save.
A few minutes later, Hart faced a slap shot from Adam Larsson. He stopped it, but Jordan Eberle immediately got his stick on the rebound. Hart dived across the goal to deflect the puck in the air, where his defensemen knocked it away.
With the exhilaration of the save still running through the arena, the Flyers took it down and scored less than a minute later.
“I think it started with Carter’s save and after that it gave us some wings and we were all over them,” said Derick Brassard, who scored the third goal of the game.
Hart faced eight more shots before he gave up one at the end of the second period. By the end of the game, he gave up just one goal on 25 shots faced.
Rolling from the top
No one from the Flyers top line walked away from the season opener satisfied. Even though the line accounted for two goals, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny and Claude Giroux all felt like they could do more. Couturier had two assists, and Giroux and Konecny each scored. However, they each finished with a plus-minus of 0.
They made up for it against the Kraken. Giroux opened the scoring off an assist from Konecny, who followed up his first assist of the season with his second goal less than a minute later.
The scoring was infectious. Second-line center Derick Brassard added the third goal, his first as a Flyer, before the end of the period. His linemates scored the sixth, with Joel Farabee netting Cam Atkinson’s rebound. Even the defensemen got involved. Ryan Ellis and Justin Braun each found the back of the net at the start of the second for the fourth and fifth goals.
Kraken heads
For the first period of the game, the Flyers and Kraken faced off in a nice, friendly game of hockey. When they came back out, they engaged in one skirmish.
Then Nic Aube-Kubel crosschecked Adam Larsson. Shortly after, Nate Thompson roughed up Nathan Bastian. The Kraken took offense, and suddenly fights broke out all across the ice. It culminated with Seeler squaring off against 6-foot-7 Jamie Oleksiak. While Oleksiak had size, strength and reach on him, Seeler had emotion. As he was escorted to the penalty box, he yelled to the crowd, and the Flyers fans went wild.
While Seeler may not be back next game if Rasmus Ristolainen returns, he endeared himself to the fanbase, judging by the huge cheer that went up when his penalty — five minutes for fighting — was announced.
Meanwhile, Aube-Kubel served two minutes for crosschecking, while Oleksiak also had five minutes for fighting. Both Thompson and Bastian left for the locker room after earning 10 minutes for roughing. They then left the ice again in the third after they engaged another time. This time, Thompson was the decisive winner of the fight.
What’s next
The Flyers practice in Voorhees on Tuesday before hosting the Boston Bruins in a 7:30 p.m. game Wednesday night. The game will be broadcast on TNT. ... The Flyers will look to get Ristolainen back in the lineup. He has been day-to-day with an upper-body injury. They are also waiting for Patrick Brown to come back from COVID-19 protocols and for Zack MacEwan to receive his U.S. work visa.
