GAME RECAP: Flyers 4, Oilers 1

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Philadelphia Flyers brought their typical brand of hard-to-play hockey to Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night, limiting the Edmonton Oilers to only 23 shots and making 18 blocks in a 4-1 victory in Philadelphia.

Zach Hyman scored the only goal for the Oilers, but Flyers' winger Cam Atkinson recorded two goals as one of three players to record a two-point night in the winning effort for the Orange & Black. Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier had two assists, while netminder and Sherwood Park, AB product Carter Hart stopped 22 shots in the win.

"We just simply got outworked," Warren Foegele said. "They wanted it more than us, and you can't win a game if you don't want it. Execution wasn't good either. I think that's what's kind of been hurting us the last couple of games – we're just not clean, we're not quick, and when we are quick we're a dangerous team."

Connor McDavid now has a point in each game this season after registering an assist to extend his point streak to four games (2G, 4A), while Jack Campbell made 29 saves in the defeat.

"I thought our game lacked urgency today," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "I didn't see second and third efforts in all areas of the game. From up and down our lineup, not to our standard. We play towards a standard and it wasn't there for us tonight, and that's disappointing.

"It's going to have to get fixed quickly here."

Edmonton's overall record drops to 1-3-0 as they return to Rogers Place on Saturday night to host the Winnipeg Jets on Hockey Night in Canada.

FIRST PERIOD

"We can't be expecting Jack to make great a save one by one there," Foegele said. "It's just not good enough and we know we need to better."

The Oilers completed an important penalty kill near the end of the opening frame, but they still trailed the Flyers heading into the intermission.

Philadelphia forwards Bobby Brink and Joel Farabee worked a quick give-and-go coming into Edmonton's zone to undo the defence at 4:10 of the first period and open the scoring despite Campbell getting a piece of his stick to Farabee's shot after being brought out of position.

Ryan McLeod had the best look for the Blue & Orange earlier in the period's first five minutes, but the centre couldn't complete the terrific feed along the goal line from Connor Brown after Dylan Holloway opened up the space with a good zone entry.

SECOND PERIOD

The penalty kill continued to get it done for the Blue & Orange by going 2-for-2 in the middle period and setting up the opportunity for their power play to equalize in the last few minutes of the frame.

But unfortunately, Philadelphia had other plans.

Zach Hyman continued his hot recent from early in the period with a turn-around backhand near the front of the Flyers' goal earlier that nullified Cam Atkinson's tally 3:54 into the middle frame. The Oilers winger is coming off a four-point night in Nashville on Tuesday and has three goals in three games to begin the year.

Edmonton kept the Flyers quiet on the power play, killing off high-sticking and hooking calls to Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse, but it was on their own man advantage where the Oilers made their biggest mistake at Wells Fargo Center.

After breaking up a pass from Connor McDavid, Couturier created a two-on-two rush for his teammates with a back-hand saucer pass that opened up space for the Flyers' penalty kill to fly up ice. Sean Walker was looking to shoot all the way, and the Philadelphia winger made no mistake with a top-shelf snipe across his body and over Campbell to return Philadelphia to a two-goal lead 1:31 from the second intermission.

"Obviously we can't give one up," McDavid said. "Anytime you give up a shorty, especially in the last minute of a period to make it a two-goal game, it's a big one. That's a big swing on something that our power play can't be doing. We've had a lot of success.

"We've done a lot of good things and tonight wasn't one of those nights."

THIRD PERIOD

With two goals on the night, Atkinson was hard to keep quiet.

The Flyers' winger, who missed the entirety of the 2022-23 NHL season with a neck injury, picked up his second goal on a breakaway 4:17 into the final frame by sliding Tippett's pass five-hole under Campbell and putting to bed Edmonton's hopes of a third-period turnaround.

Tippett assisted on both of the 34-year-old's goals on Tuesday night, while Couturier, who also missed last season after two back surgeries, provided two helpers in the victory.

"Certainly we didn't live up to what our standard of work ethic is," Woodcroft said. "I thought the goals against that we gave up tonight, three of them were off our stick. The first three were on our tape and we didn't execute. There are plays that can be made, and they weren't made.

"We have a standard that we play towards and we didn't meet it tonight."

PARTING WORDS

Foegele on his team's alternating efforts between acceptable and complacent:

"It's just unacceptable. It's the NHL. You're not going to win games just off of talent. It's work first and then use your talent, and tonight, we simply didn't work and we didn't even really use our talent. We didn't really execute right. We are stuck in our own end. A lot of turnovers and we need to help each other out there, and tonight we didn't have a lot."

"We have high expectations as a group. We all came into Camp a bit earlier and set to work hard there and I just don't have a great answer for you right now. Tonight was unacceptable and we need to do better."

Woodcroft on his team having to work hard despite their large amounts of skill in the lineup:

"I think we're past that point. I think sometimes younger teams at different life stages might feel that way if they have a bunch of skill and that they can go and earn two points just based on their skill level. I think at our life stage of our team, we should know better. We've been in a lot of playoff wars. We've gone through some adversity here over time that isn't always fun to go through, and we know we have a recipe or a standard that we need to play towards and we're falling short. We're falling short right now. We have to better and we have to show it."