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Wrap: Flyers Top Sharks in Opener, Preview: Flyers @ LA

October 5, 2017, 7:55 AM ET [800 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
WRAPUP: FLYERS OPEN SEASON WITH 5-3 WIN IN SAN JOSE

The Philadelphia Flyers could scarcely have hoped for a better start to the 2017-18 regular season than to go into one of the toughest road buildings in the National Hockey League, the SAP Center, and skate off with a 5-3 victory against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. The Flyers went 3-for-5 on the power play, and also got one five-on-five and an empty net 4-on-5 goal.

Wayne Simmonds led the Flyers attack with a pair of power play deflection goals and an empty netter for his second career hat trick in the NHL. The reigning Bobby Clarke Trophy winner also blocked four shots, was credited with a pair of hits and logged 3:30 worth of penalty killing time. The Flyers other goals came from Claude Giroux and Jordan Weal (power play).

Philadelphia's new top even-strength line of Sean Couturier (one assist, three prime scoring chances including a shorthanded chance) centering Giroux and Jakub Voracek (three assists and a partial breakaway) looked strong in its first regular season game together. In the meantime, Shayne Gostisbehere recorded three power play assists and was initially credited with the goal on Simmonds' first tally of the night.

While there were stretches of the game where the Sharks hemmed the Flyers in deep, Philly never trailed. All four forward lines had some productive shifts. The Flyers also generated some extended forechecking pressure of their own and used speed and counterattacking ability effectively on opening night. The Flyers held an early 2-0 lead that evaporated late in the first period. Philly forged ahead, 3-2, in the second period only for the Sharks to tie the game early in the final stanza. Finally, Simmonds scored twice more to put the Flyers ahead to stay.

Making his Flyers debut, veteran goaltender Brian Elliott was not spectacular but turned in a workmanlike effort and came up with several key saves. None of the goals he yielded were soft. Overall, he stopped 32 of 35 San Jose salvos. Sharks counterpart Martin Jones took the loss in stopping 26 of 30 Flyers shots.

For San Jose, Kevin Lablanc notched even strength and power play goals late in the first period. Logan Couture tied the game at 3-3 in the third period. The Sharks went 2-for-6 on the power play.

The game was scoreless until 8:28 of the first period. With Couturier pressuring goaltender Jones on the forecheck, Jones' attempted pass up the right boards was picked off by Voracek. The Flyers' right winger found a wide open Giroux in front of the net, and Giroux finished off the play quickly for the first goal of the season.

The Flyers' second power play unit made it a 2-0 lead at 11:16. Off the rush, Weal and Travis Konecny worked a nice give-and-go sequence. Weal caught Jones flat-footed and deep in his net on a wrister from the right circle. Gostisbehere received a secondary assist.

Lablanc cut the gap to 2-1 at 17:17. The sequence started with a scoring chance for Gostisbehere in the San Jose end. Gostisbehere was initially caught up ice but the he and other Flyers got back nicely and the ageless Joe Thornton button-hooked high in the Flyers zone when he did not see an opportunity to directly attack the net. However, the Sharks retained possession. Several moments later, an initially harmless looking point shot by Brenden Dillon rebounded in the air and was bunted home by Labanc. Joe Pavelski received the secondary assist.

With San Jose on a late first-period power play after a Brandon Manning hooking penalty in the defensive zone, Lablanc intercepted a failed clearing attempt by Dale Weise. Labanc skated in several strides and beat Elliott from the top of the right circle through a partial screen. The unassisted tally came at the 19:41 mark.

The Sharks outshot the Flyers in the first period, 11-8, but it was a fairly even opening 20 minutes. Apart from the coughed-up two goal lead, it was not a bad road period for Philly.

In the second period, the Flyers spent too much time in the penalty box but killed off three 5-on-4 disadvantages and Simmonds combined with Couturier for a prime shorthanded chance. Unfortunately, Couturier was not able to elevate the puck over the pads of the sliding Jones.

At 17:36, the Flyers re-took the lead as the top power play unit struck. Gostisbehere blasted a left point shot as Simmonds set a jumping screen in front of Jones. The puck went off the inside of the long-side post and entered the net. The goal was initially credited to Gostisbehere but changed after the period to Simmonds as the puck apparently grazed off his shin pad. Voracek earned the secondary assist.

San Jose outshot the Flyers, 13-6, in the middle period. Elliott deserved credit for the job he did in keeping the Sharks off the board.

The Sharks re-tied the game on the power play at 3:12 of the third period. As Logan Couture centered the puck out of the right corner, it went off Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald's skate and pinballed into the net. Thornton and Brent Burns collected the gift apples.

To the Flyers' credit, they did not sag after giving up another lead. Philly outshot San Jose, 17-11 in the third period and forced Jones to make some of his toughest saves of the game.

Midway through the third period, with the Flyers on their third man advantage of the game, Philadelphia went ahead for good. This time, Simmonds came up with a clear-cut stick deflection in the slot that gave Jones no chance to stop the change-of-angle. Voracek and Gostisbehere got the assists at 9:27.

San Jose hurt their comeback chances with a pair of bad penalties in the late minutes of the game. However, Radko Gudas took his second bad penalty of the game on a boarding minor with 1:06 left in the game that set up a 4-on-4 and a potentially nerve-wracking finish.

Instead, with Jones pulled to make it a 5-on-4 for San Jose, Couturier made a strong defensive play and chipped the puck ahead to Simmonds. With separation and plenty of time, Simmonds carefully deposited the puck in the empty cage to complete the hat trick and seal the win.

