Pregame
Blake Lizotte is able to come off IR and play tonight, so the Pens have this lineup.
First period
Great opening 20 for the Penguins, they are all over the puck and spend most of the time out of their own end. Philadelphia doesn’t even manage a shot on goal over about the last 12:25 minutes of the period.
Nick Robertson scores the first goal of the season, the play happens before that. Rasmus Ristolainen stepped up and delivered a big open ice hit to Sidney Crosby. Crosby popped
up and kept going, eventually getting the puck from Trevor van Riemsdyk and feeding Kris Letang. Letang did a masterful job to show shot until passing down for Robertson to tip the puck in. 1-0 Pens.
The Penguins get the first power play of the game, no dice.
Later, several Flyers decided it was a good time for a line change, which it wasn’t since Sam Girard had the puck. Heads up play by Ville Koivunen to recognize what was developing and get to the middle of the ice. Girard’s pass was on the money and Koivunen’s go-to backhand deke to the five hole beats Dan Vladar.
Very clean start to the season with a couple of goals and not giving up a lot to the Flyers’ offense. Shots are 12-5, any time the period ends to the wondrous sounds of Flyer fans booing is a good one.
Second period
The Flyers have used intermission well to regroup, as you know Rick Tocchet would. They look more coherent at the start of the second, even though the bottom would drop out for them soon enough.
Porter Martone cross-checks Hendrix Lapierre after the whistle, and whaddya know, the refs call it. The power play looks disjointed until late in it Evgeni Malkin works a give-and-go with Lapierre. Lapierre’s return pass is quickly put on net by Malkin and it finds room up top. 3-0.
The pedal stays down, Lapierre gets open space and jumps up the ice. He blisters a shot short-side on Vladar. 4-0.
There’s no mercy tonight, Lapierre’s all over the puck again skating around the offensive end, he wheels all around the net and gives a pass to Girard. Girard gets the puck to the net, the rebound drops for Filip Hallander to slide into the net. 5-0 game.
Robertson finished a pretty standard looking check and that became a bridge to far for the frustrated Flyers who weren’t able to get much going. Three Flyers dogpile Robertson, the Pens jump in there to help out, Pittsburgh ends up shorthanded as a result, which to be fair was something of a boarding by Robertson to kick off the sequence before the disproportionate but expected overreaction. Penalty killed.
Period ends and we’re treated to that delightful noise of boos from the crowd. They certainly didn’t have anything to cheer about to this point.
Third period
Carlile goes to the penalty box for interference, the Flyers power play makes it really easy to kill off.
Connor Dewar gets a penalty and the Pittsburgh PK gets on the board. Robertson gets on the ice with the PK group, thanks to Dewar being in the box in the first place, and makes the most of it. Robertson’s shot is deflected to the end wall, the bounce off it hits Vladar’s skate and redirects in the net. (Where was this in April???) 6-0.
Late in the game, Travis Konecny does what he does to take a run at Girard up high and takes a penalty. The Pens put out their top power play players, probably more out of the opportunity to get them work so early in the season more than a response to the unseemly play. It works just the same as a satisfying FAFO type of moment for Konecny and the Flyers when Egor Chinakhov tips in an Erik Karlsson point shot. Chili goal, 7-0.
Some thoughts
- It’s low-hanging fruit to point it out the obvious in a big win where everyone has their good moments and 14 players picked up at least a point – but man it stood out for how well the new additions performed. One of the newbies figured into the first six goals scored. Lapierre scored a goal and added an assist. Robertson did what he does and put the puck in the back of the net. Twice. Korczak and Carlile played quiet (as they should) but perfectly competently. van Riemsdyk made a subtle but important play in puck support to start the sequence of the first goal. He is a solid player that stops a lot with his positioning and stick. Korczak was activated and moving all around the offensive zone, picking up two assists. It’s only one of 84 but safe to say the newcomers fit right in and helped the cause.
- Girard was noticeably very good too. He was knocking pucks down, his vision and puck moving was on display early. Good to see a strong start for him in his first full year with the Penguins with two assists and even better skating and game control.
- Speaking of strong starts, it’s possible no one needed the confidence boost of a goal more than Koivunen. The lift from scoring can be very real, he showed what he did best on that play by using his hockey IQ to recognize an opportunity, then converted with a skilled move. Good stuff from him, hopefully it will go a long way towards helping him to raise his game.
- Lapierre had some of that confidence on display in the second period, helping to lead that makeshift group. You wouldn’t know that from watching. Hallander was lucky not to get called for slashing on the fourth goal where the refs didn’t see him take the stick out of an opponent’s hand but was rewarded from the front of the net with a beautifully ugly goal. Nice reward for him working back from the uncertainty of blood clots last year. Koivunen got his goal as mentioned above, Lapierre’s speed and puck skills was the straw strirring the drink.
- Penguin playoff nemesis Dan Vladar picked up a minor injury early in the week, at this point surely there’s going to be a lot of talk in Flyer world about whether or not he should have been playing tonight. He wasn’t outright bad but wasn’t sharp at all. Compounding the issue is that the Flyers play again tomorrow night, so making a goalie change wasn’t really something they wanted to do. Amazingly enough, Vladar made a couple of really good saves too at times, this game legitimately could have easily ended up with a more lopsided score.
- On the other side, Arty Silovs would sign up for a lot more nights like this. At one point in the third period the Pens had blocked almost as many shots (10) as the Flyers had shots on goal (12). Most of that was done with active sticks deflecting pucks away from the net. A lot of that was the new influence with Korczak and van Riemsdyk credited with two blocked shots a piece. Felt like more by both of them. Either way, Silovs barely needed to break a sweat in this one, the number of quality chances he saw was low. He handled everything with ease.
- Had a note written out that about the only thing for the Pens that they didn’t quite get up and running today was Chinakhov. Then he scored a late power play goal, so that thought gets deleted real quick.
- Second straight opening night shutout win for Dan Muse (and Silovs too for that matter). The Pens beat the Rangers 3-0 to kick-off last season. That game was a lot more competitive and sealed with two empty net goals. Tonight was much more of a statement and essentially over by early in the second period.
Can’t win ‘em all if you don’t get the first one. That aside, almost a picture perfect opening night for the Pens. They looked ready to play and ran all over their opponent. Considering that opponent, it doesn’t get much better than that. Great opening statement, we’ll see how the Pens follow it up in their next game on Saturday night.
