Bill & Kelly react to all things Flyers season opener in the final portion of all night game coverage, with Charlie reporting live from Vancouver as well!
The Philadelphia Flyers fought back from a one-goal deficit not once, but twice, to take the Vancouver Canucks to a shootout and emerge with a 3-2 victory at Rogers Arena on Friday night.
And with their win, the Flyers are now 8-0-2 in their last 10 openers. As we know, setting the tone only matters as much as the work you put in after.
Despite the final score, the Flyers have a lot of work to put in, particularly on the defensive side of the puck, as the defensive zone coverage and turnovers were questionable at best.
This much was apparent midway through the first period, as Rasmus Ristolainen’s routine breakout pass hit Ryan Poehling’s tape and bounced to Conor Garland, who promptly set up Nils Hoglander for a goal on the turnover.
The game was squarely in the Canucks’ favor at that point, and Hoglander’s “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” goal was an example of how fast things can change when you take your foot off the gas.
Sophomore winger Tyson Foerster, who did not score until Game 16 last season, potted the first goal of the Flyers’ 2024-25 campaign on the power play, finishing off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play from Bobby Brink and Joel Farabee.
And, unfortunately for the Canucks, veteran defenseman Tyler Myers was ruled out out of the contest a short time later, playing just 36 seconds early in the opening frame before an awkward collision with Farabee left him down and writhing in pain.
Down to five blueliners, Vancouver would again score midway through the second period after Teddy Blueger beat rookie debutant Jett Luchanko to the far post for a redirection.
Those types of coverages are the ones you live with when Luchanko, 18, is in the lineup. And that’s nothing against him. It’s simply part of the learning process for an extremely young player being tasked with NHL minutes for the first time.
Poehling would make up for his earlier error at the very beginning of the second period, as his dangerous centering pass fell right to defenseman Cam York, who promptly dispatched the loose puck past Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen to tie the game at 2-2.
Lankinen would continue to stand on his head, rivalling Sam Ersson, forcing the game to overtime and the subsequent shootout.
After a whopping 10 attempts in the skills competition, center Morgan Frost silenced the whole building, waiting and waiting before sneaking his shot past Lankinen on the far side and securing the victory.
Luchanko and Matvei Michkov were victorious in their NHL debuts, but they’ll have to do it again on Saturday when they face the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary at 10 p.m. as part of the Flyers’ season-opening away back-to-back.
