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The Philadelphia Flyers skated to a 5-2 home win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday. There was much to like about how the Flyers played in this game. Correspondingly, anything beyond the first portion of the Postgame analysis generally refers to a play here and there, and not the performance on the whole.
Owen Tippett scored twice for the Flyers, while Cam York notched three assists. Philadelphia also received goals from Tyson Foerster (power play), Noah Cates (power play), and Travis Konecny. Dan Vladar made 20 saves for the victory.
The Flyers moved to 3-2-1 on the young season. They went 3-1-0 on their first homestand of the season. Meanwhile, they dealt the Kraken their first regulation loss of the campaign. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from Monday’s game.
The good
- The Flyers got their offense cranked up for the first time this season. They shot the puck more willingly when they had lanes to generate quality chances.
- Philadelphia’s power play entered the night 1-for-16 of the season. However, on this night at least, the power play was an asset. The Flyers went 2-for-4 overall and 2-for-2 on power plays that did not end abruptly.
- Konecny needed a strong game, and he delivered. Matvei Michkov also showed signs of progress.
- Tippett has always been a streak scorer. He’s on a hot streak right now, including two goals against Seattle.
- In addition to his goal, Foerster made a really nice backchecking play later in the game.
- Vladar played another strong game. He earned his third win of the season.
- The Flyers players stood up for one another. Nikita Grebenkin and Konecny fought on behalf of teammates.
The bad
- The Flyers gave up more odd-man rushes — including a Chandler Stephenson shorthanded breakaway — than the coaching staff would consider acceptable. There were times in the first period in particular where the game might have taken a very different turn.
- Vladar had a puckhandling gaffe that led to Seattle first goal. Once the turnover happened, the actual goal would have tough for any goalie to deny — a deflection that went off Jordan Eberle. Vladar more than made up for the one miscue as the game progressed.
- The Flyers negated a couple of their own power plays with minor penalties.
The ugly
- The Flyers gave back-to-back shorthanded scoring chances to Seattle. Vladar bailed them out. Thereafter, Foerster turned a broken plan into a power play goal. The extended sequence was pivotal to how the game progressed. It all ended well for Philly but there were some scary moments that led up to the goal.
- There was roughly a five-minute stretch in the second period in which the Flyers let Seattle dictate the play. The Kraken threatened to pull back within a goal before the Flyers reestablished control.
