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Flyers Preseason Gameday: 9/28/16 vs. NJ (PPL Center), Flyers Blank Isles

September 27, 2016, 10:46 PM ET [334 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Playing their fourth preseason game in three nights, the Philadelphia Flyers play host to the New Jersey Devils at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA on Wednesday night. The Flyers will have a morning skate at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ before the team leaves for Allentown. Game time will be 7 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on The Comcast Network.

On Tuesday, the Flyers blanked a New York Islanders "B" squad by a 4-0 count behind a 23-save shutout by Steve Mason, who faced a fair number of difficult chances at five-on-five on breakdowns and helped the Flyers go 7-for-7 on the penalty kill including a lengthy two-segment 5-on-3 disadvantage in the third period.

Offensively, the Flyers got two goals (one even strength and one power play) from Wayne Simmonds and even strength tallies by Dale Weise and Andy Miele. Three of the goals were bounces that went the Flyers' way -- two going in off Islanders goaltender Christopher Gibson (11 saves on 15 shots, 44:05 played). The final tally was a short side snipe by Simmonds on the power play 15 seconds into the third period.

A trio of Flyers prospect defensemen -- Philippe Myers (22:39 TOI, plus-three, three credited hits, 3:06 of power play time, 1:30 of PK time), Travis Sanheim (two assists, 17:26 of ice time, three shots, eight shot attempts, one block, 3:20 of power play time) and Ivan Provorov (21:43 of ice time, one shot, two hits, two blocks, 2:21 on the power play, 5:17 on the penalty kill) -- had strong games.

Myers looked poised and steady all around. Sanheim showed more confidence about jumping into the play offensively -- a huge part of his game in junior hockey -- than he did in a tentative preseason last year. One night after playing nearly 29 minutes in the split-squad game in New Jersey, Provorov had a generally solid performance with several good plays.

The highly touted Russian blueliner did have a couple hiccups on failed clears charged as giveaways and one situation where he lingered a little too
long at the offensive point and an Islander went past him for what could have been a dangerous rush if a lead pass had made connections. Overall, though Provorov was strong on most of his 26 shifts.

The line of Nick Cousins centering Scott Laughton and Dale Weise, which looks like it could be an opening night trio was in the thick of things much of the night, stirring the pot.

Simmonds, sporting a visor that he said was donned at the strong "recommendation" of Ron Hextall, did not seem to have any trouble seeing the puck or coping with fogging. The player said he'd stick with it and see how it goes. Simmonds also did a little penalty killing work.

The Flyers' players who have returned from the World Cup of Hockey -- Jakub Voracek, Michal Neuvirth, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Couturier -- will take a couple practices with the team this week but will not play until Saturday when the Flyers' host the Boston Bruins.

Below were the Flyers' lines against the Islanders:

Brayden Schenn - Jordan Weal - Wayne Simmonds
Scott Laughton - Nick Cousins - Dale Weise
Michael Raffl - Andy Miele - Matt Read
Chris VandeVelde - Boyd Gordon - Roman Lyubimov

Ivan Provorov - Andrew MacDonald
Michael Del Zotto - Philippe Myers
Nick Schultz - Travis Sanheim

Steve Mason
[Anthony Stolarz]

Among the NHL regulars in the lineup, Del Zotto and MacDonald had solid nights on D and the entire Cousins line played well. Nick Schultz went into the boards awkwardly in the third period, went up the tunnel but then returned to the ice for a penalty kill.

NOTES

* At the World Cup of Hockey, Team Canada took a one-game-to-zero lead in the finals against Team Europe with a 3-1 win. Claude Giroux was once again a healthy scratch for Canada. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (even, 12:45 of ice time, three blocked shots) and Mark Streit (18:42, minus-one, three shots, three blocks) did not figure in the lone Team Europe score.

* Earlier on Tuesday, the Flyers assigned the following players -- all 2016 draftees -- back to their junior teams: Connor Bunnaman, Samuel Dove-McFalls, Carter Hart, Pascal Laberge, Anthony Salinitri and Carsen Twarynski. Additionally, camp invite defensemen Garrett McFadden and Brennan Menell were released from their amateur tryouts.


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