Postgame RAV4: Captain Spurs Flyers to First Win

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Florida Panthers, 5-2, in the Xfinity Mobile Arena home opener on Monday evening. A four-point game from captain Sean Couturier (two goals, two assists) led the way for Philadelphia.

Tyson Foerster (1st) scored the only goal of the first period. Sean Couturier (1st) extended the lead to 2-0 in the latter portion of the second period before Sam Reinhart (SHG, 2nd) got the goal back shorthanded.

In the third period, Sam Bennett (PPG, 1st) knotted the score at 2-2. Couturier (2nd) restored a lead with his second tally of the game. Bobby Brink (ENG, 2nd) scored a 5-on-6 goal for insurance. Christian Dvorak (1st) added an additional empty netter to close out the scoring.

Dan Vladar earned the win with 24 saves on 26 shots. Daniil Tarasov stopped 17 out of 20 shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play with a shorthanded goal against. They were 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.

FIRST PERIOD SYNOPSIS

The Flyers came out with pace and generated the game's first power play at 1:23 (Aaron Ekblad, slashing minor). Philly generated good early pressure. Later, Vladar denied a shorthanded 2-on-1.

At 4:30, Owen Tippett was sent off for slashing. The Flyers killed the minor penalty.

The Flyers had six of the game's first nine shots on net over the first nine minutes.

Foerster made it 1-0 at 8:54. Sean Couturier made a strong forechecking play to break up an Uvis Balinskis play up the wall. Couturier's pass attempt went off Sam Bennett to Foerster. Cutting to his right, Foerster moved into the left slot and wristed a shot home to the blocker side. The lone assist went to Couturier.

Matvei Michkov started a three-player foray in the offensive zone. Travis Konecny tried a backdoor feed to Couturier but the play didn't quite connect.

Shots: Flyers 8 - Panthers 6
Faceoffs: Flyers 6 - Panthers 6

Notable:

• The Flyers established their forecheck early and got players to the scoring areas several times. Philadelphia had a general puck possession edge over Florida (76 percent Corsi at 5-on-5): not an easy thing to do even with the Panthers missing Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachhk, and Dmitry Kulikov.
• Florida blocked 8 Flyers shot attempts but the Flyers did a good job at recovering the puck.
• Emil Andrae made two very good plays with the puck in his 3:20 of ice time. He also had one noticeable gaffe but recovered.
• Vladar wasn't tested much but when he was, he looked sharp.
• Travis Sanheim led the Flyers with 8:41 of ice time across 10 shifts.

SECOND PERIOD SYNOPSIS

The Panthers went to their second power play at 2:57. Couturier was called for hooking Balinskis deep in Florida territory.

Matvei Michkov had a nervous moment with a between-the-legs pass up near the offensive blueline. No harm came from the turnover.

Philly went back to the power play at 6:33. Bennett tripped Jett Luchanko. Michkov made a really nice cross-seam pass. The Flyers generated a lot of pressure and puck movement to scoring areas but were not able to score. Trevor Zegras had two shots on goal, Tippett had two (plus a deflection that narrowly missed the net).

At 11:00, Tippett walked a defender and went in for a scoring chance.

The Flyers went to their third power play at 12:31. Jesper Boqvist was called for a neutral zone hold on Jamie Drysdale. This power play did not go nearly as well as the previous one. However, Foerster had an excellent chance near the net in the waning seconds.

The Flyers made it 2-0 at 15:47. Travis Sanheim made a play in the defensive zone. Travis Konecny passed to Couturier moving up ice. With time and space from the blueline in, Couturier wristed a shot past Tarasov into the net. The assists went to the "Travii", Konecny and Sanheim.

At 18:05 left in the frame, Seth Jones put the puck over the glass from the defensive zone for a delay of game penalty. Instead of cashing in for a 3-0 lead, the Flyers yielded a shorthanded goal to Reinhart at 19:23. Vladar committed to the ice in the initial scramble and Lundell moved out from below the goal line to score. Anton Lundell got the lone assist.

