The Flyers tended to raise blood pressure across the Delaware Valley when they played the Islanders.
They did it again Sunday night, but their fans will all smile as they dig away snow to start next week.
The Flyers claimed another heart-to-heart OT victory over the Islanders with a 4-3 decision to wipe out the big two-game game over the weekend. Including last season’s playoff games, when New York eliminated Alain Vigneault’s club in a second round in the 7th game, the last five wins against the Islanders’ Flyers have all been overtime. The Flyers defeated New York 3-2 in OT on Saturday.
The Islanders won nine of the 12 games with the Flyers last season, including the post-season, regular season and preseason. The Flyers are 2 for 2 so far in 2020-21, though it hasn’t been pretty yet. It’s never really against Barry Trotz’s team.
Kevin Hayes scored the overtime winner and 20-year-old Joel Farabee achieved his first career in the NHL hat-trick.
The Flyers (7-2-1) won four consecutive games.
The Islanders (3-4-2) lost five consecutive games.
The Flyers do not like the way they play, and that’s a good thing, because they’ve still found a way to get their best ten-game start to a season (15 points) since the club 2002-03, which after 7 games was 7-1-2 with 16 points.
From players to fans, no one seems to be happy about starting 7-2-1. Do you imagine you have been critical of a 7-2-1 start in the past?
True fighting teams win when they are not at their best. And the Flyers have not had such a start since Keith Primeau’s days as captain.
The Flyers have not started well in the first month of a season for a while. This team will be the first one that you have not yet played a full game. Nevertheless, the Flyers did not start slowly in the win-loss column. It was the best opening month for a season since the same team from 2002-03.
Here’s a look at the records in the opening month of each season between that time:
• Farabee can score in different ways, but he was known for his advanced shots that came out of the 2018 draft. In July 2018, former general manager Ron Hextall praised the deception over Farabee’s lap.
The sophomore wing showed it with his first two goals and then scored a greasy one to complete his hat-trick.
Farabee had eight goals in 52 regular games as a rookie last year. He already has five goals this season.
There have been seven hat-tricks in the NHL this season and the Flyers have two of them: Farabee and Travis Konecny.
• The Islanders’ third goal was bad for the Flyers.
Justin Braun could not keep the shooter in the offensive zone, then lost a foothold in the retreat, but Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux and Robert Hagg were late on their backs. Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal made them pay because New York wiped out a 3-1 deficit in the third period in less than six minutes.
The Flyers have experienced all sorts of problems over the past two seasons in concluding games against the islanders. They blew a 3-0 lead in the third period against New York at Wells Fargo Center last season on their way to a shootout loss.
Once again, the Flyers need to put together another full game. The Flyers are not going to be perfect, but they can be much cleaner and consistent for 60 minutes.
• James van Riemsdyk looks like his vintage, difference-changing self, a great early story for the Flyers.
He gave up four assists on Sunday and gave him 13 points through ten games. This is in line with the best start to his career for ten games in his rookie season in 2009-10, when he had 13 points for the Flyers as a 20-year-old.
Since returning to Philly in July 2018, the Flyers have been 45-13-5 when he scored at least one point.
• Both clubs went with their rugby players in the second game of the rugby set.
Brian Elliott is 3-0 up in three starts this season with 96 shots on 102 shots. He is one of the most reliable backers in the NHL.
With the game tied at 3-3, New York goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin played an excellent save on Giroux with less than three minutes left. He finishes with 25 points.
• Konecny returned from its one-game benching and played with good energy. He went pointless and the Flyers still scored four goals.
• Philippe Myers was very effective in his two games due to a broken rib injury.
After Myers played 23:17 minutes on Saturday, Sunday scored an assist and a plus-3 score in 23:11 minutes.
• The Flyers used a different combination of six defenders for a fifth straight game when Hagg stepped in for Erik Gustafsson. Vigneault said the move is not specifically related to the performance with Gustafsson, an offensive man who has played the past two wins.
“Not that I feel Erik did not play a good game, but I wanted to bring Haggs in again,” Vigneault said before the game. “He gives us a big, physical defender behind it.”
Hagg, who had been healthy the previous two games, played only 13:42.
• The officials had an interesting game. They imposed ten penalties and some were tough on both sides.
They also missed a blatant crossbar from Casey Cizikas on Oskar Lindblom in the third period.
• The Flyers get a refund opportunity when they host the Browns on Wednesday (20:00 ET / NBCSN) and Friday (19:00 ET / NBCSP).
The Bruins swept a series of two games of the Flyers in Boston when they scored 10 goals, seven of which came during the third period.
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