Flyers flat in home opener, shut out by Canucks originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
After wrapping up a four-game road trip Thursday in Seattle and flying home Friday, the Flyers just didn’t have it for Saturday night’s home opener.
They weren’t sharp and they were outplayed in a 3-0 blanking to the Canucks at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers have dropped four of their opening five games for the first time since 2014-15, when they started 1-2-2.
John Tortorella’s club has given up 4.20 goals per game in this 1-3-1 start.
The Flyers split their two-game regular-season series with the Canucks (2-1-2). They beat Vancouver a little over a week ago with a 3-2, season-opening shootout decision.
• Making the first home-opening start of his NHL career, Samuel Ersson converted 29 saves on 32 shots.
Ersson surrendered two goals in a 50-second span of the second period as the Canucks seized full control. The Flyers, trailing 1-0 before that, made a concerted push to open the middle stanza but came up empty. Vancouver then took the wind out of the Flyers’ sails with those back-to-back goals.
Ersson, who celebrates his 25th birthday Sunday, beat the Canucks in the season opener with 24 saves.
Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen stopped all 26 of the Flyers’ shots for the shutout.
• In his first regular-season game at the Wells Fargo Center, Matvei Michkov created some looks despite going scoreless.
With the Flyers down only 1-0 in the second period, the 19-year-old winger delivered an impressive pass to Erik Johnson right by the crease but the veteran defenseman couldn’t connect on it. If the Flyers tied the game there, the momentum definitely would have shifted before the Canucks could grab it.
Michkov also had a nice look to Travis Konecny on a third-period power play. For the first time through five games, the Flyers’ power play didn’t score a goal. It went 0 for 3 after going 5 for 19 over the season-opening road trip.
Jett Luchanko, also playing his first regular-season game in Philadelphia, has gone scoreless through four games with three shots.
• In an interesting move, Tortorella had Sean Couturier open the game on the left wing of the fourth line.
The 31-year-old captain moved back to center around the midway mark of the game as the head coach started mixing and matching. The Flyers had just fallen into their 3-0 hole and were trying to find any kind of a spark.
• Nick Seeler missed a fifth straight game after taking a puck to the peroneal nerve in his right leg on Oct. 1. The second-pair defenseman was placed on injured reserve a little over a week ago and has been considered day to day.
The Flyers have missed him. Dating back to last season when he missed time in March, the Flyers have gone 5-8-3 and surrendered 4.07 goals per game and 13 power play goals without Seeler.
• The Flyers are back in action Tuesday when they host the Capitals (6 p.m. ET/ESPN).,
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