Empty Thoughts: Flyers 6, Penguins 3

Observations from the Penguins’ 6-3 loss to the Flyers:

This contest was not the best display of hockey. Sure, it was entertaining, particularly if you live east of Harrisburg. There were lots of goals, plenty of skating and relatively little defense.

It looked like something from the 1980s, particularly when you consider how poorly the Penguins used to play in Philadelphia in that era. The only things missing were mullets and brown goaltender pads.

But it was sloppy. There wasn’t a ton of cohesion on either side of the puck. The Penguins and Flyers looked exactly like two teams that had a brief training camp after largely being off the ice for the better part of 10 months.

That will probably be how this season goes for the entire league, at least in the early stages.

There were plenty of mistakes on each side. The Flyers just did a much better job of capitalizing on them.

“We will get better,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I know we’ll get better. There were those types of those of, I think, plays on both sides tonight. We didn’t take advantage of as many as we needed to. (Philadelphia) is a good team. We give them a lot of credit. They’re a hard team to play against. We had our chances as well. We’ve just got to take the good things and build on them. Then we’ve got to learn through our mistakes and make sure we get better through this experience.”

What happened

The first goal of the NHL’s season came from an unlikely source in Mark Jankowski. The former Calgary Flames castoff gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead only 5:14 into the contest. Penguins forward Jared McCann cycled out of the Flyers’ left corner and flicked a pass towards the slot. The puck glanced off the stick of Penguins forward Brandon Tanev then the right skate of Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov. Jankowski, positioned to the right of the crease, claimed the puck and roofed a wrister past the glove hand of sprawling Flyers goaltender Carter Hart. Tanev and McCann netted assists.

A power-play goal at 15:11 of the first period tied the game. Flyers forward Joel Farabee slinked up the Penguins’ left wall and flicked a backhand pass to the right point where defenseman Erik Gustafsson boomed a one-timer on net. Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk gained position above the crease on Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson and reached to his left with his stick to deflect the puck past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove hand on the far side. Gustafsson and Farabee had assists.

The Flyers claimed a lead at 19:44 of the first period with another power-play score. After Flyers forward Nolan Patrick beat Penguins forward Teddy Blueger on a draw in the Penguins’ right circle, Gustafsson claimed the puck and slid a pass to Farabee on the left half wall. Farabee then dished it back to Gustafsson who lifted a wrister through a multi-body screen past Jarry’s right shoulder on the near side. Patrick was credited with the goal. Gustafsson and Farabee collected assists once again.

Another power-play goal tied the game once again 3:39 into the second period. From the neutral zone, Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson dumped the puck into the Flyers’ end boards. Hart tried to play the puck from behind his net but Penguins forward Sidney Crosby intercepted his clearing attempt out of mid-air with his stick then swatted the rebound with one hand on his stick into the vacant net. There were no assists.

Philadelphia reclaimed the lead, 3-2, late in the second at the 18:54 mark. Claiming a puck on the Penguins right half wall, Flyers forward Kevin Hayes fed a backhander to the goal line for Farabee. Facing minimal resistance from Matheson, Farabee spun the puck towards the crease and tucked a forehand shot past Jarry’s right skate on the far side. Hayes had the lone assist.

The Penguins’ third line tied the game, 3-3, 3:01 into the third period. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Jankowski feathered a pass from the wall past the stick of Patrick to the left circle. Penguins forward Brandon Tanev collected the puck and sizzled a wrister to the far side past Hart’s glove. Jankowski netted the lone assist.

At 5:37 of the third, the Flyers took a lead for good. Flyers forward Scott Laughton pushed the puck up the left wing past stumbling Penguins defenseman John Marino and centered to the slot. A strong backcheck by Matheson broke up the pass intended for Flyers forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel and the puck slid to the right corner. Laughton followed up on the sequence, claiming the puck in the corner, feeding a pass back to the slot for forward Michael Raffl who fended off a backcheck from Penguins forward Jake Guentzel and tucked a wrister through Jarry’s five hole. Laughton and Aube-Kubel had assists.

