The Philadelphia Flyers get their first win of the season, and advance to 1-1-1 after their 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers in Monday’s home opener. Rick Tocchet earned his first career win as the Flyers’ bench boss.

It was a big game from Sean Couturier that powered the win. The Flyers’ Captain turned in a four-point, two-goal, two-assist night. Dan Vladar had yet another good game in goal.

Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and Christian Dvorak also contributed to Monday night’s scoring.

Here is how we got to the final score.

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1st Period

The game started with an early power-play chance for the Flyers after an Aaron Ekblad slash. Just 1:23 into the home opener, the Flyers ended up on the man-advantage. What has been their second unit so far this year – Sanheim, Cates, Foerster, Brink, Couturier – started the power play.

It was very similar to the power play of last season. There was a lot of passing around the perimeter, and not much actual offense. The Flyers’ primary unit couldn’t perform much better, as the team failed to capitalize on the early opportunity.

Florida got their first chance on the power play just over 30 seconds after it killed the Flyers’ power play. The Flyers seemed oddly more productive on the penalty kill than they did on the man-advantage. Florida’s power play was killed off with ease, and the game remained scoreless.

Unlike the first meeting between the two teams, Monday’s contest started off with a pretty even battle. Dan Vladar made a handful of big stops, but it was Tyson Foerster (1) who made the difference, scoring from the slot for the first goal of the game just under nine minutes in. His goal was assisted by Sean Couturier (1) along the boards.

The Flyers took the 1-0 lead into the first break after what was easily their best period of hockey this season.

2nd Period

Period number two was much better for Florida, but still an improvement for the Flyers as far as this season has gone. The Flyers committed an early penalty, hooking on Couturier, but they were able to kill the penalty off.

Philly had three chances on the power play in the second period. Though they were held scoreless on all three attempts, the team’s second opportunity was one of the best power plays the Flyers have had in a long time. Passing was crisp, guys were driving the net, and getting bodies in front. Trevor Zegras’ one-timers looked lethal on the power play.

The fantastic power play was bookended by two weak attempts. However, the Flyers weren’t held scoreless in the period. Couturier (1) got his first goal of the season on a breakaway with a great pass through the neutral zone by Travis Konecny (2). Travis Sanheim (1) also picked up an assist for an all leadership goal.

With the Flyers on their final power play of the period, it looked like they were going to take the 2-0 lead into the second intermission, but Sam Reinhart had other plans. Shorthanded, Reinhart (2) took advantage of chaos in the crease and scored on a relatively empty net as Vladar could not get up on the other side of the net.

The Philly lead was cut in half in the second intermission.

3rd Period

The Flyers caught up to Florida in penalty totals in the third period.

Philly might have entered the third period with a lead, but it did not last long. An early Matvei Michkov hooking penalty was killed off, but a rather weak tripping penalty against Owen Tippett did not come with the same fortune.

Marchand drew the penalty, but Bennett (1) scored the power-play equalizer just past the halfway mark.

Garnet Hathaway gets called for goaltender interference, but it would be negated just over a minute later by a Bennett slash, bringing the game to four-on-four. Nothing would come from that, or from the shortened Flyers power play. However, shortly after the power play ended, Zegras (2) found Couturier (2) with a nasty backhanded feed for the Captain’s second tally of the night.

Florida would pull their goalie later in the period, but Bobby Brink would slam home the empty-net dagger (2), assisted by Noah Cates (2). Despite being down 4-2, Florida pulled their goalie again. Christian Dvorak (1) tipped home his first goal as a Flyer, assisted by Sanheim (2) and Couturier (2).

The Flyers would get their first win of the season by a score of 5-2.

Flyer of the Game

This one is pretty obvious. Captain Sean Couturier was Monday’s Flyer of the game. Couturier was the beneficiary of two stellar primary assists on each of his scores, but he still buried the shot. His multi-goal game was also a multi-assist game. It was like a flashback to prime Couturier.

Speaking of prime Couturier, postgame, he said he feels even better than he did before his initial back surgery in the 2021-22 season.

He has certainly played well to start the season and got rewarded in the home opener.

What’s Next for the Flyers

Philly practices both Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s showdown against the Winnipeg Jets. The puck drop is at 7:00 p.m. EST at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

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