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Takeaways: Flyers suffer bad 5-1 loss to Capitals in preseason finale

For the final game of the preseason, the Philadelphia Flyers suffered.

Posted on by Evan Watson
Photo Credit: Heather Barry Images

In this fourth and final preseason matchup, the Washington Capitals sent four skaters with NHL experience to wear the brunt of the full force of the untucked Philadelphia Flyers. Before we knew it, the Capitals hung five goals on Aleksei Kolosov despite being handily outplayed for big stretches of the game, and the regular season is suddenly upon us.

The basics

First period: No scoring

Second period: 0:31- Jamie Drysdale (Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster), 4:32- Andrew Cristall (Spencer Smallman), 7:36- Maxim Schafer (unassisted), 12:24- Ethen Frank (Louis Belpedio, Andrew Cristall) (PPG)

Third period: 1:07- Theodor Niederbach (unassisted), 16:06- Lynden Lakovic (Alexander Suzdalev, Petr Sikora)

SOG: 24 (WSH) – 37 (PHI)

Some takeaways

The tuck game

It was fair to wonder how smart it was to make an apparent statement to the league over the jersey-tuck rule that saw Trevor Zegras temporarily jailed for his fashion sense. The referees didn’t seem to mind, as they offered ten minutes of power play time to the Flyers in the first period. The Flyer power play historically could be seen as a negative, so that intent remains to be seen, but it’s probably not that serious. Nobody got any equipment penalties in this one.

The powerplay is visually better

We can see the talent on the ice: Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, and Jamie Drysdale all generated scoring chances on the man advantage in this one. It wasn’t for lack of opportunity, either– the Flyers spent half the first period on the power play, including a double minor for high-sticking. It’s like the talent is trapped inside a big cursed bubble, and when it bursts, the goals will come in waves.

David Jiricek got plenty of time, but it was clear that the Washington Capitals had done enough homework to crowd his shooting lanes. Drysdale appeared to have more space on his unit, but maybe that’s just a product of being on the better unit.

Something else worth noting: with the handedness of the players on the second unit, Alex Bump is the main man to be feeding Jiricek for one-timers. Playmaking isn’t what Bump, a shooter, is here to do, and the Flyers should look at rearranging that setup to open more space for Jiricek.

The duality of goaltenders

There aren’t as many metrics available for the preseason as there are on normal nights, but you won’t really need any of that to tell the story here.

With the Flyers icing what could be their opening night lineup in front of Aleksei Kolosov, the Capitals weren’t really concerned with getting their A-team any reps tonight. What should’ve been a pretty simple win quickly went sour in the second period, as Kolosov allowed three goals in about eight minutes to fall behind. He was beaten short-side a couple of times in this one, a cardinal sin in the goalkeeping world. Jiricek could’ve been stronger on one of the goals, but sometimes, you do just need a save.

Charlie Lindgren, on the other hand, was in mid-season form, stopping a mini-breakaway from Michkov on his way to 32 saves in the first two periods before giving way to former Flyer, Cal Petersen. The talent advantage was obvious among the skaters– the Flyers had their way and created a ton of space on the attack– they just couldn’t solve Lindgren. These weren’t cheap saves by any means. Most importantly though, the Flyers look good, and they’ll win more often than not playing this well.

Matvei Michkov finishes a strong preseason

The hype train picked up steam upon Michkov’s return to the States with the news of his reduced weight and intense summer training being one of the big headlines at training camp. With the added pressure of this also being a contract year for the young winger, it would be understandable if things were weighing on him a little.

He hasn’t disappointed. Michkov is visually quicker heading into his third season here, and that extra burst has offered him a little more space in the offensive zone. A mini-breakaway, a wraparound attempt, and a late Michigan attempt drew “oohs” from the crowd. We’ll see how he looks against a more NHL-caliber defense, but the early returns are very encouraging. He didn’t find a way on the scoresheet tonight, but Michkov is poised for a big bounce-back year.

Jamie Drysdale could be breaking out, while David Jiricek struggled

Say what you will about the lineups out there in this one, but someone still has to do the scoring. None of the Flyers managed to do what Drysdale did, and he leaves with the only goal of the game for the orange and black.

With the growth we saw from the young defenseman last season, this is a great sign of things to come. He was scoring with more regularity as the season came to a close before Rick Tocchet assigned him a summer of shooting practice. Fittingly, Drysdale pots his first goal of the preseason from the middle of the ice. The first power play unit looked much more effective with Drysdale at the helm compared to the second unit with David Jiricek, who really struggled in this one overall.

Jiricek is going to be up and down. We’re going to have to live with it at this point while he learns how to play defense at this level. Jiricek had a couple of ugly turnovers, was beaten to the back post on a goal against, and dealt with some bad puck hops over his stick to accentuate an overall forgettable game for the big Flyer defender. He’s “won” the sixth defenseman spot to start the season, but they’ll need a bit more from Jiricek.

This was really a two period game

Through 40 minutes, it looked like the Capitals were going to give up 50 or 60 shots on goal. The scoreline didn’t reflect the run of play, but the Flyers were otherwise having their way in a surprisingly mean-spirited preseason finale.

With Cal Petersen in net for the final frame, the Capitals locked it down. The Flyers found room much more difficult to come by, but it could’ve been more of a “let’s just get to the regular season healthy” attitude more than anything else. As the broadcast broke down the Phillies playoff-clinching scenarios, the intensity had taken a few large steps down, and then Kolosov was beaten one more time for good measure. Let’s just get to Wednesday night.

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