We’re back again for a little more preseason action. After an exciting shootout win up on Long Island to kick off their slate of action on Sunday, the Flyers are back at it tonight in Montreal and looking to keep that momentum rolling with a largely new lineup.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: Flyers website
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- We’ve got good news! Tyson Foerster looks to be cleared for contact.
- Pivoting into the world of prospects playing outside the confines of training camp, Yegor Zavragin is off to a very good start to his KHL season.
Pregame watching
Preseason Game 2 Rosters
Philadelphia Flyers
Forwards
Bobby Brink
Sean Couturier
Jett Luchanko
Rodrigo Abols
Alex Bump
Christian Dvorak
Oscar Eklind
Nicolas Deslauriers
Sawyer Boulton
Owen Tippett
Jacob Gaucher
Matthew Gard
Anthony Richard
Defensemen
Helge Grans
Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler
Hunter McDonald
Dennis Gilbert
Ethan Samson
Goaltenders
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Montreal Canadiens
FORWARDS
Cole Caufield
Nick Suzuki
Juraj Slafkovsky
Zack Bolduc
Alex Newhook
Joshua Roy
Sammy Blais
Joe Veleno
Vinzenz Rohrer
Luke Tuch
Florian Xhekaj
Tyler Thorpe
DEFENSEMEN
Alexendre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson
Tobie Bisson
David Reinbacher
Arber Xhekaj
GOALTENDERS
Jakub Dobes
Kaapo Kahkonen
Storylines to watch
Roster notes
There’s been some notable turnover in the roster for tonight’s game for the Flyers, but perhaps most notable is the one bit of continuity — that is, the only player who’s set to play in both of these first two games is Rodrigo Abols. And this comes after something of a mixed bag of a preseason debut for him, as he showed some good jump in the first period but lost steam as the game went on, and didn’t show up as as much of a factor in the later goings. All the same, that first period was enough to earn him another look, as he’s a player who, Rick Tocchet said after practice today, he wants to see what he can do in two or three games in a row.
As far as the skaters go, though, everyone else is making their preseason debut for the season, but there are still some key players to watch in this one. Matthew Gard, as one of the younger players in the mix here, just drafted this summer, getting in for a game already feels like a notable nod of confidence, and a reward for some good, if understated, work done so far. But the biggest one, of course, is Alex Bump — getting in for his first taste of NHL action in any capacity and still working hard to get into the mix for a lineup spot out of camp, his runway isn’t particularly long, and it will be important for him to find a way to hit the ground running from the jump here, to continue to have that case be a strong one.
Ersson gets the nod
On the goaltending side, though it feels notable that Aleksei Kolosov is again dressing for the second game tonight after getting in for two periods of play in their first game, but Tocchet also confirmed this afternoon that Ersson would be getting the start in this one, and the plan is for him to play the whole of the game. We’re not placing too much weight in how this performance plays out, as this is Ersson’s first bit of game action of the year, and there’s all but certainly a bit of rust that will need to be knocked off, but it would still be good to see him do that reasonably quickly, and get things moving in the right direction, before these games really pick up in their meaning.
A bit of a mismatch
This game is going to be an interesting one as, and this can often be the case in these preseason games, there’s a bit of a mismatch in the strength of the rosters set to be iced for this one. The Canadiens, for the most part, have brought a close to full NHL lineup, while the Flyers’ is heavier on prospects and AHL depth, with just a handful of NHL players filling out their lineup. Now, it’s only preseason and the results of these games don’t count for much, but with the number of prospects looking to make a strong impression in this game, it could well be a challenging one to do so in. It’s not an impossibility, but the bigger question here is who among this group will rise to that challenge.
