Five Flyers Observations : Flyers Fall Flat At Mile High

Coming off an opening night win, the Flyers brought energy and a high powered lineup into Denver CO to face the Avalanche. However, unlike Thursday, the Flyers got behind early again and just couldn’t come back.




The Flyers lost to the Avalanche 5-2 on Saturday. After falling behind 1-0 and 2-1, the Flyers didn’t have the fight back they did on Thursday.

 

Sean Couturier scored his first of the season and Mikhail Vorobyev scored his first career NHL goal. Brian Elliott stood on his head and kept the Flyers in the game. Stopping 30 of the 34 shots he faced.

 

Here are four more observations from the Flyers 5-2 loss to the Avalanche…




Van Riemsdyk Possibly Injured

The Flyers big free agent signing of the summer, James van Riemsdyk, left tonight’s game with a lower-body injury. van Riemsdyk was injured on the Flyers second power-play.

 

On a clearing attempt, a Colorado defenseman hit van Riemsdyk on the inside of his right knee.

 

van Riemsdyk hobbled on one leg over to the Flyers bench and never returned. No medical update was available for JVR. The Flyers fly back tonight and are off tomorrow. Expect a medical update Monday on van Riemsdyk.




1st Line Shines

After being non-existent Thursday, Giroux-Couturier-Konecny shined tonight. Tonight, they picked up their first goal as a line on the season.

 

Travis Konecny got free on a semi-break-away. Which was stopped by Varlamov. However, Couturier was there to put home the rebound.

 

The Flyers new depth helped win a game on Thursday. But, tonight, that depth didn’t contribute. With the possible injury to van Riemsdyk, the Flyers are back to relying on the top line for leadership and goals again.




Mikhail Vorobyev First NHL Goal

You always remember your first. Well, Mikhail Vorobyev has a first NHL goal easy to remember.

 

After the Flyers iced the puck, the puck hit Varlamov’s paddle. With Vorobyev closing in, Varlamov tried to cover the puck but was taken out by his own player. Leaving the puck and a wide open net for Vorobyev’s first NHL goal.

 

Vorobyev won a camp battle for the 3rd line center position as a rookie and has done nothing but impress since day one.




Power-Play Needs Works

Coming into the season, the Flyers were marked as one of the best power-play units due too its depth. However, that depth is causing problems of who to play where and the goals aren’t coming at the moment.

 

After a 1 for 4 performance in Vegas, the Flyers went 0 for 3 tonight. Now, the 3rd Flyers power-play tonight was extremely good. However, the previous two were bad. Really bad.

 

In the 7 opportunities this year, the Flyers have only had 2 good power-plays. Not a good stat with the high profile power-play guys the Flyers have on their roster.




Result : Flyers 2 – Avalanche 5 , LOSS

Record : 1 – 1 – 0

Next Game : 10/9 San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia PA, NBCSports Philadelphia 7:00pm



By Brandon Sommermann | October 7, 2018