With a dress rehearsal on Sunday night, the Flyers played their first game at the Wells Fargo Center in 10 months.
The club’s training camp for 2021 has ended and now some decisions need to be made before the opening of the regular season on Wednesday.
The white team beat the orange team 4-2 in an intra-squad game.
The goals were scored by Kevin Hayes (two), Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Nolan Patrick, Scott Laughton and James van Riemsdyk.
The Flyers, who had 41 players at the camp, are expected to build their 23-man roster and taxi squad before the real game begins, when the Penguins arrive in town.
Alain Vigneault and the Flyers’ technical team watched the fight from above in one of the team management suites with general manager Chuck Fletcher and the front office. Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon was behind the bench for Team Orange and Phantoms assistant coach Kerry Huffman led Team White.
The final five minutes of the third period were played in a 3 to 3 overtime style. Laughton scored the winner on the run during that part, while van Riemsdyk also scored one on the run. Both defeated Brian Elliott in their moves.
The night ended with a nine-round shooting. Michael Raffl scored in a slap. The goalkeepers were good.
• Speaking of good. Good for Patrick.
He scored a goal for Team Branco to tie things together, 2-2, in the second period. He was seen smiling, he looked comfortable. He hasn’t been able to do that since April 2019. Sunday was his first action game with fellow Flyers in 649 days after losing the entire previous season, which was paused and restarted, while he was recovering from a migraine.
After finding answers and making progress throughout the off-season, Patrick was a full participant at this camp and one of the best Flyers players throughout the period, Vigneault said Sunday morning.
At the beginning of the camp, Patrick said he would take things up one day at a time and see how he felt at the end of the camp. If he plays at the opening of the regular season on Wednesday, this is how the Flyers can look in the middle.
Sean Couturier
Kevin Hayes
Nolan Patrick
Scott Laughton
Much to like there, with four centers difficult to play against. Laughton led the team in goals during the 24-team NHL return-to-summer tournament.
“Our depth of attack is probably one of the strongest I’ve seen since I’m here,” said Laughton, who made his Flyers debut in 2012-13 on Sunday morning. “I’m excited to be going.”
• Lindblom was also a sight to see on the ice. He played with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.
He said his goal is to play on opening night and looks ready to go.
The 24-year-old was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in December 2019. After completing his radiation treatments in July and being released from cancer, he returned for two games in the Stanley Cup 2020 playoffs.
A full off season was great for him. A tremendous story too.
• During a game in November of last season, Farabee was relegated to a lower row and was unlikely to play in the third period because of unusual changes. The 20-year-old, who can be so good and smart with the club, was quick to give up that night and the coaches told him later.
In year 2, Farabee wants to show more patience and courage when the record comes his way.
“I’m feeling confident about my game on the ice,” said Farabee on Tuesday. “I think last year, I feel like I got rid of the record a lot when I didn’t have to. So I kind of concentrated on holding it, maybe waiting for a move to open and things like that.”
He showed on Sunday.
The line from Farabee, Hayes and Claude Giroux clicked from the start, producing the first two goals of the game to give Team Orange a 2-0 lead.
Farabee and Giroux played a beautiful game of two players to help Hayes in the first goal. Farabee kept the line humming later in the period with a neat pass playing along the back wall to Hayes, who scored his second.
Farabee’s smart, unhurried readings.
Good material from that line and we hope to see you on Wednesday at the premiere.
• Aube-Kubel put Team White on the table with a nasty kick, reducing Team Orange’s deficit to 2-1 in the middle of the screen.
You know what you are getting with Aube-Kubel: a relentless defender and opportunistic scorer.
• Jakub Voracek helped Patrick’s goal. He was a nightmare for 20-year-old defender Egor Zamula.
Voracek is a big guy who can protect the disc and the slimmer Zamula can’t get it out of him.
It will be interesting to see if the Flyers will decide to keep Zamula in the taxi squad. I’m not sure if they will.
• Intra-team crisis avoided.
Ivan Provorov was shot by Lindblom in the foot or leg and fell to the ground.
He stayed in the game, didn’t even leave the bench to go to the locker room … was anyone surprised?
Provorov has yet to miss a game in his NHL career, playing 315 in his first four seasons.
• Making the transition from defense to far left, Samuel Morin had a good opportunity to score in the third period and hit the bar. He competed a lot and did what he said he would do, which was to finish his checks. He even broke his cane in one of the blows.
• The talented prospect Morgan Frost had a few chances and made a good second attempt. He looks like a clear candidate for the taxi squad.
“I will continue to work hard and will do what I can to try to join the team,” said Frost on Sunday night. “I want to be on Flyers, so that’s the only thing I can think of.”
Flyers will not play Frost in the center of the fourth row. Given the depth of the team in the position (at least now on paper), Frost could be a candidate to play as a left winger at some point, if necessary. He got representatives on the left side during the camp.
• Raffl was whistled for a penalty in the third period.
It sure looked like Konecny chirped happily at his friend while Raffl stared at him going to the box.
Mid-season form for No. 11.
• Carter Hart and Elliott played the entire game and were in shape. No problem there.
• Shayne Gostisbehere and Wade Allison were unable to play for the second consecutive day. When the list is announced, we will have a better idea of its status.
• Here were the lines of attack and the defensive pairs. Some of them are likely to stay on Wednesday. Flyers are off on Monday and practice on Tuesday.
• The Flyers begin the regular season on Wednesday night, when they welcome the Penguins to the Wells Fargo Center (5:30 pm ET / NBCSN).
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