The Flyers beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Thursday night to stay hot at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Its Philly’s first five-game winning streak at home since 2019-20. Let’s wrap:
Couturier Leaves Game with Injury
Sean Couturier left the game with an undisclosed injury and did not return Thursday night. In the first period, Couturier was struck by a Noah Juulsen point shot that appeared to cause him discomfort. However, the Flyers captain did take a few more shifts after that, but could’ve been attempting to play through an injury. There was no update on Couturier’s status postgame.
Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.
Better Part of Vla-Dar
For roughly a period and a half, the Flyers looked to be a step behind the Predators in this one. Nashville not only held a heavy shot advantage through the first two periods, but Philly wasn’t able to generate much in way of sustained offensive zone time either. Nevertheless, Dan Vladar stood tall when the Flyers needed him, showcasing good reflexes when Nashville created offense from high danger areas on the ice.
“He was great,” Rick Tocchet said postgame. “We were asleep for a couple periods. He was our smelling salts, waking us up a little bit.”
Vladar made 32 saves in the win and overall, has not allowed more than two goals in any of his six starts for the Flyers this season. His presence in goal is a key to Philadelphia’s early season success. At this time, he’s also tied for best save percentage in the league and second in goals against average.
E-Z Does It
Once the Flyers found their footing offensively, it quickly became Trevor Zegras’ night. Firstly, the 24-year-old snapped a wrist shot past Nashville goalie Juuse Saros12:45 into the second period. He registered an assist on Jamie Drysdale’s first goal of the season. Then, Zegras scored his fourth goal this season on the power play in the third period, one-timing a wobblily pass from Cam York past Saros.
“It wasn’t a great one-timer,” Zegras chuckled. “I don’t want to go throwing stones, but Cam and I are going to have to talk about that.”
Trevor Zegras has now extended his home point streak to seven games. Peter Forsberg (8 GP in 2005-06) is the only other player in Flyers history to begin their tenure with a home point streak of that length. Zegras will play in his eight home contest on Saturday.
They Said It
Rick Tocchet on the players buying in: “Since training camp, you can tell they’re attentive and they want information and they want to learn. Tonight was a bumpy ride, we hung on and in the third, we started to play. I am finding a lot of guys, whether it’s coming to your office watching video or their on the ice with the coaches early working on their game, their craving that stuff and that’s a good sign.”
Dan Vladar on having a week off between starts: “That’s why we have Dilly and Dilly is awesome, our goalie coach. It was actually nice for me to spend some time with him because obviously if your playing a couple of games in a row, you don’t get as much time. It was nice to get a couple of skates with him.”
Jamie Drysdale on scoring his 1st goal of the season: “It definitely feels nice. It was ugly, it just squeaked in but sometimes you got to start with that. It was nice to get on the board.”
Did You Know?
According to NHL stats, Dan Vladar becomes the second Flyers goaltender in the past 25 years to win each of his first four home games in a season, following Martin Biron (6 GP in 2007-08).
On Deck
The Flyers will return to action on Saturday, November 1st, when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game will be broadcast in locally on NBCSP with puckdrop set for 7:00 p.m.
