Philadelphia Flyers Spoil Boston Bruins Banner Night, Open Season on a High Note

The Philadelphia Flyers did not watch the Boston Bruins raise their championship banner on Thursday night, but whatever they were doing in the locker room during the opening ceremony certainly paid off.

While the Bruins spent the first half hour of the broadcast reflecting on the past year, the Flyers spent three periods making a statement about the coming year, and the message to the league was loud and clear on opening night: the team is ready for its turn.

The night and the season did not start so well for the Flyers, as the team was dominated early and allowed an early power play goal to Brad Marchand when the sophomore forward sneaked behind a lazy Flyers defense and beat Ilya Bryzgalov alone on the backhand. 

Boston kept up the pressure when Tyler Seguin hit the crossbar shortly after Marchand’s goal.

But all the Flyers needed to turn the game around was one minute.  Specifically, the last minute.

On the power play with under 60 seconds remaining in the first, Claude Giroux took a feed from the ageless Jaromir Jagr and danced through all four Bruins in the ice, barreling in on Thomas and deking onto the forehand to tie the score.

The teams looked to be headed to their locker rooms in a deadlock, but an inspired line of Danny Briere, Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek put last-second pressure on the Bruins in front of Thomas, and Voracek found a puck in the slot that he put through Thomas’s five-hole with under three seconds remaining in the period.

The lead would stand for the remainder of the game, but the Flyers would not go untested.

The jitters on defense seemed to be gone by the time the second period began, as the Flyers clamped down in the neutral zone and forced Boston to play dump-and-chase hockey.  Marchand challenged the Flyers defense again with his offensive skills, putting a slick move on Timonen to break in on Bryzgalov, but the new Flyers netminder held his ground and gloved the puck to keep the one-goal lead intact. 

For the remainder of the game, the Russian would look confident in net, a great sign for the Flyers if it is any indication of the season to come.  He got help on defense when Nathan Horton appeared to have a wide open net on the power play in the third, but Timonen got his stick on the ice and kept the puck out of the net.

Boston pulled Thomas in the final minute and got good pressure, and appeared to have an advantage as James van Riemsdyk turned the puck over without clearing the zone.  However, the official determined that van Riemsdyk's turnover had been the result of a slash by Marchand, and play was blown dead as Boston went shorthanded.

A night that had begun with a celebration by the Bruins ended with a celebration by the Flyers, as the team starts the season 1-0.

The 2011 offseason was one full of speculation for Philadelphia, and if the first game was any indication, much of that speculation seems to have an optimistic truth.  The Flyers will be able to play tight, low-scoring games, the power play will be a point of strength and the young players on the team will be unafraid to contribute. 

Sean Watch

 Sean Couturier, who can play nine NHL games before the first year of his entry-level deal permanently goes into effect, played an important niche role in the game.  While he looked intimidated and soft in the first period, he found his legs in the second and became an important and trusted part of the penalty kill.

Lil Bryzy

 In his Flyers debut, Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 22-of-23 shots and looked very confident in net.  His positioning seemed to be his strength throughout the night, as he was not asked to make many moving saves.

Keeping Your Head Up

 The Flyers next game is Saturday, October 8^th at 7:00 p.m. on the road against the New Jersey Devils.  The game will be New Jersey’s first of the season.

The Four-Check

• Zdeno Chara's second period hit from behind on Claude Giroux was not a penalty, but it will likely be reviewed by disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan.  Chara may not be suspended, but Shanahan's hard-line stance against dangerous play could result in punishment of some kind of the Bruins captain.
• Fourth-line winger Andreas Nodl showed tremendous two-way ability on the penalty kill, running down the clock and creating opportunities in the Boston zone.
• Matt Carle, playing in a contract year, led all players in ice time.  Daniel Briere and James van Riemsdyk led all forwards.
• The Flyers had seen Jaromir Jagr score quite a few of his 1,599 career points, but his 1600th was his first in a Flyers uniform.