Brotherly Puck Weekly Issue 19

Dave Hakstol’s Return

A familiar face returned to Philadelphia this week as Seattle Kraken and head coach Dave Hakstol played the Flyers on Monday night. Naturally, it was a pretty anticipated game, given Hakstol’s tenure in Philly didn’t exactly go great. Luckily the Flyers handled the Kraken both on the scoreboard and from a physical aspect. The final score was 6-1 and Nick Seeler and Nate Thompson dropped the gloves, the latter being one of the more memorable bouts in recent Flyers history. This was a game that helped break the reality to the Kraken fans that Dave Hakstol isn’t a very good coach. Believe it or not he did not get a tribute video.

Konecny Figuring it Out

One of the big questions for the Flyers heading into the season was the state of Travis Konecny and whether or not he could have a rebound season from his disaster last season. So far so good for the 24-year-old, who has recorded three goals and four points in the team’s first three games. Not only is he showing up on the scoreboard, but he is playing with a swagger we haven’t seen since 2019-20.

It’s still best to take this production with a grain of salt right now, as he came out of the gate hot last season too, scoring five of his 11 goals in the first five games before completely disappearing, but it is a good sign to see Konecny playing his game again.

Carter Hart’s 50th Win

In beating the Kraken, 23-year-old Carter Hart racked up his 50th NHL win in his 103rd game. And at 23 years and 66 days, it also makes him the youngest Flyers goaltender to accomplish the feat. If you keep up with Hart Countdown on Twitter, you’ll also know that he is now 191 wins away from passing Ron Hextall for first place in Flyers’ history. He currently sits 18th all-time, just three wins away from passing both John Vanbiesbrouck and Ilya Bryzgalov (52 a piece) for 16th place.

PHF to ESPN+

On Wednesday, it was announced that the PHF (formerly the NWHL) signed an exclusive deal with ESPN+ to stream all 60 of their regular season games as well as the Isobel Cup playoffs. They have also promoted better production including elevated cameras and multi-camera shoots. That partnership comes after a successful shortened season when the league had two million views on Twitch and over 200,000 views during the Isobel Cup Final which was aired on NBCSN in late March. The new partnership explains the sudden, but much needed rebrand from the National Women’s Hockey League to the Premier Hockey Federation in early September. ESPN+ now has the rights to the NHL, both men and women’s NCAA hockey, the KHL in Russia and now the PHF.

Nick Seeler Carving Out a Spot

It was just a month ago that defenseman Nick Seeler strolled into training camp as a virtually unknown player. He was a former Chuck Fletcher draft pick from the Minnesota Wild but had minimal success in the NHL.

But this guy knows how to earn the respect of a fanbase.

He was a standout during the preseason, his physicality and puck blocking ability was noticeable and thanks to an injury to Samuel Morin, he won the seventh defenseman spot. Then an injury to Rasmus Ristolainen to open the season meant he got to jump into action. He had himself quite the game when the Seattle Kraken rolled into town. His physicality was once again on full display and he ended up fighting the much larger Jamie Oleksiak, and even though he didn’t win, him throwing the ref out of the way to get to Oleksiak and pumping of the fans afterward immediately make him a cult favorite that will be talked about for years to come.

Ristolainen returned Wednesday and Morin’s timeline hopefully puts him back sometime within the next month, so Seeler may not get too many opportunities with the big club this season, but it’s worth paying respect to a man who fits the “be a fucking Flyer” motto perfectly.

The Return of Brotherly Puck Weekly

For our longtime readers here at Brotherly Puck, you may remember Brotherly Puck Weekly from the early days of the website. Well for two and a half years now I’ve been wanting to bring it back, and we’re finally doing it. Expect weekly columns coving all news, as well as postgames, stories and fun tidbits moving forward!