Mikhail Vorobyev, Brian Elliott shine in Flyers’ win over Vegas Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS — Led by Wayne Simmonds' two goals, the Flyers opened their season with an impressive 5-2 win in Vegas on Thursday night. Here are five observations on the victory:

Just as he did in the preseason, 21-year-old center Mikhail Vorobyev opened eyes in his NHL debut.

Vorobyev distributed the puck well, played solid defense, helped set up a goal, and rushed to the aid of Nolan Patrick after he was checked into the boards by Nick Holden in the third period. Don't underestimate what the latter development meant to his teammates.

His only flaw was in the faceoff circle, where Vorobyev won just one of seven draws.

The Flyers showed more physicality Thursday than they did in most games last season. Part of it was because Simmonds (game-high seven hits) is now healthy and can throw around his weight. The Flyers finished with 41 hits — their most since March 30, 2017.

If the opener is any indication, second-year defenseman Robert Hagg is going to make major strides this season.

Hagg had the first two-point game (goal, assist) in his career, contributed six hits, and finished at plus-2. The continued development of Hagg and Travis Sanheim — who also played well Thursday — is a key to this season.

It might have been a different result if goalie Brian Elliott hadn't been so good in the first 10 minutes, when Vegas built a 1-0 lead and swarmed the net.

"It could have been 2-0 or 3-0," Simmonds said. "He stood on his head."

Elliott said his final preseason tuneup against Boston helped him take confidence into Thursday's game.

If the Flyers are going to build on last season's 98-point campaign, they need Elliott to stay healthy and look as sharp as he did Thursday.

It's a positive sign that the Flyers scored five goals without a tally from the top line of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny. (Konecny fired a shot off iron in the final period). If the Flyers can spread around the scoring and don't have to lean on the top line, like they did last season, good times are ahead.

It was also a positive sign that the penalty kill was 3 for 3 and killed off a long five-on-three. Ivan Provorov, Hagg, Radko Gudas, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton logged the most time on the PK, which finished 29th in the 31-team league last season.

Vegas managed just three shots in 4:43 of power-play time.

Laughton, who had a goal and three hits, said the Flyers "tweaked a little thing in the neutral zone to try to stop them from getting in."

The Flyers will try to carry the PK momentum into Denver, where they face the Avalanche on Saturday night. The Avs' power play went 1 for 3 — it was an empty-net goal — in their 4-1 opening-night win Thursday over visiting Minnesota.