Thursday night was one of the toughest in Philadelphia sports history. The Phillies lost an absolute heartbreaker in one of the most bizarre ways possible. Meanwhile, the Eagles thoroughly embarrassed themselves on Amazon Prime. At the same time, the Flyers lost their season opener in a 2-1 loss to the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers. Fun fact: this is only the third time in history (the other being 1983) that these three teams all lost on the same day. Ugh!
Well, the NHL didn't do the Flyers any favors. The team travels from Miami to Raleigh to take on the Hurricanes. That's right, the Flyers kick off the season against last season's Eastern Conference finalists. It is what it is. You gotta play the good teams as well as the bad teams.
Now, the Flyers' loss wasn't as bad to deal with because, unlike the other teams, expectations are rather low for them. Granted, there is a slim chance that they could turn into something, but they have a lot of things to clean up. They have too many defensive injuries and took WAY too many penalties in their first game.
On the plus side, they only gave up two goals to the Panthers. Despite all the penalties, Dan Vladar started the season well against a high-powered offensive team. That's not half bad. He surrendered just two goals on 32 shots. That's a lot of shots. And when you consider that the Panthers converted on only 1 of 5 power plays, that's respectable.
We can't fully judge how the Flyers will do this season based on one game. Rick Tocchet's debut as head coach didn't go as well as hoped, but let's be honest, at least it wasn't a 6-3 drubbing like the Devils got on Thursday night.
A Storm is Coming
Oh yeah, the team that pounded the Devils the other night was the Hurricanes. The Devils are much like the Flyers in that there are a lot of "ifs" surrounding the team. (...if they can stay healthy, ...if the young guys take that next step forward, ...if the goaltending holds up...) The Canes, on the other hand, don't have that problem.
Carolina is loaded with talent. They got two goals each from newly acquired defender K'Andre Miller and veteran forward Seth Jarvis. Taylor Hall and Eric Robinson chipped in with the other goals. The Canes went 1 for 4 on the power play. For the Flyers that committed a ton of penalties, that could be a problem. They also committed just two penalties and shut down both of NJ's power plays.
Much like the Panthers, the Hurricanes play a very physical game, like their head coach, Rod Brind'Amour, used to play. They dealt out 27 hits; the same number Florida inflicted on Philly.
How to Beat the Hurricanes
First, the Flyers need to stay out of the penalty box. The Canes cycle through the power play with their defense. Again, Miller scored two of the power play goals, and former Flyers Shanye Gostisbehere helped to quarterback the man advantage.
Second, Carolina plays physically. They are built to go after Florida and Tampa and to challenge them for Eastern Conference supremacy. Don't be afraid to dole out hits. Don't be intimidated by them. They wanna get rough, get rough back.
Finally, the Flyers have to score some goals, too. It was nice to see that Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster connected on the first goal of the season for the Flyers. They are picking up where they left off last year. It would be nicer if the others got involved. Seeing the top two lines scoring points would help out greatly.
The Flyers had just 20 shots on goal in their first game. That's not going to be enough against the Hurricanes. They have one of the best defensive corps in the league. You need to get off as many shots as possible to have a chance.
Likewise, they come at you by peppering the goalie with a ton of shots. The Flyers' defense has to figure out a way to minimize the number of high-quality shots as much as possible and steal the rebounds away before guys like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Logan Stankoven, and Jarvis get a hold of them.