Flyers come home 4-1-0 as Hart, Farabee spearhead win over Predators originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers finished with a winning road trip by beating the Predators, 3-1, Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Carter Hart (31 saves) and Joel Farabee (one goal, two assists) led the way for the Flyers.
And John Tortorella has led the Flyers to a surprising 4-1-0 start.
The last time the Flyers won four of their first five games was 2011-12, when the club started 4-0-1.
• Overall, a very positive three-game road swing for the Flyers. They went 2-1-0 and the loss was a 4-3 decision the Panthers, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winner.
The Flyers had gone 0-6-4 in their last 10 matchups with the Lightning but rallied to beat them, 3-2.
They hadn’t beaten the Predators in Nashville since Dec. 4, 2016, but changed that Saturday night.
Strong stuff from the Flyers.
• Many viewed Hart as the Flyers’ most pivotal player this season if the team wanted to be much more competitive than the 25-46-11 team from last season.
Hart has shown why through his first four starts. The 24-year-old goalie is 4-0-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average and .949 save percentage.
In his career against the Predators, he’s 3-0-0 with 92 saves on 98 shots. The only goal he allowed Saturday was when Nashville had a 6-on-4 advantage with a late third-period power play and its net emptied.
The blend of a veteran coach like Tortorella and a young goalie like Hart has been good so far.
Predators netminder Juuse Saros stopped 22 of the Flyers’ 25 shots.
• Farabee was terrific in a three-point effort. It felt like only a matter of time for the 22-year-old winger to break out on the score sheet. He had yet to record a point entering the game, but was playing important minutes and had 13 shots, second most on the team.
He made a well-rounded play to set up Kevin Hayes’ game-opening goal in the first period. His marker came in the third period on an impressive shot.
• Hayes has eight points (one goal, seven assists) through five games.
Including the playoffs, the Flyers are 35-7-3 in games that he scores a goal.
• A couple of concerns with the Flyers:
They’re last in the league with a 38.1 faceoff win percentage. They clearly miss Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier in the dot. Faceoffs aren’t everything, but they can go a long way in dictating possession.
The Flyers have also been outshot 173-138. If that margin continues to grow, the Flyers could start to trend in the other direction.
• Nick Seeler’s first-period fight with Cole Smith was no cheapie.
Tortorella really appreciates a good bout or a hard-nosed play because he sees those moments as building team camaraderie. The head coach made sure to meet Seeler at the tunnel in appreciation of the defenseman’s fight.
It definitely helped the Flyers.
Fewer than two minutes later, Zack MacEwen, who knows all about fighting, scored a hard-working goal to cushion the Flyers’ lead to 2-0.
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• After being claimed off of waivers Wednesday, Lukas Sedlak was good in his Flyers debut.
The 29-year-old forward had three quality scoring chances early in the second period on a long shift in the offensive zone as a Predator lost his stick.
• Nashville defenseman Mark Borowiecki had to be stretchered off the ice after absorbing a check during the second period.
The hit by Morgan Frost was innocuous and not malicious at all. It was an unfortunate and awkward play along the back boards.
Both teams checked on Borowiecki — who was seen moving via the television broadcast — as he was taken off the ice.
• The Flyers are right back at it Sunday when they host the Sharks (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
Oskar Lindblom makes his first return to Philadelphia as a visitor. The beloved Swedish winger had the final year of his three-year contract bought out by the Flyers in July and then signed a two-year deal with the Sharks.
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