Fortunately for us, Carter Hart looked particularly sharp. After stopping 31/33 shots, posting a respectful .939 SV%, Hart is poised to steal game if needed in the early goings of the season. It wasn’t just his numbers either, he was passing the eye test all night. He had some notable saves for sure, but what stood out to me was his rebound control.
Now, disregard the Blue Jackets’ first goal because *Marc Staal*, but a lot of the saves he made appeared more routine than skilled. That wasn’t the case, he is just so positional sound and aware that a lot of the rebounds that came off him were purposefully redirected to low scoring areas. Despite his poor puck skills, he did sling an assist to Cam Atkinson who beat out Ivan Provorov for the insurance marker.
That felt good for everyone, but maybe not Provorov. Oh well. What made that funny to me was that Atkinson did not just beat him to a puck, but it came off a rim shot, which Provorov recently complained about when speaking on his time with the Flyers. I wonder who he’ll blame in Columbus now.
Feels like home
It felt like home to see Travis Konecny get involved in post whistle shenanigans, but felt even better to see him snipe one on his off wing. Sean Couturier lost his first faceoff to Patrik Laine, and then proceeded to win every faceoff for the rest of the first period. Potting a primary assist, the Couturier line was undoubtedly in the offensive zone all night. If Bobby Brink draws back in the line up on the top line, coaches will be eager to see him on the score sheet.
Equally important, Flyers cannot repeat tonight is going 0/3 on the power play again. They have to find a way to get a bucket with six minutes of power play time. This is something that can come back to bite you against an offensively inclined team if you don’t make their defense pay.
After having a pretty meh game, it would be nice to see Tippett and/or Frost generate something on their powerplay today. Tippett has one hell of a shot, and Frost should be making his bread and butter on the powerplay with his passing ability. We’ll find out who will step up shortly this afternoon.
When: 1:00pm ET
Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, ON
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, 93.3 WMMR
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (1-0-0, .939 SV%, 2.00 GAA, 0 SO)
OTT Goalie: Anton Forsberg (2022-23: 11-11-0, .902 SV%, 3.26 GAA, 2 SO w/Senators)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #10 Bobby Brink
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#21 Scott Laughton – #27 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#18 Marc Staal – #26 Sean Walker
#5 Egor Zamula – #24 Nick Seeler
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #32 Felix Sandström, #36 Emil Andrae, #71 Tyson Foerster
Injuries: #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
OTT Projected Lineup
#7 Brady Tkachuk – #18 Tim Stützle – #28 Claude Giroux
#21 Mathieu Joseph – #71 Ridly Greig – #91 Vladimir Tarasenko
#81 Dominik Kubalík – #49 Rourke Chartier – #19 Drake Batherson
#27 Parker Kelly – #12 Mark Kastelic – #17 Zack MacEwen
#6 Jakob Chychrun – #72 Thomas Chabot
#85 Jake Sanderson – #2 Artem Zub
#26 Erik Brännström – #23 Travis Hamonic
#31 Anton Forsberg
#70 Joonas Korpisalo
Scratches: None
Injuries: #9 Josh Norris
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 21-26-6(T) all-time at Canadian Tire Centre, and 51-46-8 (T) overall against the the Senators.
– The last time the Flyers beat the Senators was November 5th, 2022, in a 2-1 victory in Ottawa.
– Carter Hart is now tied for 8th in Flyers history with Pete Peeters (85) in wins.
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