McCaffery: Former coach Dave Hakstol’s return to Philly spoiled by composed Flyers performance

PHILADELPHIA — Dave Hakstol spent nearly four years strolling behind one bench in the Wells Fargo Center, waiting, waiting and waiting some more for what he too seldom saw. Monday night, he stood behind the other one and watched in horror as his one-time vision for the Flyers came to life.

Hakstol has become the coach of the Seattle Kraken, an expansion club that played that way Monday. Unlike his last head-coaching job, his expectations are a little lower and the surrounding fan frustration is not four decades thick. Some day, he can only hope, the Kraken will play as the Flyers did in a 6-1 triumph that chased one Seattle goaltender and some early-season fears.

Not that Hakstol didn’t preside over some of the more productive periods of Claude Giroux’s career, but the likely Hall of Famer was rarely better than he was early Monday.

Not that Hakstol didn’t understand that, some day, Travis Konecny would be an every-shift factor, but he had no answer Monday for his former developing star.

And not that Hakstol hadn’t been teased by the legend of Carter Hart, but he just wasn’t around long enough to see the franchise-developed goaltender change the pace of an early-season game with one dramatic first-period save.

“It all started with that save,” Derick Brassard said. “That gave us some wings. And we were all over them.”

Though stuck in a five-game road trip to begin their major-league existence, the Kraken played with jump for the first nine minutes and then posted Jordan Eberle to the left of a goal that Hart was protecting. Yet Hart somehow darted across the crease just in time to wrap a glove on what seemed to be a perfect Eberle attempt.

The crowed erupted, the Flyers stirred, and Hakstol had to be wondering why he had to be fired for trying to win with Calvin Pickard.

“It could have been 2-0 for them early on,” Giroux said. “But I feel that the save that he made woke us up.”

The fact that the franchise hasn’t won a championship since 1975 should be loud enough an alarm clock, but from that point, the Flyers looked like the varsity, while the Kraken looked like a team that had been thrown together a few months ago.

On the shift immediately following the Hart save, Giroux scored from the right-wing circle on a splendid give-and-go from Konecny. Three minutes later, Konecny came whistling into the slot to blast a shot off a startled Philipp Grubauer, who left a 15-foot rebound that Konecny converted with a scent of disgust.

By the end of the period, Brassard had scored from a tough angle, Giroux was 7-for-7 on faceoffs, Hart looked worthy of his three-year contract extension and Hakstol remembered how difficult it can sometimes be to win in that building.

“It helps to get a good scoring chance there right away, so it gets you into the game,” Hart said. “It was nice to get a lot of run support tonight. The guys were clicking and it was great to watch from my end.

“It seemed like all the chemistry with all the new guys is starting to click now. And it’s looking great.”

Even if it was against a team that hasn’t been around long enough to have a throwback jersey, the Flyers Monday were about as designed. The top line of Sean Couturier, Giroux and Konecny played with audacity. The new faces, among them Brassard, Keith Yandle and Ryan Ellis, were heavy contributors. Even Nick Seeler, dragged back from the Phantoms to fill in for slow-to-heal Rasmus Ristolainen, decided to throw hands with 6-foot-7 Jamie Oleksiak, lose a split decision, then successfully bring the crowd to a frenzy with roar and a fist pump.

By the time the Flyers made it 5-0 in the second and Grubauer was yanked, chants of “Hak-stol, Hak-stol, Hak-stol,” reverberated.

If he wasn’t popular, it was because he rarely tried to be.

“That first time you play against your former team, anybody who tells you it’s not special isn’t being truthful,’’ Alain Vigneault said. “After the first time it becomes just another game. Points are hard to get. You focus on that.’’

After two games, the Flyers have three points. With only 93 more, they will match what Hakstol’s first Flyers team did in 2015-2016.

“The experience with the Flyers was extremely valuable,’’ Hakstol had said earlier in the day. “Obviously you apply some core beliefs. And the experience of it and the purpose that it brings is extremely important.”

To his core, Hakstol believed there would be a night when the Flyers were four lines deep, were flush with experienced defensemen and be enjoying a rising goaltender able to change a game with one save.

Turns out, he was right.

Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21st-centurymedia.com