To start the final week of the preseason, the Flyers sent their B-squad to Long Island to play against a lineup close to the Islanders best, sans Ilya Sorokin. The Flyers lineup consisted of a top line of Lycksell-Laughton-Richard, and a second line of Cates-Poehling-Farabee, so there wasn’t a whole lot of entertaining things happening in this one on the Flyers end in terms of young players. Meanwhile, on the Islanders end, all of Mat Barzal, Anders Lee, Bo Harvat, Kyle Palmieri, and Noah Dobson slotted in for the home team. This wasn’t a game the Flyers should have ever been close in on paper, so it’s a good sign (particularly for Kolosov) that the Flyers stayed right in it until the final minute.
The Basics
First period: 18:43 – Mat Barzal (Dobson, Horvat)
Second period: 2:04 – Anthony Richard (Johnson, Laughton), 5:43 – Kyle MacLean (Cizikas), 11:04 – Anders Lee (Reilly, Palmieri), 14:13 – Brendan Furry (Andrae, Johnson)
Third period: 2:27 – Rasmus Ristolainen (Farabee, Zamula), 19:09 – Kyle Palmieri (Mayfield, Reilly)
SOG: 19 (PHI) – 24 (NYI)
Some takeaways
Fedotov somewhat shaky, Kolosov impressive
The game featured a roughly even split between Fedotov and Kolosov, and it was the latter that performed considerably better than the former. Kolosov, after arriving in Flyers camp only a few days ago, looked consistently strong for the entirety of his performance. He never really appeared out of position and was way more solid than I would have expected, considering the saga that it took for Kolosov to be in Philadelphia.
The performance from Fedotov, on the other hand, left much to be desired. He was fairly strong in the first period, stopping four of five Islanders shots before allowing two more goals in his portion of the second. It’s going to be fascinating to watch as this unfolds and Fedotov gets the first real shot at the backup job, but it’s looking likely that there are three goalies vying for time between the pipes in Philadelphia. It’s early, and it’s never bad to have too many goaltenders – but this could get complicated quickly.
Ristolainen continues strong preseason
Hey, Rasmus Ristolainen scored again! It’s always fun when Ristolainen puts one in the back of the net – but in all seriousness, Ristolainen has had a really good preseason thus far. He’s been the player that he was pre-injury, when it looked like Brad Shaw had remolded Ristolainen into the best possible player Risto could be. He’s a mean, selectively aggressive, decent-puck mover now, and that’s a welcome sight considering the contract and previous injury situation. So, in a vacuum, that’s a useful player for this current iteration of the Flyers, a player that can anchor an actually effective third pair.
Even without Michkov, the Flyers power play hums along
The Flyers power play is….enjoyable? Not the bane of our existence? Yet again this preseason, the Flyers power play looks good, but tonight’s opportunities were the first time it’s looked passable without Matvei Michkov. That’s a welcome sign, as it would be real nice to have not just one, but two passable units on the man advantage. Tonight, the Flyers added two power play goals to their preseason tally, one from sneaky-good AHL depth Anthony Richard and another from Ristolainen.
For Richard, the goal was much-deserved, as he has been absolutely buzzing all preseason, particularly in Saturday’s night home win over the Bruins. His speed has been particularly effective – but on this goal, Richard throws it to the front of the net and gets a fortuitous bounce.
On the Ristolainen power play goal, Risto fell to the ground as he put the puck into the net, after a nice play from Joel Farabee to get the puck through the slot.
Some jump from Joel Farabee
There’s been some discussion that Joel Farabee has looked rough during the preseason thus far, but it really looks like the veteran forward found his stride against the Islanders. He was undoubtedly the highest skilled forward the Flyers dressed tonight, and he looked every part of it, generating offense in all three situations. He quarterbacked a few decent power plays, nearly scored on the penalty kill, and generated chances at even strength throughout the game. Veteran preseason performances generally mean little to nothing at all, as the players often go through the motions to be ready on opening night, but this is sure to be a reassuring performance from Farabee.
We’ll see if the Flyers bring a much fuller and NHL-caliber lineup to Boston tomorrow, when they play their penultimate preseason game at TD Garden.
