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Gritty tossed a large hat onto the ice to celebrate Travis Konecny’s hat trick.
The question is will the Flyers need a bigger hat to cover a Sean Couturier-sized hole in their lineup?
Konecny snatched three goals Friday night as the Flyers completed a two-game sweep of the Penguins with a 5-2 win at Wells Fargo Center. They did so without Couturier, who left the game less than two minutes into action with an apparent injury and never returned.
Meanwhile, the Flyers have two 2-0-0 starts under the guidance of head coach Alain Vigneault. The last time the Flyers opened 2-0-0 in consecutive seasons was in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
Carter Hart was quick and Oskar Lindblom sealed the game with a goal in an empty net.
Time will tell if the evening ends up being bittersweet because of Couturier’s script.
• By now, everyone knows Konecny hasn’t scored a goal in 16 games in the 24-team NHL return-to-play tournament. When that happens to the team’s top scorer in the regular season, it will be highlighted and discussed … a lot.
Konecny understood why; he’s now an All-Star, one of the big boys supposed to be producing.
He didn’t sweep it under the rug and slipped into his offseason.
“I didn’t do my best and it obviously went with me for a few weeks,” Konecny said during training camp. “I let it settle in, I let it disturb me and I used it for food during the offseason.”
Konecny didn’t let the drought goal linger. He led the way on Friday night, which was great without Couturier on his line. The hat trick was the first of his NHL career and he finished with four points.
• The Flyers scored seven goals in three games against the Penguins last season. They had 11 against the Penguins in those two opening games of the 2020-2021 season.
• The Flyers gave Hart a 3-0 lead in the first period. At the end of the opening stanza, the lead was reduced to 3-2.
Hart was huge the rest of the way. He made 31 saves on Wednesday night and finished with 31 again on Friday night. The Flyers weren’t very good in the second period and Hart bailed them out.
• Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk and Jakub Voracek all had two assists each. Ivan Provorov’s goal gave the Flyers a 3-0 lead in the first period.
• The Flyers’ power play was 1 to 6.
• Shayne Gostisbehere has been unavailable due to the COVID protocol. The 27-year-old defenseman hasn’t trained for the Flyers since last Friday.
• The next step for the Flyers is their first of eight straight sets this season. They host the Sabers at the Wells Fargo Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (7:30 p.m. ET / NBCSP) and Tuesday (7 p.m. ET / NBCSP).
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