The Philadelphia Flyers march on in their preseason and tonight will be facing the Boston Bruins at home in a matchup that might mean something and might not. It’s hump day; the fourth of six warm-up games that are meaningless because we basically know who is going to be in the final lineup. Regardless, it’s something to do.
All we want to do is get together and clap our damn hands together as we mindlessly watch some dudes skate around on the ice with a puck. Can we just enjoy the Flyers scoring more goals than the other team as well?
Three Players To Watch
1. Ryan Ellis
He’s here because it’s fun to watch him. Like, it’s always just so much fun. I don’t even care if he does anything but skate around looking all cool and stuff tonight.
2. Carter Hart
Hart has looked very good in the preseason so far and much more like his 2019 self compared to his 2020 or early 2021. That will be good. He should be good tonight. Good.
3. Elliot Desnoyers
Since Desnoyers was drafted in the fifth rough of the 2020 NHL Draft, he’s been scoring piles of goals and putting up some dang points on the board for the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. Now he gets a big opportunity with a lot of NHL regulars, including on his very own line by centering James van Riemsdyk and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. It’s just fun to watch some prospects.
Two Big Questions
1. Powerplay???
The Flyers have converted 3 of their 12 power play opportunities through their first three preseason matchups and that is, alright? Joel Farabee was lucky enough to get two tallies earlier and Claude Giroux added to the party on Saturday. Nailing down a quarter of the chances might be the best case scenario for a team that is plenty loaded when it comes to threats with that extra space on the ice.
It will certainly be interesting if that amount of chances continue through the season or even tonight against the Bruins — averaging four per game is a lot, folks — but the conversion rate is at least nothing to worry about, yet. Whether they go on a streaky hot run or become a team scoring more goals at even-strength than with the man advantage is going to be something to watch in the future.
2. Can the good times keep coming?
Our very own Maddie Campbell mentioned in her observations and takeaways from the Flyers preseason win over the Washington Capitals that the vibes were good. And it’s been a objectively true statement. Even though we saw massive changes throughout the entire lineup this summer, the general transition from the 2020 Flyers to the 2021 Flyers feels good and just so pleasant to watch this team instead of dreading our trip to our couches before puck drop to witness another Rangers blowout win or whatever they were doing.
We’ll see if they can continue making us feel good, or come plummeting down from the high of watching some good hockey, making us ask questions about what we’re doing with our free time. Anything is possible.
Puck drops tonight at 7:00, and you can check out the projected lineup below:
Forwards
Konecny- Couturier – Farabee
Lindblom – Frost – Atkinson
van Riemsdyk – Desnoyers – Aube-Kubel
Bunnaman – Cates- Willman
Defensemen
Provorov – Ellis
Yandle – Wylie
Hogberg – Clendening
Goalies
Hart
(Ersson)
