Healthy Flyers beat Columbus, 4-2, to open 2023-24 season

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s been a long time since the Flyers had their full forward firepower available to them. Since 2021, to be exact.

That’s how long Sean Couturier was out, his last game before Thursday night coming on Dec. 18, 2021. Cam Atkinson missed all of last season, too.

It’s hard to look good in a salary cap sport when you’re missing around $13.5 million in allotted salaries in your forward group.

But the Flyers entered this 2023-24 season, the start of a “New Era of Orange,” mostly healthy. Rebuilding, yes, but with a quiet confidence about themselves, too.

The result: a much more complete showing on opening night, and a balanced four lines that all had moments during the team’s 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, where the Flyers were the better team for most of the game.

“Everybody contributed,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “Everybody wants people to be part of the game. From where I was last year on the bench to just the first game this year, it’s a fuller bench. There are more people that I can put in situations.

“It’s a good first win for a team that’s starting a little journey here.”

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Couturier’s last NHL point came in that December 2021 game. Two back surgeries, a lot of rehab, and 664 days passed until Thursday night, when, fittingly, the Flyers’ top center was part of the first goal of the season.

The Flyers took advantage of a Blue Jackets turnover and bad line change and marched in two-on-none, Couturier and Joel Farabee alone on Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins. Farabee carried the puck into the zone, passed across to Couturier, who fed it back to Farabee for a 1-0 lead.

“It felt great,” Couturier said. “We got a nice break there. As the game went on I felt better and better. It’s just a lot of fun being back.”

Couturier’s line, with Farabee and training camp sensation Bobby Brink, spent most of their night in the Columbus end of the ice.

Atkinson got his welcome back present in the form of an empty-net goal that put the game away with 1 minute, 29 seconds left that silenced his former home crowd.

“What Coots brings is just a steadiness on the bench, really good positional play,” Tortorella said. “He’s going to help us on faceoffs. Cam reminded me of the Cam I coached before, just his quickness is so important for us.”

In front of a home crowd on opening night, the Blue Jackets came out firing and had much more jump than the Flyers did early. But Carter Hart was sharp, controlling rebounds and fending off a few early chances.

Columbus did take advantage of a bad Hart rebound and tie the score at 1 when Jake Bean put home a loose puck after the Blue Jackets’ top pick, Adam Fantilli, put one on goal.

But Hart was nearly perfect after that.

His best save came with his glove. Justin Danforth was in clean on a breakaway 2 minutes, 30 seconds into the second period, but couldn’t get his shot past Hart.

Hart then stopped Kirill Marchenko in the slot with the Flyers down a man with less than five minutes left in the game, and stoned Alexandre Texier late.

Patrik Laine made the score 3-2 with a goal with 43 seconds left in the game.

Hart made 31 saves.

“He was great,” Couturier said. “He made some big saves, looked in control. He looked good, and that’s what we expect from Hartsy. He delivered.”

Where else were Couturier and Atkinson greatly missed? On the penalty-killing unit.

The Flyers were perfect there Thursday night, shutting the Blue Jackets down four times and even creating some of their own offense.

“I thought our PK was great tonight, probably the difference-maker in the game,” Hart said. “Obviously you want to stay out of the box more, but our PK was outstanding tonight. Communication, guys are on the same page making the simple plays and poised with the puck.”

Travis Konecny, who led the Flyers with 31 goals last year, gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead 13 minutes into the game. Scott Laughton showed some nice puck control and then passed to Konecny, who rang one off the post and in.

Konecny scored again, an empty-netter just before the final horn.

Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim led all players with 26 minutes. “Through the game he just wanted to take control of it,” Tortorella said. ... The Flyers are staying in Columbus overnight and will practice there Friday before traveling to Ottawa, where they play a 1 p.m. game against the Senators on Saturday (NBC Sports Philadelphia). The team’s home opener is Tuesday night vs. Vancouver.