Flying Forward: Weekly Preview 10/8/17-10/14/17

The Philadelphia Flyers will finally get to have their own home opener after sitting through three other teams home openers in the first week of the season.

The Flyers will first have to get through the home opener and banner raising for the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. On Saturday night, they will celebrate their own home opener against the Washington Capitals. In five total games, they will have been throug four home openers after this week.

The Flyers are going to need to get off to a fast start in Nashville and take the crowd out of the game. The Orange and Black will want to get the first goal since the Predators haven't won a game when the opposition scores first. Philly is catching a break since the Preds best defenseman, Roman Josi could miss the game due to an injury. The Flyers will want to get in on the forecheck, win board battles and get shots on the net. The Orange an"d Black are going to need to want to crash the net and get plenty of traffic in the crease to take eyes off the puck. 

The Preds will want to use the raucous crowd to its advantage and get off to a flying start without getting too caught up in the hype of the night. Nashville is going to need all four line to have some sustained pressure in offensive zone. Scott Hartnell faces his former team tonight and could be a big factor on the power play for Nashville. The Predators will need to get the first goal and keep building off of that. Nashville is going to need to stay out of the penalty box and do a good job of defending all four Flyers lines.

On Saturday night, the Flyers will finally get to play in front of its own home crowd as the divisional rivals, Capitals come to town. The Flyers are going to need to play a really good densive game and cut back on the turnovers. The Orange and Black will need to stop the offensive balance throughout the Capitals lineup, but especially the top six of the Caps. Philly will need to not take stupid penalties and make to a fight-filled parade to the penalty box or they won't even have a shot at winning. The Flyers need to get a ton of traffic on front of the goalie to take his eyes off the puck.

The Caps have started the season off with no problems on the offensive side of the puck. The Capitals need to be a little tighter defensively especially giving up so many shots per game. Washington needs to watch out for the speed of the Flyers and the younger kids that have contributed to the offense. The Caps need to get off to a fast start and establish the forecheck early in the game.