Hurricanes vs. Flyers: Aho's Line Hands Philly a Franchise-Record Seventh Straight Loss to Open the Season

Twenty minutes of scoreless hockey on Sunday night gave the Philadelphia Flyers a glimmer of hope. Then Carolina's top line spent 6:38 of the second period reminding everyone why the Hurricanes are the defending champions.

Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had a goal and an assist, Shayne Gostisbehere scored against his old team again, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Flyers 4-1 at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Philadelphia dropped to 0-5-2, and per the AP, its seven straight losses to open the season are now a franchise record.

A Quiet First, Then the Avalanche

The first period was all whistles and no goals. Flyers rookie defenseman Oliver Bonk, recalled earlier in the day and making his season debut, took two minors in less than three minutes, and William Carrier went off twice for Carolina around the intermission. Neither power play did anything. Both teams finished 0-fer on the night, Carolina 0-for-4 and Philadelphia 0-for-3.

Then, at 10:16 of the second, a Bonk giveaway at the blue line went straight to Sean Walker, who used to play in Philadelphia, and Walker set up Svechnikov. Svechnikov snapped it past Joseph Woll for his fourth goal of the season.

At 13:45 came the prettiest play of the night. Carrier gained the zone down the right wing, stopped up and hit Aho cutting through the slot. Aho slid the puck right through Bonk's skates to Gostisbehere, also a former Flyer, who finished from the bottom of the left circle. The AP noted both of his goals this season have come against Philadelphia.

"Fish is all world. You saw it on his goal and my goal. That was a freebie for me," Gostisbehere said.

The Flyers did push back. At 15:26, Denver Barkey worked the puck back to Nick Seeler at the left point, and Seeler's shot went in off Christian Dvorak in the left slot to make it 2-1. For 1:28, the building had a pulse.

Turning Point: The Goal That Took the Air Out

At 16:54, Svechnikov won the puck back and pushed it to Carrier, who drove through the middle of the zone and set up Aho for his sixth goal of the season. Three goals in 6:38, every one of them touched by the top line, and the 3-1 lead felt like 10-1.

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet knew exactly what that one meant.

"We were coming there, it was 2-1, and obviously the third goal was obviously a dejected goal," Tocchet said.

Mark Jankowski added the final touch at 15:09 of the third. Seeler blocked a Jordan Martinook shot, the puck bounced straight to Jankowski in the high slot, and he buried it. It was his fourth goal in as many games.

Carolina's Three-Headed Problem

The Aho, Svechnikov and Carrier line was put together early in the season while Seth Jarvis recovers from offseason shoulder surgery, according to NHL.com, and it is already working like a group that has been together for years. Aho has 11 points during a six-game point streak, per NHL.com, and Svechnikov finished plus-3 with a goal, an assist and two hits in 16:26. Carrier, the line's heavy forechecker, had two assists in 12:12.

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour explained why it fits: "They all have a little different skill sets, but Will especially, he just does it right all the time, and he's hard to play against."

Gostisbehere added his own scouting report: "It's three unique players on one line."

Behind them, Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves on 19 shots, and the only one that beat him was a deflection. Jankowski won eight faceoffs and now has five points during a four-game point streak, according to NHL.com, and Martinook's assist was his 200th point with Carolina, in his 557th game with the team.

And Carolina did all of this without captain Jordan Staal, who missed the game with a lower-body injury. Brind'Amour said he does not believe the absence will be a long one.

"We've had a lot of hockey here in a short amount of time, and then we've got a couple guys out that are big parts, and other guys are just stepping up," Brind'Amour said.

For Philadelphia, Joseph Woll made 26 saves on 30 shots and Dvorak scored the lone goal. Bonk, per NHL.com, finished minus-3 with two shots on goal in 16:28. Nobody should judge a rookie defenseman on one night against this Carolina top line, but it was a rough introduction.

Stats That Matter

• 6:38: The span of Carolina's three second-period goals.
• 30-19: Shots on goal, Carolina vs. Philadelphia.
• 0-for-7: Combined power plays. Both units took the night off.
• 12: Consecutive games in Philadelphia in which Carolina has earned at least a point, per the AP.
• 4: Straight games with a goal for Jankowski.

What It Means

Carolina is 5-1-1 with 11 points and has won five straight after losing its first two, per the AP. The Hurricanes are a perfect 4-0-0 on the road, and they did it on the back end of a back-to-back after a 5-2 win at Chicago on Saturday. Washington visits Tuesday.

For Philadelphia, the hole keeps getting deeper. The Flyers are 0-5-2, and the AP noted they broke a franchise record set by the 1999-00 team and matched by the 2008-09 squad. Both of those clubs recovered and reached the postseason, which is the one piece of good news in that sentence. NHL.com added that Philadelphia is the first team to open a season with seven straight losses since the 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks. The Flyers were also coming off a 5-1 loss at Boston on Saturday, and they placed Travis Konecny on injured reserve with a lower-body injury on Sunday.

"We know we've got to turn it around ASAP," Dvorak said. "Got to try not to let it snowball here and focus on the next one."

Seattle visits Tuesday.

Philadelphia's Groundhog Day

The Flyers are living their own version of Groundhog Day: wake up, compete for a while, lose, repeat. The only way out of that movie is to change something, and it is hard to change much when you keep running into a champion with a line this good. Brind'Amour, meanwhile, summed up his team's night in one sentence that every coach in the league would happily steal.

"Got 20 guys tonight that just did enough," he said. Against Philadelphia right now, that was plenty.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.