Flyers get first win of the season over Kraken

Carter Hart’s sprawling glove save helped spark the Flyers first win of the season over the Seattle Kraken on Monday night. The 6-1 victory in Philadelphia’s first ever matchup with the Kraken proved to be one of the most memorable games in some time.

It all started with Hart’s glove save on Jordan Eberle with 11:35 left in the first period. It looked as if the Kraken would crack the ice, but Eberle was robbed by Hart’s diving glove.

Not even a minute later, Travis Konecny joined Claude Giroux on the rush. Konecny received the puck from Giroux before dishing it right back onto the tape of Giroux, who blasted a one-timer to put the Flyers ahead 1-0.

Then with 7:48 left Travis Konecny fired a shot on Grubauer who made the original save, but Konecny didn’t give up, got his own rebound and clapped it past Grubauer to give the orange and the black a 2-0 lead.

The Flyers weren’t done yet though, with 5:24 left Derick Brassard looked for a cross ice pass. It did one even better as it found the skate of Carson Soucy and deflected into the net. It was Brassard’s first goal for the Flyers and it gave Philly a 3-0 lead.

“Dirty but good,” Jim Jackson said.

Finally, with 15 seconds left Adam Larrson cross-checked Giroux into the boards to send the Flyers to the power play to open the second period. While they did not convert, Philadelphia still controlled play up and down the ice. After killing off a Nick Seeler interference penalty earlier in the second period, Brassard out-battled the Kraken and sent a pass to the hashmarks where it found Ryan Ellis for his first goal as a Flyer to make it 4-0!

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Then if it wasn’t already a blow out, Justin Braun joined the party on the rush. After a nice pass by James van Riemsdyk, Braun shot instead of passing to Travis Sanheim and while Grubauer looked like he got all of it, it squeaked through the five hole to make it 5-0. It was Braun’s second goal in his last 74 games.

After Grubauer was pulled, Giroux and the Flyers got into a full line scrum, in the end Giroux and Nathan Bastian were given penalties. During 4-on-4 play, Konecny beat the new net-minder Chris Drieder, but not the crossbar as he was just inches away from giving the Flyers a touchdown sized lead.

Later in the period, after a big hit by Nate Thompson, Seeler got into a fight with Jamie Oleksiak, and after a valiant effort he joined Thompson and Nicolas Aube-Kubel in the penalty box.  As a result, the Kraken were given a two minute power play that the Flyers once again killed.

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The Kraken would strike once in the period after Soucy picked up a knuckleball rebound to make it 5-1.

The Flyers opened the third period with a four goal lead. Both teams would not convert on power play opportunities early in the period.

Then with 14:36 left, Keith Yandle made a steal in the defensive zone. After passing the puck up to Cam Atkinson, who flipped the puck in on Driedger, Joel Farabee picked up the rebound and sent the puck bardown and into the net.

Former Flyers and now Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol was hoping for the team bus to start as  Thompson sent a message that the Bullies were back as he pummeled Nathan Bastian with fists of fury for good measure. Thompson ended this game with 25 penalty minutes and Hart saved 24 of 25 shots for his 50th NHL victory.

The Flyers will be off Tuesday before welcoming the Boston Bruins to the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night on TNT.