The Flyers began to pour it on at the 12:14 mark. Flyers forward Sean Couturier drove the puck up ice, fending off a backcheck from McCann, Couturier went wide to the left of the crease and fed the puck past a pokecheck attempt by Marcus Pettersson to the crease. Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom fought through a check from Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci and had his backhand attempt denied by Jarry. On the subsequent rebound, Jankowski hit Lindblom into the net and onto Jarry as Flyers forward Travis Konecny lifted the loose puck from just beyond the crease into the cage with a backhander. Lindblom got credit for the goal while assists went to Konecny and Couturier.

Only 30 seconds later, the Flyers capped off the scoring. Off a neutral zone turnover by Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin, Flyers forward Claude Giroux raced the puck into the neutral zone. From center point, he fed a backhand pass to the right wing for Farabee. Surveying the ice for a moment, Farabee chucked a wrister on net that Jarry kicked out to his right. Hayes was right there for the rebound and plunked it in with ease. Assists were recorded by Farabee and Giroux.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 34-25.

• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, McCann and Farabee each led the game with four shots.

• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang led the game with 24:45 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• Provorov led the Flyers with 23:00 of ice time on 34 shifts.

• The Flyers controlled faceoffs, 29-21 (58 percent).

• Patrick was 8 for 14 (57 percent).

• Crosby was 10 for 18 (56 percent).

• Dumoulin and Lindblom each led the game with three blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• The Penguins weren’t completely awful in this. They had some stretches where they controlled play, particularly throughout the second period. But the mistakes they did make were just lethal.

• The highlight for the Penguins was the third line of Jankowski, McCann and Tanev. The speed of that trio was quite evident, particularly with McCann and Tanev. Should they stick together, they will give the opposition fits.

• What a start for Jankowski. After struggling last season with only seven points in 56 games, he collected two in his Penguins debut. On top of that, he just looked very comfortable with his linemates despite having relatively little time with them, even in practice.

• The flip side of that was Matheson. He looked like he needed a hug after this game. His play on the Farabee goal was lacking considerably.

• Special teams were rough for the Penguins as they allowed the Flyers to score twice on three power-play opportunities. And while Crosby’s goal was on the power play, it was a bit of a fluke given the remarkable play Crosby made to even steal the puck.

• Jarry has had better games. He was under siege at times, but it would be a stretch to say he ever stole a goal in this contest.

Historically speaking

• Ceci, Jankowski, Matheson, forward Colton Sceviour each made their Penguins debuts.

• Jankowski became the 534th player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• Ceci is the 29th player to wear No. 4 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Noel Price, Bob Blackburn, Dave Burrows, Dale Tallon, Paul Baxter, Marty McSorley, Phil Bourque, Greg Fox, Chris Dahlquist, Dwight Schofield, Larry Murphy, Gord Dineen, Greg Andrusak, Greg Hawgood, Corey Foster, Kevin Hatcher, Jeff Norton, Bobby Dollas, Jamie Pushor, Mike Wilson, Dan Focht, Cory Cross, Noah Welch, Jordan Leopold, Zbynek Michalek, Mark Eaton, Rob Scuderi, Justin Schultz

• Matheson is the 23rd player to wear No. 5 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Dick Mattiussi, Ted Lanyon, Bryan Watson, Ab DeMarco, Barry Wilkins, Steve Lyon, Mario Faubert, Lex Hudson, Ron Meighan, Bryan Maxwell, Mike Rowe, Ville Siren, Gord Dineen, Ulf Samuelsson, Brad Werenka, Janne Laukkanen, Patrick Boileau, Rob Scuderi, Darryl Sydor, Deryk Engelland, David Warsofsky, Zach Trotman

• Sceviour is the 17th player to wear No. 7 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Art Stratton, Lou Angotti, Bryan Hextall, Steve Durbano, Russ Anderson, Rick MacLeish, Ian Turnbull, Rod Buskas, Joe Mullen, Andrew Ference, Kelly Buchberger, Matt Hussey, Michel Ouellet, Mark Eaton, Paul Martin, Matt Cullen

