The Philadelphia Flyers opened their Stanley Cup playoffs with a 7-0 blowout loss to the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brian Elliott got the start for the Flyers but lasted just 29 minutes before being pulled. He allowed five goals on 19 shots before being replaced by Petr Mrazek, who stopped 12 of the 14 shots he faced. 

After the game, Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said he sees no reason why the team would make a change in net for Game 2.

"Right now, my first instinct is yeah," Hakstol said when asked if Elliott would start Game 2. "You know what, he's our guy. He's a huge reason why our team was able to put ourselves into a position to be in the playoffs. In terms of his presence in our dressing room and the trust that we all have in him, that's a pretty big factor.

"So, you know what, like everything else, we'll look hard at it, but right now my first gut instinct is that he's our guy and I don't see a reason why we would go away from him."

Wednesday's blowout was the largest margin of defeat the Flyers have suffered this season. Elliott said afterwards the whole team must be better for the Flyers to compete against their in-state rivals.

"They kind of did everything that we focused on in the prescout, they just did it really well," Elliott said. "They beat us from pretty much every aspect tonight, starting from the net out. Everybody just has to be better."

Hakstoll also mentioned the team's play as a reason for Elliott's struggles.

"You look at the five against, a couple lateral plays, one that we screened him on ourselves," Hakstol said. "It's a tough night. I left him in there after the first (period) after the fourth [goal] because I thought there was a lot of areas of his game where he was seeing the game, he was battling hard. You just want to give him the opportunity to battle through. Obviously, after the fifth one, I just wanted to get him out of there."

Flyers defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere took an optimist's view of the loss on Wednesday, noting the Flyers still have plenty of time to turn the series around.

"That's one of the toughest ways to start a playoffs series, obviously," Gostisbehere said. "But we knew it wasn't going to be easy. The last time I checked, they got to beat us four times. Obviously, they beat us 7-0. It really hurts. It's obviously embarrassing, but it's only 1-0 in the series, and there's a lot of hockey to be played."