- Bobby Brink played the first game of the season in Columbus, then exited the lineup for game #2 in Ottawa. He was back in the mix for Tuesday’s opener, and was determined to make it as difficult as possible for the coaching staff to remove him again. Brink did everything but score his first NHL goal in the win over the Canucks. He was credited with four shots on goal and five total attempts, and created several other scoring chances over the course of the evening. He also drew the penalty that led to the Flyers’ last power play.
- Egor Zamula’s first NHL goal was a pretty one, as he took a moment to find a shooting lane before letting the puck fly. Moments earlier, the cycle that led to the goal was kept alive by an unconventional source – Nick Seeler jumped into the fray when he saw Tyson Foerster was slightly out of reach, and Seeler took the puck to the net for an opportunity while Foerster covered the point. It’s another example of the defense jumping in to try to create offense when they see an opportunity to do so.
- Last season the Flyers put Travis Konecny on the penalty kill about halfway through the year, and they accidentally found an outstanding PK forward duo in Konecny and Scott Laughton. That showed signs of crossing over into this season in this game. Konecny and Laughton came on halfway through Vancouver’s first power play and started making life miserable for the Canucks. Konecny stole a puck from Quinn Hughes in the Vancouver zone and tried to find Laughton; when it was knocked away, the Flyers ragged the puck before flipping it deep into the Vancouver zone. But Laughton wasn’t done, and immediately went on the forecheck to retrieve the puck; he was immediately surrounded by three white jerseys, but evaded all of them to momentarily take it to the corner. The entire sequence erased 38 seconds from Vancouver’s power play before they were able to break out again. On another kill in the third period, Laughton anticipated a Sean Walker clear so well that it almost ended up as a breakaway, and later on the same shift he broke up a pass and started a two-on-one the other way with Noah Cates.