• Jankowski is the 27th player to wear No. 14 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Billy Dea, Rick Kessell, Ron Snell, Lowell MacDonald, Rene Robert, Wayne Bianchin, Nick Libett, Doug Shedden, Dan Quinn, Chris Kontos, Bryan Erickson, Jock Callander, Gordie Roberts, Dave Tippett, Markus Naslund, Ladislav Karabin, Mike Hudson, Brad Lauer, Stu Barnes, Pat Falloon, Milan Kraft, Shane Endicott, Chris Minard, Chris Kunitz, Tanner Pearson, Stefan Noesen

• Penguins forward Sam Lafferty changed his number from 37 to 18 during the offseason. He is the 29th player to wear No. 18 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

George Konik, Wally Boyer, Lowell MacDonald, Ross Lonsberry, Kevin McClelland, Tom Roulston, Craig Simpson, Jimmy Mann, Mark Recchi, Richard Zemlak, Jeff Daniels, Ken Priestlay, Francois Leroux, Garry Valk, Patrick Lebeau, Ryan Savoia, Josef Beranek, Shean Donovan, Steve Webb, Eric Boguniecki, Dominic Moore, Adam Hall, Marian Hossa, Chris Conner, James Neal, Frank Corrado, Alex Galchenyuk, Dominik Simon

• Five of the coaches in this game are former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins coaches. For the Penguins, Sullivan and his assistants, Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci have each been the head coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. On the other bench were Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo.

• Jarry was the first goaltender other than Matt Murray or Marc-Andre Fleury to start a Penguins season opener since Jocelyn Thibault. Thibault made 32 saves in a 5-1 road loss to the Devils at Continental Airlines Arena, Oct. 5, 2005.

• A rookie named Sidney Crosby made his debut that night.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan was optimistic after the game:

“There was a lot to like about our game tonight. I thought we had periods of the game where we carried the play. The types of breakdowns that we had resulted in some high-quality scoring chances against. … There were a lot of good things in the game too. We generated some pretty high quality chances ourselves. We didn’t convert on as many as we like. I don’t think the score of the game was an indication of how it was played.”

• Tanev might have been even more boastful than Sullivan:

“I think we played a great game. We had a lot of great chances. We had some momentum at times. There were a couple of breakdowns in our game. As the group grows and we get better day by day, we’ll try to eliminate those things from our game. We’re looking forward to the next one.”

• Marino echoed that sentiment:

“We definitely had our chances. I wouldn’t say the score was indicative of how the game went. We definitely had our moments too. Sometimes, they just got the bounces. There’s a lot of good takeaways we can take from that game.”

• Sullivan offered something of a vow:

“We will get better. I know we’ll get better. There were those types of those of, I think, plays on both sides tonight. We didn’t take advantage of as many as we needed to. (Philadelphia) is a good team. We give them a lot of credit. They’re a hard team to play against. We had our chances as well. We’ve just got to take the good things and build on them. Then we’ve got to learn through our mistakes and make sure we get better through this experience.”

• Sullivan went to bat for Matheson after his struggles:

“Mike’s trying to get used to the type of game that we’re trying to play. We’re going to work with him here through his beginning part of the season to help him simplify his game in certain areas of the rink. To Mike’s defense, he’s trying to learn some of the concepts and how we’re trying to play here. I don’t think Mike got the benefit of any puck luck as well.”

• Jankowski remarked on playing in a mostly-empty building:

“It was pretty similar to the (quarantined zones for the postseason tournament in the summer). Obviously, no fans but they had the (fake) crowd noise and all that, the (video board) and stuff going on. When you’re playing the game, you don’t really notice that stuff too much. You’re just out there grinding, competing. Maybe when you’re sitting on the bench and in between TV timeouts and whatnot, you kind of notice it. But when you’re out there and in the heat of the moment, you don’t really notice it and you’re just playing the game.”

Visually speaking

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights:

Follow the Penguins all season long.