Sharks blowout Philadelphia Flyers 8-2 in home opener

The Philadelphia Flyers came into the game looking for their second win on the new season.

In their first home game of the 2018-19 season, the Philadelphia Flyers came in with a 1-1 record looking for an above .500 record.

Gritty made quite the entrance before the game, coming down from the rafters to the tune of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”. He truly is a national treasure.

The Flyers could’ve really used Gritty on the blue-line in this game. Logan Couture kicked the scoring off with a goal on a two-on-one breakaway to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead in the first period. Just 11 seconds later, Joe Pavelski lit the lamp and San Jose quickly took a two goal lead. Claude Giroux took a cross-checking penalty a minute or two later after more pressure from the Sharks. They killed that penalty off thanks to some good penalty-killing work from Michael Raffl, and later gained a power-play opportunity thanks to a delay-of-game penalty from Timo Meier.

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The Flyers had some chances but there was nothing doing on that opportunity. Head coach Dave Hakstol made a change to the defensive pairing, putting Robert Hagg with Radko Gudas and Andrew MacDonald with Travis Sanheim. Later on in the period, Brian Elliott appeared to make a great save on Pavelski, but after review it was deemed a good goal giving San Jose a 3-0 lead. Mikhail Vorobyev took a costly hooking penalty moments later, and Evander Kane deflected a shot from Justin Braun into the back of the net and gave the Sharks a four goal lead at the end of the first. The Flyers created chances on offense, but were horrid in every other category this period.

The second period kicked off with Elliott still in-net for the Flyers. Shayne Gostisbehere put the team on the board with a power-play goal after a Joonas Donskoi interference penalty. Giroux assisted on the goal, giving him a three game point streak. After killing off a Hagg hooking minor, the Flyers went back to the power-play with a chance to cut the lead to two. They couldn’t capitalize, and it haunted the Flyers later on after Kane scored his second goal of the game right after a Gudas penalty expired and gave San Jose a 5-1. The Flyers did limit the Sharks to just eight shots on goal in the period after allowing 23 in the first, which is progress!

Brenden Dillon took a penalty early in the third, giving the Flyers another opportunity on the power-play. The team again couldn’t convert, and after a Sanheim hooking penalty the Sharks took a 6-1 lead thanks to Tomas Hertl. The scoring didn’t stop, Meier joined in later in the period and San Jose took a five goal lead. The Flyers were given a power-play late in the period, but gave up a short-handed goal to Barclay Goodrow. They did score on the opportunity, though, with a goal from Simmonds and the Sharks won 8-2 in an absolute horrible performance from the Orange and Black.

The Flyers will have to put this game aside quickly and focus on tomorrow’s back-to-back game against the Ottawa Senators.