The 2-1-1 Flyers walked into Edmonton with hometown kid Carter Hart, and took down the unbeaten Oilers during some late night hockey. Claude Giroux, Cam Atkinson (2), Nate Thompson, and Sean Couturier (EN) were the goal scorers, helping Carter Hart walk away with a victory.

Hart saved 34 of 37 shots, making some really clutch saves throughout the game. There were a couple of plays where the Flyers defense just completely broke down and gave an Oiler way too much time to shoot the puck. Hart was able to step up when needed and make those saves to keep his team in the game.

Tonight, Martin Jones get the nod from AV, his last game coming against Boston on October 20th. Jones stopped 37 of 40 shots, helping his team to a 6-3 victory over the rival Bruins. Hart was the starter in the home opener on October 15th vs VAN, so this will be Jones’ first game of the year against them.

Just like Edmonton’s power play, Vancouver also possesses a pretty lethal special teams unit. They’re currently 15th in the league in power play percentage, scoring at a rate of 23.1%. Not as high as I’d personally expect but still, names like Hughes, Miller, Horvat, and Pettersson are all apart of that top unit. The Flyers didn’t do a very good job of minimizing Edmonton’s power play chances, but they did do a good job of stopping them. The Oilers went 1/4 on the night, scoring the only power play goal with under 20 seconds left in the 1st period.

On the season, the Flyer currently rank 20th in the NHL on the PK, killing off 80.0% of power plays. Definitely an upgrade from last season, with that PK being unwatchable at times. They’ll need to stay out of the box with this team, especially with VAN being home in-front of their own crowd.

The Flyers didn’t hold a morning skate this morning, so the status of defenseman Ryan Ells is still TBD. Ellis has missed the last 2 games against FLA and EDM, so it would be really nice to get the caliber of player back after a hard-fought win last night.

Projected Lineup vs Vancouver @ 10pm

Giroux – Couturier – Konecny

Farabee – Brassard – Atkinson

Lindblom – Laughton – JVR

NAK/Brown? – Thompson – MacEwen

Provorov – Braun

Sanheim – Ristolainen

Yandle – Seeler

Jones

Rasmus Ristolainen had a pretty solid game last night with 6 hits, 4 blocked shots and a bloody face. An Oiler shot got redirected off of Ristolainen’s stick and hit him square in the face. Ristolainen stayed out there the rest of his shift, holding his face in obvious discomfort. He then left the ice for the locker room, where we didn’t see him initially return to the bench to start the 3rd period. Then a little through the 3rd, Ristolainen was right back out there for his next shift.

Warrior.

Connor Garland comes into tonight’s contest absolutely red-hot. He has 8 points (3G-5A) in his first 7 games this season, 4 of those points coming in the last 3 games. Elias Pettersson on the other hand is coming into tonights game looking to find the scoresheet, he’s a little cold.

Pettersson has 1 goal this season and it came against, you guessed it, the Philadelphia Flyers. If you watched the season opener, you’ll remember this play because Elias had about 2 years to take the shot. With all that being said, since we are Flyers fans and we can’t have nice things for too long, mark Pettersson down for a 4-point game.

Justin Braun currently has 5 points in his first 5 games, hands up if you had that on your bingo card to start the season. Braun has been asked to ultimately play in a role he’s no longer suited for, but he’s looked fine in it these last 2 games without Ellis in the line up.

Patrick Brown is someone we might see get some action tonight. He was picked up off waivers from VGK ,but tested positive for covid upon his arrival in Philly. AV said he will see action on this road trip and with tonight being a back-to-back, maybe we’ll see Brown.

Halak is in net tonight for Vancouver, the Flyer killer himself. I swear, every time I look up this guy is on another team looking to ruin my night. Hopefully tonight is different, we’ll see.

Mandatory Credit: Zack Hill/Flyers PR, NHL.com, Hockeyreference.com