Nolan Patrick, the second overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut in this game. He skated 13:30 of ice time (44 seconds on the power play) across 18 shifts, generated three shots on goal in four attempts, won a board battle down low to set up a scoring chance for Weal and won 5-of-9 faceoffs. Elliott and Patrick became the 599th and 600th players to appear in a regular season or playoff game for the Flyers.

***********

GAME 2 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ LA

The Philadelphia Flyers have no time to celebrate their opening night win in San Jose. Dave Hakstol's team (1-0-0) is right back in action on Thursday night, taking on John Stevens' Los Angeles Kings (0-0-0) at the Staples Center in LA. Game time is 10 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised locally on NBCSP (the former CSN Philadelphia) and nationally on NBCSN.

This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in Los Angeles. The teams will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 18. The Flyers earned an opening-night 4-2 win in LA on Oct. 14 of last year. The Kings took a 1-0 overtime win at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 4, holding Philly to just 17 shots for the game.

Flyers Outlook

This is the second game of a back-to-back and the middle game of a three-in-four swing through California. The Flyers will be in Anaheim on Saturday night.

With the Flyers playing back-to-back games, Michal Neuvirth is likely to get the start in LA. He played both games against the Kings last season, going 1-0-1. One his best efforts of an otherwise down season went to waste in the game against the Kings in Philly this past February as he posted a regulation shutout and stopped each of the first 27 shots he saw before former Flyers forward Jeff Carter won the game for LA.

The Flyers are unlikely to hold a morning skate in Los Angeles after playing last night in San Jose. As such, the team's lineup will not be known until game time. On opening night, rookie defensemen Sam Morin and Travis Sanheim were healthy scratches along with newcomer veteran forward Jori Lehterä.

On opening night in San Jose, the Flyers registered 21 credited hits (led by four from Sean Couturier), blocked 17 shots and won 30 of 58 faceoffs (52 percent, led by Claude Giroux going 8-for-13). Every player in the lineup except Michael Raffl (7:22 of ice time) logged at least 11-plus minutes of ice time, so fatigue should not a significant factor on Thursday especially since it is so early in the season.

KINGS OUTLOOK

This is opening night for the Kings. On Saturday night, they will take on the divisional rival Sharks in San Jose. A longtime assistant coach for the Kings under Terry Murray and Darryl Sutter after his dismissal as Flyers' head coach in Dec. 2009, Stevens served a four-game stint as the Kings' interim head coach in between the firing of Murray and hiring of Sutter during the 2011-12 season. He held the title of "associate head coach" from 2014-15 through 2016-17 at the behest of Sutter. However, Thursday's game is his first as a full-fledged head coach since leaving Philadelphia.

After winning the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014, the Kings entered a retooling phase. The team has missed the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, and both Sutter and general manager/team president Dean Lombardi (now in his second stint working for the Flyers) were ousted after last season. The Kings went 23-16-2 (48 points) at home last season but had a losing road record (16-19-6, 38 points).

Still a formidable defensive team, the Kings were 6th in goals against average last year. The team struggled mightily to score goals, however, tying for 25th in the league. Carter led the team with 32 goals and 66 points. It was the fourth 30-plus goal season of Carter's career but the first since his 36-goal season in his final campaign with the Flyers (2010-11).

During the offseason, the Kings added veteran forward Mike Cammalleri in the hopes of generating a little more offense. The club also added former Minnesota Wild defenseman Christian Folin and goaltender Darcy Kuemper. The most notable departures from last season's roster include defensemen Matt Greene and Brayden McNabb, rental goalie Ben Bishop and forward Devin Setoguchi.

The Kings are hoping for good things this season from left winger Tanner Pearson as the 24-year-old comes off a career-high 24 goals and 44 points last year. In the meantime, Anze Kopitar (40 assists but just 12 goals last year), Carter and perennial Norris Trophy contending defenseman Drew Doughty (12 goals, 44 points, plus-eight last season) remain the backbones of the Kings on both sides of the puck.

Key team stat comparisons (2016-17 NHL overall rank)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.59 (T-20th), Kings 2.43 (24th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.82 (T-19th), Kings 2.45 (6th)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 128/154, Kings 129/135
Power play efficiency: Flyers 19.5% (14th), Kings 19.1% (15th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 79.8% (T-20th), Kings 84.5% (5th)
Shots per game: Flyers 31.5 (5th), Kings 31.1 (T-7th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.5 (7th), Kings 25.9 (1st)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 52.3% (5th), Kings 50.8% (11th)


PROJECTED LINEUPS

Flyers

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 11 Travis Konecny
20 Taylor Leier - 21 Scott Laughton - 12 Michael Raffl

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
6 Travis Sanheim - 3 Radko Gudas
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg

30 Michal Neuvirth
[37 Brian Elliott]

Scratches: Jori Lehterä (healthy), Brandon Manning (healthy), Sam Morin (healthy), Anthony Stolarz (SOIR).


Kings (from Dailyfaceoff.com)

70 Tanner Pearson - 77 Jeff Carter - 73 Tyler Toffoli
19 Alex Iafallo - 11 Anze Kopitar - 23 Dustin Brown
17 Jonny Brodzinski - 9 Adrian Kempe - 14 Mikel Cammalleri
13 Kyle Clifford - 21 Nick Shore - 22 Trevor Lewis

24 Derek Forbort - 8 Drew Doughty
6 Jake Muzzin - 38 Paul LaDue
7 Oscar Fantenberg - 5 Christian Folin

32 Jonathan Quick
[35 Darcy Kuemper]

Scratches: Alec Martinez (IR, lower body), Marian Gaborik (IR), Andy Andreoff (healthy), Nic Dowd (healthy), Kevin Gravel (healthy).
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