Flyers Lose 4-2 in Boston
A Flyers squad comprised of at least 10 players who will likely start the 2021-22 regular season in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms took on a Boston Bruins side that was largely composed of its NHL regulars. The result was a 4-2 win for Boston after the Bruins dominated the first period and skated to intermission with a 3-1 lead.
For the Flyers, all the offense came via two power play goals from Joel Farabee; one in the first period and another in the third. On the first, an excellent backhanded saucer pass by James van Riemsdyk set up Farabee in point blank range. JVR also got a secondary assist on the latter goal by Farabee. Cam York started the sequence with a strong keep at the left point. The Flyers showed good puck movement and then York teed up one a one-timer for Farabee that the latter blasted into the net with van Riemsdyk in front.
Power plays -- both the parade to the box for both teams, especially in the first period, and the combined four goals on the man advantage for the two teams -- were a big part of Thursday's game. After Farabee opened the scoring, Boston converted a broken play into a power play goal by a wide open Brad Marchand after Taylor Hall got the puck to him. Craig Smith then tallied a PPG off a cross-ice feed from Nick Foligno.
The biggest killer for the Flyers was a 4-on-4 goal scored by defenseman Brandon Carlo high to the short side on Martin Jones from outside the right faceoff dot. Although the puck deflected off the stick of Linus Sandin and rose in Skee-Ball fashion, it was a shot that Jones had to have.
In the second period, a power move by Jake DeBrusk from below the goal to the net ahead of the stick checking attempt of Morgan Frost led to a jam-in goal and a 4-1 lead for the Bruins. That was the lone goal that Felix Sandström yielded in his roughly 30 minutes of play after replacing Jones.
Jeremy Swayman went the full route in net for Boston, stopping 16 of 18 shots. He made one good stop on a Tyson Foerster scoring chance but otherwise wasn't really tested much. At the other end of the ice, Jones was not busy at all in the roughly 10 minutes he played in the second period. Sandström was tested several times and played well overall.
After the final horn, the two teams played a pre-planned shootout. Boston won, 1-0, in four rounds; making it a night where the Flyers lost both in regulation and via (an unofficial) shootout. Frost, Farabee, Scott Laughton and Foerster were the Flyers' shooters.
Positives from the game:
1) Farabee's two goals on two shots and the setup work done by JVR and York. 2) Rasmus Ristolainen set a physical tone right off the hop and played fairly well defensively in tandem with Travis Sanheim at 5-on-5 in their first preseason game action.
3) Sandström was locked in on his angles, and looked quick and confident in goal.
4) After Boston cashed in on their first two power plays, the Flyers did a better job on the next three kills. Laughton and Nate Thompson stepped up on the latter PK opportunities . 5) Nicolas Aube-Kubel played under control and made some positive things happen with his north-south game.
6) York eventually settled in, primarily on the power play, after a rough start to the game.
7) Nick Seeler took two penalties but also brought a similar physical, shot-blocking presence on Thursday as he did in Tuesday's opener.
Negatives:
1) In fairness to Frost, he hadn't played an NHL game -- Rookie Games and a scrimmage do not count -- since mid-January and his line saw a lot of Patrice Bergeron and company on Thursday. But Frost really struggled on this night, any way you slice it. He had few puck touches, and bobbled or hurriedly got rid of many of the ones he did touch (actually, the Farabee goal started with Frost being taken off the puck on the right boards). He lost a few too many 50-50 battles as well. To win the 2C spot out of camp, he'll have to play better.
2) Jones was not to blame for the first two Boston goals but, deflection aside, the Carlo goal was from an angle where the puck should have hit Jones if he had the short-side sealed. 3) None of the AHL-bound players, including the highly-touted 19-year-old Foerster, were able to step up and make an impression.
4) York had his share of difficulties at 5-on-5 before settling in over the latter part of the game. The cross-checking penalty he took that led to the Marchand power play goal was a ticky-tack penalty but there's a leaguewide crackdown plus York is a rookie; making him a prime target to get called.
5) Five-on-five play was pretty scarce over the first 30 minutes of the game but it should be said that the overmatched Flyers struggled mightily to generate any sort of attack. The benefited from a couple of silly penalties taken by Jakub Zboril and Matt Grzelcyk. Defensively, the Flyers started out poorly but got better as the game went along -- they were also decent overall in that regard in the opening 3-2 OT loss to the Islanders on Tuesday. However, there was little offensive flow from Philly at even strength all night. Being undermanned played into it.
6) The practice shootout, apart from the goaltending work by Sandström, looked like too many Flyers regular season shootouts. Had this been a "real" skills competition with an extra point on the line, Philly would have come up on the short end.
For more on Thursday's game, see the Postgame 5 on the Flyers official website: Two goals by Farabee not enough. Over on the Flyers Daily podcast, Jason Myrtetus and I discussed the two preseason games to date, and what has stood out either positively or negatively. One of the big positives was the rock steady play of Ryan Ellis in his Flyers preseason debut on Tuesday. To listen, click here.
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Quick Hits: October 1, 2021
1) The Flyers will hold a 12:30 p.m. practice on Friday at the Flyers Training Center (FTC) in Voorhees. It should be mostly the main group on the ice. Ian Laperriere's group of youngsters and AHL-bound players will be on the other ice surface at 11 a.m. EDT.
2) The Flyers' injury woes continue to grow: Prospect defenseman Egor Zamula will miss 3-to-4 weeks with a fairly mild (1.5 to 2, according Alain Vigneault) issue said to be in his groin and/or hip.
3) TNT had all sorts of technical difficulties during the network's debut hockey broadcast. The video went out several times. For much of the second period, problems with the main tracking camera forced them to use an ice level camera outside the blueline that was far from ideal to see any sort of play develop away from the puck. If you didn't watch the broadcast, imagine a dog sitting near the bench and tilting his head in confusion with one eye closed. That's what trying to follow the play was like for that portion of the game.
4) I really miss the Eleven Network broadcasts of live SHL games. Without those, the only option in North America is to seek out dodgy streams (if one were inclined to do such a thing) or to watch the postgame highlight video packages on SHL.se. At any rate, Flyers prospect Olle Lycksell, after recording five points through his team's first five games, did not get on the scoresheet in the Và¤xjö Lakers' 3-1 road win in Malmö on Thursday. He registered two shots on goal on three attempts in 15:04 of ice time. The Lakers, with 12 points, are in first place in SHL through six games.
5) Today in Flyers History: October 1, 1992
Flyers general manager Russ Farwell made two trades on this day in 1992. He acquired former first-round pick Brent Fedyk from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for a 1993 fourth-round pick (Charles Paquette). Fedyk would go on to skate on line with Mark Recchi and rookie Eric Lindros dubbed the Crazy Eights line (Fedyk wore No. 18, Lindros famously wore No. 88 and Recchi was No. 8).
On the same day, with highly regarded young goaltender Tommy Söderström dealing with a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, the Flyers tried to add to their goaltending depth beyond incumbent Dominic Roussel. Farwell acquired Stephane Beauregard from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a 1993 third-round pick and future considerations. The latter part was satisfied after the season when Philly added a 1994 fifth-round selection to complete the deal. Beauregard, who struggled mightily as a Flyer, returned to the Jets the next season.
6) Oct. 1 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Denis Gauthier (1976), Larry Keenan (1940), Mike Maneluk (1973), Johnny Oduya (1981), Alexei Zhamnov (1970).