The Game: 1:00 PM ET, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
It’s a brand new month and we’re back to watch a brand new Flyers team (it’s a lot like the old one, but they’re winning now). The last time we saw them, in case you missed it, the Flyers were building on their solid performance up in Boston (which had carried them to a 2-0 win over the Bruins), bearing down nicely to take a win over the Blues in a sort of weird and low event game. And it was a game that truly, all in all, felt like a nice step forward. They were much more sound in their defensive structure, and while some of the bigger names were quiet on offense, support players in Garnet Hathaway and Bobby Brink stepped up in the scoring department, all while Sam Ersson put together another really solid showing. It was a good team win, plain and simple.
On the flip side, the Bruins, in that three day interim since we saw them last, are still kind of going through it. They had just one more game on their schedule as well, but it did not go nearly as well, in fact it went very badly — it ended in a loss to the Hurricanes by an 8-2 margin, and there was a point in that game when the Hurricanes had the Bruins’ output in shots matched in goals (at six). And just like that, the Bruins are sitting in the basement of the Atlantic Division, and just one point up on the Islanders for last place in the whole of the Eastern Conference (though their nine points on the season matches the Flyers, in fairness). But the Bruins’ stumble in the early season feels unexpected, and everyone up there seems to be looking around for answers, but not yet finding any.
Players to watch
Bobby Brink
It’s been a pretty up and down start to the season for Brink. To recap: he started off well, with points in his first four games, but things then cooled off for him pretty quickly, and he found himself scratched in the Flyers games against the Capitals on the road, as well as against the Wild and Canadiens, and then was finally back in the lineup against the Bruins. And while Tuesday’s return to the lineup was a pretty good one, his game against the Blues was much stronger on the whole. He looked a little more settled within the defensive zone system, he got a bit more ice time to work with, and he came away with the game-winning goal as a nice little reward. Tortorella made a note of how pleased he was with his game, how he’s picking up some steam after the earlier inconsistencies. All of this taken into account, he should have punched his ticket for one more game at least, and the question then will be how he’s able to continue building on this last good game.
Emil Andrae
With that Thursday game against the Blues in the books, that’s made three games played with the Flyers for Andrae so far this season, and three very good games, at that. His 5-on-5 time has been a bit limited, playing on the third pair with Erik Johnson, but he’s looked plenty comfortable in those minutes, and has also shown some good pop in his time on the second power play unit. His game hasn’t been overly flashy, but he’s taking care of his details, he’s showing off that excellent first pass he has on breakouts, and he’s remained engaged physically. There’s not a lot we can nitpick in his game at the moment, and he’s making his case just about as strongly as possible that he should be sticking around for the longer term, and he’s going to force the Flyers to make some tough decisions as we near Cam York’s return to the lineup.
Aleksei Kolosov
The starter for this game hasn’t been confirmed yet, and with the early start and no morning skate, this will likely stay unconfirmed until just about time for warmups, but we’re reading between the lines a little bit here. Sam Ersson has started the last two games and played well, and while it would be understandable to toss him this start and to keep riding the hot hand, John Tortorella did acknowledge after Thursday’s game that they have to get a look at Kolosov, and it won’t necessarily take a back-to-back on the schedule for Ersson to get a night off. Add into the mix the fact that this Bruins team is really struggling — and the next three teams the Flyers face after this being the Hurricanes, the Lightning, and the Panthers — and it feels like there’s no better time than today to give Kolosov another look. He held up reasonably well in his debut in Montreal, but he’ll still be looking to build on that, continue to settle in, and pick up his first NHL win. Might today be the day for all that? Time will tell.
The lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Konecny-Coutuerier-Michkov
Tippett-Frost-Foerster
Farabee-Laughton-Brink
Cates-Poehling-Hathaway
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Seeler-Drysdale
Andrae-Johnson
Kolosov
(Ersson)
Boston Bruins
Beecher-Zacha-Pastrnak
Marchand-Lindholm-Kastelic
Jones-Coyle-Koepke
Frederic-Poitras-Brazeau
Lohrei-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Zadorov-Peeke
Swayman
(Korpisalo)