Shots: Flyers 14 (19 overall) - Panthers 10 (18 overall)
Faceoffs:Flyers 6 (15 overall) - Panthers 9 (17 overall)

Notable:

• A rather wide-open period. The Flyers had plenty of chances but also yielded their share to Florida.Unofficially, the Flyers generated 18 all-situation scoring chances and allowed 15 to Florida (five high-danger chances for, seven against).
• Through two periods, Sanheim had 16:59 of ice time across 20 shifts (11:26 even strength, 2:47 power play, 2:46 penalty kill).
• The Flyers generally took better care of the puck, unlike the Florida game (11 giveaways through two periods after 22 for the game in the opener). But Florida still found room to make plays.
• The late shorthanded goal created a very dangerous situation for the Flyers entering the third period.

THIRD PERIOD SYNOPSIS

After a failed pass attempt to Couturier in the neutral zone, Michkov took a hooking penalty at 1:01. The PK stepped up for the third time in the game.

Vladar made a clutch one-on-one save near the net on a Bennett backhander. At 5:18, the goalie covered a loose puck to end a potential scramble in the goal mouth.

After a very long shift with the Fyers hemmed in deep, the Panthers got a power play. Tippett was called for tripping at 9:00. At 10:15, after Vladar went to the ice, Bennett took a pass from Reinhart and scored into the open near side of the net. The assists went to Reinhart and Marchand as Florida tied the score on the power play.

Garnet Hathaway drove the net and was called for goaltender interference. With 55 seconds left in the penalty, Bennett was called for slashing Noah Juulsen's stick. The Flyers got a power play after 55 seconds of 4-on-4 play.

Right after the power play expired, Couturier struck again. On a spectacular Zegras pass out from behind the net, Couturier ripped a shot into the net for a 3-2 lead. The assists at 15:50 went to Zegras and Jamie Drysdale. Zegras battled for space, took a hit and made a tremendous pass out to the circle.

With the Panthers attacking 6-on-5 and an empty net behind them, Noah Cates' initial shot attempt caromed off the boards. Brink fired the rebound into the open net at 17:43. The assists went to Cates and Nick Seeler.

The Flyers scored another empty netter at 18:33. On a redirect, Dvorak tipped a Sanheim point shot into the net. Couturier's initial play to get the puck out to Sanheim produced the secondary assist.

Shots: Flyers 4 (22 overall) - Panthers 7 (26 overall)
Faceoffs: Flyers 10 (25 overall) - Panthers 9 (26 overall)

Notable:

• These are the types of games that Florida typically wins if they battle back after being on the ropes. That the Flyers managed to weather the storm and find a way to produce a win was a resilient effort.
• Sanheim finished with 24:56 of ice time across 32 shifts.
• Michkov did not skate a shift over the last eight minutes of the game. Nikita Grebenkin took a shift in his place at one point.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Christian Dvorak– Trevor Zegras – Owen TIppett
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin – Jett Luchanko – Garnet Hathaway

Nick Seeler – Travis Sanheim
Adam Ginning – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen

Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]

Scratches: Rodrigo Abols (healthy), Nicolas Deslauriers (healthy), Egor Zamula (healthy).

Postgame RAV4 (RAV4 Things Revisited)

1. Number 1 forever

The Flyers paid tribute on Monday to the immortal Bernie Parent. They debuted a memorial patch on their uniforms. Additionally, the organization painted Parent's iconic number 1 in the trapezoids behind the two nets.

2025-26 win No. 1 in honor of No. 1: It's a beautiful thing.

2. Andrae returns to Philly.

Emil Andrae didn't see a lot of ice time (10:16 across 16 shifts). However, he made several good puck plays and was noticeable in mostly positive ways.

3. Tipp-ing point.

Owen Tippett played a very energetic game and was involved in the play (four shots on goal and two hits). On the flip side, he took two minor penalties.

4. Staying out of the box.

The Flyers took nine minor penalties over the season's first two games, including five on opening night in Florida. They took five more in the home opener. That's some the team needs to clean up.