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Flyers Beat Caps in Preseason Opener
Preseason games are all about players getting their timing down for the season and for hockey operations departments to assess those on the bubble to determine who will win opening roster spots. It's not very meaningful in terms of wins and losses, especially early in the exhibition slate when at least one team ices a lineup with few of their NHL regulars in the lineup.
On Sunday at Capital One Arena in DC, a Flyers team with a significant concentration of likely NHL players took on a Washington Capitals squad that largely featured prospects and secondary role players.Thus, it is foolhardy to read too much into the preseason opener.
That said, the Flyers could hardly have scripted a better way to begin their exhibition schedule that Sunday's 6-2 blowout win in Washington, Among the positives:
* Most of the returning players whom the Flyers will look for offense in 2024-25 contributed in the afternoon tilt: Joel Farabee (one goal, three assists, four points), Morgan Frost (two goals, one assist, three points), Bobby Brink (two goals), Owen Tippet (one assist), Noah Cates (one assist).
* The Flyers' top two forward prospects, 19-year-old Matvei Michkov and 18-year-old Jett Luchanko collected two assists apiece. Young defenseman Emil Andrae pinched down on a first period play to assist on Frost's first goal. Nineteen-year-old goalie prospect Carson Bjarnason stopped all nine shots he faced (plus all three attempts in a Postgame practice shootout).
* Philadelphia's power play scored two impressive goals on Sunday, one by Farabee on a tic-tac-toe sequence with Frost and Tippett, and one by Frost near the net on a sequence triggered by Michkov.
* The Flyers limited the Caps to 21 shots on goal for the game. Starter Ivan Fedotov had little chance of stopping either Washington goal and stopped what he could reasonably be expected to stop.
In the grand scheme of things, Sunday's game wasn't one that will be remembered once the regular season starts. Even so, it's nice for the Flyers to take over a game and win comfortably. They even "won" the postgame practice shootout, 2-0, on goals by Brink and Tippett.
Below is the Flyers starting lineup from the preseason opener:
The Flyers will play their second preseason game on Monday on the road against the Montreal Canadiens. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game is slated to be streamed (in-network only) on the Flyers' official website.
The game day roster is not yet available as of this writing. However, it's a safe bet that Monday's lineup in Montreal will feature wholesale personnel changes. Sunday's non-game groups practiced at the FTC in Voorhees. Those who played in Washington returned to Philadelphia on Sunday evening.
Sunday's practice group players included all of the following notables: Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster, Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling, Garnet Hathaway, Nicolas Deslauriers, Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Erik Johnson, Egor Zamula, Rasmus Ristolainen, and goalie Samuel Ersson. While not all of these returning players will be in Monday's lineup in Montreal, at least some will. 2023 first-round pick Oliver Bonk is another candidate who did not play on Sunday, along with defenseman Ronnie Attard.
Monday could also mark the Flyers' preseaon debuts of Swedish import forward Oscar Eklind and tryout goalie Eetu Makiniemi.
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