Observations from the Flyers’ 3-2 win over the Penguins
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After waiting nearly five months for hockey, the Flyers and Penguins decided to take their exhibition game into overtime. Scott Laughton ended it Tuesday on a breakaway to give the Flyers a 3-2 victory.
Here are a few observations.
How’d Carter Hart look? Didn’t really see much action, but he was solid. Gave up an early goal to Conor Sheary on a rush, but stopped the other 11 shots he saw in his two periods of play. Hart made a fluid stick-handling play to start a transition from defense to offense, which was good to see.
How about Moose? Brian Elliott played the third period and made two fine saves on Evgeni Malkin, one off a one-timer, the other when Malkin got behind the defense following a Kevin Hayes turnover. Then he had two good saves in overtime, including one on Teddy Blueger just before Laughton’s game-winner.
Best line. Other than that, Hayes and his line were terrific. Hayes scored a goal on a Malkin turnover, wedged off Sidney Crosby a few times and was part of a good penalty kill. Travis Konecny found Scott Laughton for the winner.
Special teams report. The Flyers killed all three penalties using a variety of forward combinations, including Laughton-Hayes, Michael Raffl-Nate Thompson, Tyler Pitlick-Derek Grant.
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Way to go, daddy-o. New papa Sean Couturier scored the Flyers’ first goal on a carom off Pittsburgh defenseman Marcus Pettersson.
Pregame gesture. The two teams stood side-by-side during the national anthems as a show of support for the Black Lives Movement. It looked odd to see Flyers and Penguins players intertwined and not giving each other face-washes and slashes.
Line of the day. NBC Sports Philadelphia analyst Keith Jones disagreeing that there should be an asterisk in the record books next to this year’s Stanley Cup champion given the unique format. “There should be an exclamation point.”
What’s next. The Flyers will begin round-robin play on Sunday against Boston (3 p.m., NBC).