The Philadelphia Flyers cruised past the Minnesota Wild with a 6-2 victory, taking advantage of a poor showing from their club. What were some takeaways from the big win?
Brink Finally Rewarded
After a fantastic start to the season, Bobby Brink was still looking for his first NHL goal with 15 games in the books for his career. He finally got it in this game, and even added a second for good measure. Having been one of the Flyers’ most explosive players this season, he deserved to have a fantastic night.
Brink has been terrific all season, and didn’t need two goals to prove that. With how he had been playing prior, it was going to come eventually. He scored once on the power play for his first NHL goal, while Joel Farabee found him on a brilliant 2-on-1 pass to give him his second of the night. During the best night of his career, he was all smiles on the bench.
He is primed to have a great rookie campaign this season. So far, he has taken that next step that was expected out of Tyson Foerster, but really hasn’t happened yet. Brink probably won’t contend for the Calder Trophy, but he is currently making his case. At the very least, he has earned the right to be in the conversation.
Power Play Making Strides
In my preview for this game, one of my keys to a win was that the Flyers had to strike on the power play, or at least get something going eventually. Otherwise, their slump could have been extended and the man advantage would still be an issue after two seasons of that being the case.
Thankfully, the Flyers ended their drought on the man advantage and scored their first and second goals at 5-on-4 this season. Just three total goals on the power play still isn’t great, but it’s enough for a much more respectable 13 percent scoring rate on the season.
The Flyers’ first goal on the power play came with Cam Atkinson hammering a puck on goal just over a dozen seconds in, and Sean Couturier was in front to take care of business. Generally, the Flyers have lacked the ability to create danger for sustained periods of time, with them spending a great portion of their time on the power play trying to create holes in their opposing penalty kill with frequent but ineffective passing. They didn’t need to go with that approach here, as sometimes, firing the puck on net makes all the difference.
The Flyers’ second power play looked like the rest of them throughout this season. From essentially the opening draw, they were trying to make something work but spent more time trying to rebound from a puck being cleared than actually sustaining anything offensively. It seemed as though that was on the verge of happening again, but a Couturier pass in tight went off the skate of a referee and right to an open Brink, who had no issues capitalizing on a high-danger chance in front of the goal.
Latest THW Headlines
It might not have always been pretty, and perhaps a bit unsustainable with the manner in which the Flyers scored in this game, but they needed to do something worthwhile on the power play. They finally did, and perhaps the outlook can be somewhat brighter moving forward.
Konecny is a Star
Without a doubt, the Flyers have a pretty good player in Travis Konecny. He scored again in this game off of a beautiful shot that very few players in the league can replicate, making him a genuine star for the Flyers’ offense.
The Flyers are a team without much star talent, but there should be no doubt that they have it in Konecny. When healthy, he is the best forward on the team. His six goals and nine points in just seven games are picking up right where he left off last season.
Related: Flyers’ Strengths & Weaknesses for 2023-24
Konecny’s pace is sustainable, which brings hope that he can continue his efforts. He is coming off of a 31-goal, 61-point season in just 60 games in 2022-23, so he has the chance to be even better if he can play the full season. His game has evolved massively since his first season in the NHL in 2016-17, and has turned himself into the most reliable player on the team.
Flyers Had Most Complete Effort of the Season
In this game, the Flyers had arguably their most well-rounded effort of the entire season. The team was able to score plenty of goals at even strength, their penalty kill was perfect, and they even scored a couple goals on the power play. There wasn’t really one way specifically that the Flyers beat Minnesota, which makes the victory sweeter.
The Flyers’ first period was arguably their best, and yet they only scored a single goal in that frame. Philadelphia has been a great first-period team so far this season, and it has paid dividends in giving them a 4-2-1 record on the season. Continuing that effort in the second, the Flyers gave themselves a commanding 3-0 lead in the game. All they had to do in the third was close it off, and that’s what they did.
There was a point where the Flyers were genuinely in danger of losing the game after their 3-0 lead, giving up two quick goals in the third period, but they rebounded nicely and took the Wild out of the game. For a few moments, there were shades of their collapse against the Vegas Golden Knights, but they did a good job of preventing that from happening again to close out the win. The game could have gone a completely different route, so it was important for the Flyers to end the game strong.
Coming off of four rather tough opponents in the Western Conference, the Flyers will stay in Philadelphia to take on the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 28. Their first game against a non-playoff team from last season since Oct. 17, the Flyers will look to stay in the win column against a young, rebuilding foe.
