Flyers' rookies have milestone game approaching in home opener

Even for veterans such as Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux, playing in a home opener never gets old, never fails to raise the adrenaline level.

That said, it's difficult to imagine Saturday night's game against the Washington Capitals being more special than it will be for the Flyers' four rookies: Robert Hagg, Travis Sanheim, Nolan Patrick, and Taylor Leier. All will be playing in their first home opener for the Flyers.

"I'm really excited; it's going to be a fun experience," Hagg said after Friday's practice in Voorhees. "My dad's coming in from Sweden and a friend to the family is coming, too."

The Flyers are off to a 2-2 start, and they played in opponents' home openers in three of those four games. The Flyers and the Minnesota Wild are the only NHL teams that have yet to play at home.

"You could really feel the crowd when you went out, especially in Nashville," Hagg said of the openers in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Music City. "The crowd was really into it. This time, we'll have the crowd behind us instead of against us and that will be pretty awesome."

Hagg, who has been on the right side while paired with Shayne Gostisbehere, has played solidly in the four games.

"I need to keep doing that if I'm going to stay around," he said.

The Flyers had a territorial advantage in all four road games and played better than their record indicates. They blew a late lead and allowed two power-play goals in the final 77 seconds of Tuesday's 6-5 loss to the Predators in Nashville.

"There are things we can get better at, but for the most part, we had a pretty good start on the road," said Patrick, whose parents and younger sister will be at Saturday's game. "The Nashville game, I thought we played pretty well and it was obviously a tough way to end the trip, but it is what is and we have to keep getting better and move on.

"We're all excited to play the first game in front of the home crowd," added Patrick, who scored his first NHL goal in Nashville.

"We got a taste of the home atmosphere in the preseason," Sanheim said of playing at the Wells Fargo Center, "but I think it's going to be at a new level [Saturday] and it's going to be a pretty cool experience for me."

Sanheim, whose parents are traveling to the game from Manitoba, may sometimes be matched against Washington's Alex Ovechkin. Heading into the Capitals' game Friday night in New Jersey, Ovechkin had a league-high eight goals, and he became the first player in 100 years to register hat tricks in the season's first two games.

"Obviously I've watched him growing up and saw him score a lot of goals," the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Sanheim said. "It's going to be a fun time to play against him and try to shut him down."

The Flyers have a 27-16-6 record in home openers, but have lost four of their last five, including a 3-2 defeat to Anaheim last season.

Oddly, Saturday's matchup is the only time the Flyers will face a Metropolitan opponent in the first 21 games.

Breakaways.  If coach Dave Hakstol bases his goalie decision on performance, Michal Neuvirth (2.05 goals-against average, .926 save percentage) will get the start over Brian Elliott (3.67, .876). … Simmonds, on the key to beating the Capitals: "Don't turn the puck over. That's when they hurt you. They have a lot of offensive firepower on that team." … The Flyers and Caps have both had strong power plays thus far but have struggled on the penalty kill. Entering Friday, the Flyers were 29^th out of 31 teams, killing at just a 70.6 percent clip. Washington was 20^th (80 percent). … About 300 tickets remain for the game. The tickets were released Friday after being held for the Capitals and the NHL.