Five Flyers Observations : Roller Coaster Ride To The First Home Victory

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Florida Panthers 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Flyers Jake Voracek and Jordan Weal scored in the shootout to win the game.




After a poor effort in the 1st period, the Flyers scored back for 5 goals in the second period. Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds both scored two goals apiece. Jordan Weal added the fifth goal for the Flyers.

Calvin Pickard stopped 2 of the 3 shots he faced in regulation and overtime before stopping 2 of 3 in the shootout to earn the win in relief of Brian Elliott. Elliott had an up and down night. Stopping only 19 of the 23 shots he faced.

Here are four more observations from the Flyers 6-5 shootout win over the Florida Panthers…




Jordan Weal

One Flyer in need of a good game was Jordan Weal. After not making the opening night line-up, Weal cracked the line-up once before being sat out again. But, an injury to Nolan Patrick has inserted Weal but into the line-up.

But, with Patrick expected to return Thursday in Columbus, someone has to exit the line-up. If you look at the season, that would seem like Jordan Weal. However, after tonight’s performance, Weal is hard to take out of the line-up.

Weal scored his first goal of the season tonight on a beautiful deflection from a Robert Hagg shot from the point. But, that was not all Weal did right. Weal also sparked the Flyers 2nd line magic. The best line in tonights game was the second line, Lindblom-Weal-Konecny. The line played with speed, grit, and was a terror for the Panthers.

It will be interesting to see if Weal exits the line-up Thursday when Nolan Patrick is expected to return.




Offensive Spark

After only scoring 16 goals in the first 5 games, the Flyers offense erupted for 5 goals tonight. All coming in the 2nd period. But, it wasn’t just one line for the Flyers like in their only two wins on the season.

No. The Flyers top 3 lines all contributed to the scoring tonight. Top line accounting for two, second line for one, and the third for two.

Balance scoring was something the Flyers needed to improve on in the offseason. The signing of James van Riemsdyk was seen as a big help to that. But, van Riemsdyk is out with an injury at the moment. Therefore, the Flyers secondary players have had to step up.

Tonight, they did. If the Flyers can get contributors from their middle 6 on a nightly basis, the Flyers will be an extremely tough team to play against.




Goalie Problems

Brian Elliott had a stellar performance in the season opener. But, struggled thereafter. However, he did rebound with a great performance in the 1-0 loss to Vegas on Saturday. Tonight, Elliott was off his game again.

Elliott allowed 4 goals on 23 shots he faced. But, Elliott was pulled with a 1 goal lead. Yes, you read that right. Elliott was pulled with a lead. It is a rare occurrence in the NHL. But, at the time, Florida had all the momentum and Dave Hakstol tried to swing it back into the Flyers corner.

It almost didn’t work. Calvin Pickard replaced Elliott and was thrown right into the fire. Just 35 seconds after Pickard entered the game, Panthers Aaron Ekblad rang one off the crossbar. But, the Panthers would tie it on a Barkov break-away, the first shot Pickard faced.

Pickard didn’t look great in relief of Elliott. But, he did make the timely save he needed to get the Flyers a point and get the game to overtime. Then, made the two saves necessary to get the Flyers the win.

The Flyers may not have a goalie issue worth making a big change on just yet. But, the goal-tending has to get better fast. The Flyers can’t score 5 goals every-night.




Completely New Line-Up Thursday?

News broke late Monday night that camp roster battle winner, Corban Knight, was activated from the injury-list. Knight, who is an exceptional penalty-killer, won a roster spot because of his defensive skills. However, Knight got hurt in the second to last preseason game and hasn’t been on the ice since.

Knight participated in pre-game warm-ups. But, was a healthy scratch. Many believe he is expected to make his season debut Thursday in Columbus. Now, that is two possible Flyers forwards entering the line-up Thursday.

But, who will come out? A question that may not be answered till game-time Thursday. Here is how what I think the Flyers should look like on Thursday…

Giroux – Couturier – Voracek

Lindblom – Patrick – Konecny

Weal – Vorobyev – Simmonds

Laughton – Knight – Raffl




Result : Flyers 6 – Panthers 5, SHOOTOUT WIN (2-1)

Record : 3 – 3 – 0

Next Game : 10/18 Columbus Blue Jackets , Columbus OH, NBCSports Philadelphia 7:00pm