I’m not gonna’ lie. I was sure the Flyers would have their way with the Penguins last night during our season opener. So sure I would’ve bet money on it. Especially with the game being played in the unfriendly confines of Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philly. I figured our hosts would whack-and-hack us to death in true Broad Street Bullies tradition, as they are wont to do.
Oh, they tried. Dirty little bugger that he is, Travis Konecny was at his cheap-shot worst. And hulking d-man Rasmus Ristolainen laid a huge, open-ice hit on Sidney Crosby, shortly before we scored our first goal. It seemed to have little-to-no effect on the boys in black-and-gold.
In fact, it was our 39-year-old captain who set the physical tone, drilling Philly defenseman Travis Sanheim on the opening shift of the game. Where Sid led his teammates eagerly followed. They proceeded to take their blood rival to the proverbial woodshed.
THE SCORING
Nick Robertson struck for two goals in his Pens debut, his first to give us a lead at 7:26 of the first period and his second a penultimate shorty at 11:52 of the final frame. Ville Koivunen followed suit with a slick breakaway tally at 15:44 of the first.
To borrow from Aerosmith, the Pens’ train kept a rollin’ in the second period, as Evgeni Malkin (power play), Hendrix Lapierre and Filip Hållander scored within a 5:20 span to pad our lead to 5-0.
Following Robertson’s shorty, Egor Chinakhov drove the final nail into the Flyers’ coffin on a power-play deflection at 16:37 of the third period, with the aforementioned Konecny cooling his heels in the sin bin. Running the final score to 7-zip and rubbing a little well-deserved salt into the wound.
PUCKPOURRI
It was truly a total team effort, as 14 Pens collected points. Hållander made the most of his 10:55 of ice time, pacing the attack with a goal and two assists to earn top-star honors. Robertson, Lapierre and defensemen Sam Girard and Kaedan Korczak collected two points apiece. In fact, the only skaters who didn’t register a point were fourth-liners Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Elmer Söderblom and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk.
Hållander was a plus-4 on the night. Girard, Koivunen, Korczak and Lapierre were right behind at plus-3.
Collectively, we outpaced the Flyers in virtually every category imaginable according to Natural Stat Trick, including shot attempts (62-47), shots on goal (38-19), scoring chances (36-17) and especially high-danger chances (a whopping 21-5 edge).
Needless to say, it was a fairly breezy night for goalie Arturs Šilovs, who stopped all 19 shots he faced for his second-straight, opening-game shutout.
I know it’s only one game, but WOW! Is it too early for me to start eating crow for my unfavorable assessment of our chances? Perhaps with a slice of humble pie for dessert?
UP NEXT
The Pens (1-0) host the Canadiens (1-0) on Saturday night.
Man I enjoyed that beat down last night. Criers fans booing all night and then leaving at 2nd intermission is a chefs kiss.
Muse certainly seems to know how to get the team ramped up, they came out looking to play hockey whereas the flyers came out dreaming about last year so much they forgot to play!
I am certainly encouraged by the team speed and the way they played. A lot of rough edges early on, but as the game went on they got into rhythm. Saturday should be a good test to see how we look.
I dunno how people are down on anything this season. We still get to watch Sid and Malkin and Karlsson do their thing, and the team seems a lot faster now, which should be exciting.