[ Photos and article by Rick Pettine ]
January 30, 2021 – Philadelphia, PA — The fact that we have an NHL season at all is a win – for the players, the owners, and especially the fans. (A little more on that later.) And while no fans are currently allowed in the stadiums, you can hear them yelling in the cities and surrounding neighborhoods!
The players are certainly excited, and our boys in orange & black are already showing a maturing and persistence that will carry them well through the shortened season. Case in point is yet another overtime win (3-2) against the NJ Islanders in their first battle since the Flyers lost game 7 of the playoffs last year.
The Flyers jumped on the board first with a goal from Jakub Voracek just 3 minutes into the game! Captain Giroux and Scott Laughton contributed with the assists. Before the 1st period was done, Kevin Hayes (from van Riemsdyk and Provorov) added another, and the Flyers were off and running.
Not so fast – NY came on strong in the 2nd, when Philly seemed to be either tired or just overly conservative, and the Islanders tied the game with 2 mid-period goals from Jordan Eberle and then Scott Mayfield. NY’s Semyon Varlamov stiffened in goal to end the period 2-2.
The Flyers sluggish play continued into the 3rd period, but they managed to prevent another NY goal, thanks in good part to excellent goaltending from Carter Hart. NY outshot the Flyers in regulation, 27-14.
The Flyers came on strong during the 3-on-3 OT, capped by a game winning goal from Scott Laughton. The icing on the cake was an assist from Shayne Gostibehere, which earned Ghost his 200th NHL career point!
The delayed “2020-21” 56-game regular season kicked off mid-January. Due to US-Canada travel restrictions, as well as an attempt to reduce domestic travel, games will only be played within realigned divisions, so there will be many rematches amongst the teams. In fact, the next Flyers game is tomorrow night against the Islanders again, right back at the Wells Fargo Center.
– See below for a sample album of the game – (contact Photographer for use of the full-resolution photos)
