Through an immediately strange set of circumstances, last night’s game up in Montreal saw Aleksei Kolosov getting in for his second game of NHL preseason action, and working towards finding a bit more stability in his game, as things continue to ramp up.
Kolosov’s first bit of action in the preseason on Sunday was a bit of a mixed bag — he allowed two goals on the 17 shots he faced, and while one of them came after he was a bit hung out to try on a poorly played two-on-one by Noah Juulsen, the other saw his lateral quickness, which was working quite well elsewhere in the game, exploited as he was pulled to the left too quickly and too far out of position on an initial shot and then beat on the subsequent rebound — but last night saw him generally continuing to settle in. In this pair of periods played, Kolosov seemed to be reading plays a little better, showing a little more urgency, and particularly flexing how his post-to-post quickness can work at its best to help him take away space for shooters.
It wasn’t a perfect showing, as he had a couple of dicey moments — the one goal he did allow saw him reacting a little slowly and not getting as square to a shot as he needed to, and then later, a breakaway that he did get square for, but too far out of his net, leaving the top corners wide open for exploiting, if only the shot had not gone a mile wide of the net each come to mind — but those moments were fewer and farther between this time out. It was, altogether, a look at the very best that Kolosov can bring in a performance, but also the remaining rawness in his game, and all told, it’s a worthwhile reminder of the benefit of space that the Flyers’ trade of Ivan Fedotov to the Columbus Blue Jackets early this month has afforded him (as well as Carson Bjarnason alike).
The trade itself was a tidy bit of business, the addressing of an inevitability, and it’s a positive as well to see it done so early. That is, a less decisive organization might have gone into the regular season opting to test out a three-goalie rotation down at the AHL level, and when it eventually proved troublesome, then looked to make an in-season trade and hope to clean up any adverse effects on the team on the fly.
With a whole new coaching staff at the helm and a host of young players still learning the league on their roster, the Phantoms will likely have some latitude this season, haven’t yet arrived at make or break time, but it remains that they are poised to take a big step forward this season. Their forward core is the most skilled that they’ve had at their disposal arguably since they relocated to Allentown, and their defense, already well balanced and another year more experienced, got themselves a skill boost in the addition of Oliver Bonk, as well. Place that alongside a more detail-focused and uptempo system being put into place by their head coach and all that’s left that could really derail them is a subpar goaltending situation.
A lot will be asked of these two young goaltenders, between Bjarnason making his true debut in the league and Kolosov coming off of a — there’s no way around it — challenging and disappointing first season in North America. And the road to this major season for the two has brought some flashes of real positivity, but also some challenges as well — Kolosov’s play has been promising but imperfect, and Bjarnason, though he was perfect in the single period he played in on Sunday, looked much less settled and struggled in his read back in his rookie game starts last week — but this all comes as a reminder of the importance, above all, of continued development for these two players. There are no shortcuts to an NHL job (as has become well apparent over this calendar year) and success will only come with reps taken at the AHL level, and the opportunity embraced to learn for them. The Flyers, for their part, have done all that they can to create the most favorable setting for this pair of prospects to get that development work in, and for the Phantoms to benefit from it in their push to take their own next step forward in turn, but it’s up to them to seize that opportunity.
