Flyers Dominate In 5 - 1 Win! Philadelphia Flyers vs St. Louis Blues: Game Summary - Observations - Insights - Highlights & More

Brayden Schenn was the key acquisition in the trade that saw former Flyers captain, Mike Richards, traded to the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 2011. Schenn spent six seasons with the Flyers and was a productive player during his tenure. In 424 games with the Flyers, Schenn produced 109 goals and 137 assists, playing a physical, power forward game.

When the Flyers jumped up in the 2017 draft to #2, they had their sights set on forwards Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick and the belief was, which ever player dropped to the Flyers, would be an impact player in their lineup. The casualty of the numbers game and the cap crunch at the time was Brayden Schenn. Ron Hextall's assessment of the future of the franchise made Schenn an expendable component and he was dealt to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Jori Lehtera and the #27 pick in the 2017 draft and a conditional 2018 first round pick.

The Philadelphia Flyers selected Morgan Frost in 2017 and tipped the scales of the trade by landing Joel Farabee, with the Blues pick at #14 in the 2018 draft.
Schenn has buried 103 goals with the Blues since the trade and he is currently tied with Justin Faulk for the teams lead in points � each with 3 goals and 7 assists in 10 games.

Joel Farabee gives the Flyers hope for their future, as he projects to be a 30+ goal scorer in the NHL for years to come.

The Philadelphia Flyers quickly promoted Joel Farabee to the NHL after he played a single season with Boston University in 2018-19. Farabee joined the Flyers for the 2019-20 season and was an immediate contributor on the score sheet, posting a 8 goals and 13 assists in his inaugural campaign. In the shortened 2020-21 season Farabee proved his ability to score at the NHL level by scoring 20 goals in a 55 game span.

Farabee is averaging just over .5 points per game early in his career, with 48 goals, 51 assists, for 99 points in 181 games. Farabee was locked up long term by the Flyers, who inked him to a six year, $5 million dollar extension prior to the start of the 2021 season; activating this year.

Farabee has the complete set of tools for Philadelphia, as he has great speed, a shoot first mentality with a great release, tenacity, and a compete level that with ensure his success. Farabee has started off the season relatively quiet after having major, off-season surgery, but is poised to breakout. Farabee has 3 goals and 3 assists in 11 games this year.

Schenn wasted little time getting onto the game sheet, as he dropped the mitts with Nick Seeler 3:39 into the contest.

The night and the win belonged to Joel Farabee, who recorded his 100 point in the NHL, registering the second assist on the games opening goal by Wade Allison.

1. Felix Sandstrom Shines:

He was due! Felix Sandstrom had put forth solid efforts for the Flyers this year, but hadn't received the offensive support to post a win, starting the year off 0 and 3.
Offensive support wasn't an issue against the Blues, as the Flyers lit the lamp for 5 goals. Sandstrom made 29 saves on the night, only surrendering 1 goal against, to earn his victory of the season and his first in the NHL.

Sandstrom was aided by his posts a few times, but that just means he had the angle down right?!

Sandstrom was previously 0 - 7 - 1 with a 3.43 gaa and .904 save percentage.

2. Puck Luck:

Wade Allison opened the scoring for the Flyers on a fortuitous bounce. Joel Farabee and Ivan Provorov made a great switch off the draw to open up ice for Provorov to drive towards the net. The switch caused coverage confusion with Jordan Kyrou and Colton Parayako and left Provorov open ice without pressure.

Ryan O'Reilly attempted to pick off the cross crease pass by Provorov, but the puck jumped off the shaft of his stick and caromed off of Allison's pants and into the open cage.

The fortunate bounce came after the Blues rang the puck off of the bar three times prior to Allison's goal.

3. Defense Creating Offense:

It all started on the backend tonight. Ivan Provorov made an aggressive read on the opening goal and jumped into open ice, where Farabee found him with a little sauce pass. Provorov drove the net and filtered the puck into the paint where it ricocheted off Allison and in.

Rasmus Ristolainen, fresh a a press box visit, made much more controlled plays with the puck tonight and made a clean first pass up the wall to kickstart the break on Travis Konecny's goal off the rush. A simple play, but it was effective in generating a clean zone exit.

Travis Sanheim also got in on the action and made a superb pinch late in the second period to force a turnover and keep the play alive in the Blues zone. A cough up by the Blues was intercepted by Scott Laughton, who found a wide open Sanheim on the weak side hash mark. Sanheim made a great touch pass to Noah Cates, which froze the Blues goalie, Thomas Griess, who had to respect the potential shot. Cates was left a wide open cage to deflect the puck home for his second of the year.

Not satisfied with having his name on the game sheet for a fight alone, Nick Seeler picked up the primary assist on Lukas Sedlak's first goal as a Flyer.

Seeler made a heads up by and found a clear lane to filter the puck towards the net. It wasn't a heavy shot, or a shot necessarily intended to score, but any time you can work the puck to the front of the net near the paint, good things can happen.

4. Playing A Complete 60 Minutes:

Far too often in the past, the Philadelphia Flyers had lapses in the game that teams took advantage of. Under John Tortorella the Flyers are competing for the full 60 minutes most night and do not stop battling. Tonight the Flyers started off slow and we're passive with their puck pressure, but they weathered the first 10 minutes of the game and took over from that point on.

Even when they were on the heels, The Flyers sacrificed in front of Sandstrom to block shots and interrupt shooting and passing lanes. They didn't give up quality looks or many second chance opportunities; something that haunted them in previous years.

The Flyers are now 7 - 3 - 2 after 12 games and sit forth in the Metro with games in hand.