Flyers Flip the Script and Capture the Win in Columbus by: Rebecca McCormick
📸 Clutchpoints
The moment we all have been waiting for is finally here — a new era of hockey that is! It’s also a new era for myself as this is my third season covering the Philadelphia Flyers and my first with Olde City Sports. What an incredible way to kick off the 2023-24 season! Last night’s game was quite momentous for quite a few reasons, but the WIN was the cherry on top!
📸 Len Redkoles
THE RETURN OF COOTS AND CAM
It was great to see Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson back on the ice! It’s been 663 days since Coots has played a regular season game. He was last seen in action when the orange and black hosted the Ottawa Senators on December 18, 2021. Coots received an assist on Joel Farabee’s third period goal and the team went on to beat the Senators in overtime. As for Cam A, it’s been 548 days since he played a regular season game. Atkinson’s last game was short of spectacular, as the Flyers collapsed to the Capitals scoring only two goals to the Caps nine—YES I SAID NINE—goals. Going into last nights game I was certain that Coots and Cam wouldn’t be playing at their full potential, but I was pleasantly surprised. I look forward to seeing them grow their game the further into the season we get.
PROVY PISSING OFF THE FANBASE
The Flyers fan base was buzzing after former player Ivan Provorov made some disparaging statements regarding his former team.
Ivan Provorov, when asked how he can benefit
from a fresh start:
“Overall the last three years the way the team played over there, it's not really my game. It was a lot of rimming, throwing the puck away. For a player, I consider myself, I can make plays and contribute and play with the puck, that was only felt like it was making my game worse. To be on a team that can make plays and is allowed to make plays, it's been really refreshing and I can actually play my game.”
I’m a firm believer that everyone is entitled to speak their mind and have their own opinion, but personally I feel the statement that he made crossed a line. It appears to me that Provy lacks ACCOUNTABILITY and Torts and his regime are all about accountability, that’s what the actual problem was. The hockey gods obviously didn’t approve of his statements either because during the last minutes of the game Provorov let the puck get by him at the blue line, only to have Cam A out race him to the puck for an empty netter!
FIRST PERIOD ACTION
📸 Philadelphia Flyers
The first twenty minutes of play was a very successful period for the Flyers. The boys appeared to come out strong. Joel Farabee netted the first goal of the game with a nice snap shot with 3:33 on the clock. Coots and Zamula got credited with the assist. Minutes later Columbus’ Jake Bean got one past Hart tying up the game. It wouldn’t be long before Travis Konecny would put the Flyers in the lead with help from Scott Laughton.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period was as action packed as the first, just in a different way. The great thing about the second is that we gave Columbus three-man vantage opportunities and were able to kill all three penalties! Hart did phenomenal the second half keeping pucks out of the net, unfortunately the boys weren’t able to get one past Columbus’ Merzlikins, even on the power-play.
FINAL TWENTY
The final twenty minutes had me on the edge of my seat. After not scoring on roughly three man advantage scoring opportunities in the first five minutes of the period, I swore we were headed into overtime. With literally 18:31 on the clock Cam A raced former teammate Ivan Provorov for the puck which resulted in an empty netter! Unfortunately, forty-five seconds later Patrik Laine got Columbus’ second goal. With forty-four seconds to go the matchup turned into a one goal game, which we all know a lot can happen in forty-four seconds! What’s the most unbelievable is the goal that Teeks made literally tenths of a second before the clock ran out, his second of the night!
All around the boys put fourth a full team in my opinion. The boys appear in sync on the ice and they all vibe quite nicely. I can’t wait to see more from Brink and Poehling the further we get into the season as they are definitely great additions to the team. A line to look out for is definitely the PHD line. That line is what’s going to get us places this season. The orange and black are back at it tomorrow at 1pm EST as they face off with the Ottawa Senators who lost their season opener on Wednesday to the Carolina Hurricanes.
-Rebecca McCormick, Olde City Sports Network