Give credit to the Flyers.
And give a ton of credit to Carter Hart.
The Flyers were the better team Tuesday night for only one period but made it count in the third to beat the Hurricanes, 4-1, at the Wells Fargo Center.
Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee and Claude Giroux scored goals for the Flyers (7-5-2). The team's 16 points are its most through the first 14 games of a season since 2014-15, when the Flyers started an identical 7-5-2. They ended up missing the playoffs and Craig Berube was fired as head coach in April.
The Hurricanes (9-5-1) have been a dominant third-period team but the Flyers got the better of them in the final 20 minutes.
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• Hart has regained his footing. He has 56 saves on 60 shots over his past two games, both victories.
Hart was the Flyers' best player in the first period as he made 14 saves to keep his team afloat. That was huge.
• The Hurricanes outplayed the Flyers through the first two periods. They constantly had the Flyers playing in their own end and Carolina eventually broke through 6:17 into the second period when Lucas Wallmark finished off a nice play.
The Flyers, who want to set up camp in the offensive zone, were frequently one and done, noticeably more than we've seen this season. The Flyers' play through 40 minutes looked like a bad omen for the third period, especially against a team that came in allowing the NHL's fewest goals during the final stanza with six. The Flyers put up three on the Hurricanes in the third.
Head coach Alain Vigneault won't be thrilled with this performance but he'll take the two points and the way his team closed.
• Konecny has points in all but three of the Flyers' first 14 games. The consistency is great to see from the 22-year-old and more than a point-per-game player is the result so far.
The goal: 10/10
The celly: 10/10 pic.twitter.com/KVIsHEhPUz— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 6, 2019
• Farabee played with pace and was opportunistic offensively. He didn't have the best start but he got better and better. He was rewarded in the third period and now has two goals over his last three games.
😱 JOEL FARABEE 😱 pic.twitter.com/TIgwAU4eKa— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 6, 2019
Alain Vigneault said Joel Farabee has been one of #Flyers' better players and he's only getting better. pic.twitter.com/pzVCzJJa0A— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) November 6, 2019
• Playing through a shoulder strain, Couturier is on a four-game point streak with two goals and four assists. He made life easier on his coach by taking only one faceoff.
COOTS there it is! pic.twitter.com/SOE2eVlXt4— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 6, 2019
• Matt Niskanen, again, was really good. He got the puck through on both of the Flyers' goals and there's a feeling that the right play is going to be made whenever it's on his stick (see story).
• The Flyers' power play continued humming with another goal.
The man advantage is 13 for 54 in 14 games.
Through the Flyers' first 33 games last season, the power play was 12 for 99, worst in the NHL at 12.1 percent.
They have two units right now and everyone is seeing the difference.
• The Flyers practice at noon Wednesday in Voorhees, New Jersey, before hosting the Canadiens Thursday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
The team then faces a challenging back-to-back set on the road against the Maple Leafs Saturday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP) and Bruins Sunday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). Toronto is a top-10 goal-scoring club, while Boston entered Tuesday's action 11-1-2.
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