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Flyers Preseason Gameday: 9/21/19 vs. NYR

September 21, 2019, 7:42 AM ET [0 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
One night after accelerating the team's original roster cutdown timetable, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (0-2-1 on the preseason) will take on his former team, David Quinn's New York Rangers (0-2-0) at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. Game time is 7 p.m. EDT.

The game will be televised on NBCSP+ and NHL Network. The radio feed from 97.5 The Fanatic will, as always, be simulcasted online at Flyers Radio 24/7.

Saturday's original roster plan, featuring the roster and line combinations used in the Group A practice from Friday morning, was scrapped by Vigneault. He was unhappy with what he saw in the team's desultory 3-1 home loss to Boston on Thursday, in which a Bruins roster that had none of its stars and relatively few other NHL regulars outplayed a Flyers roster filled primarily with NHL regulars -- including the top forward line, two-thirds of the potential second line, and 4/6 or 5/6 of the opening night blueline -- in all three periods.

'Has nothing to do with outcomes. It has everything to do with the process. And, for me, the process needs to accelerate," Vigneault said.

Vigneault and general manager Chuck Fletcher decided instead to greatly expand the originally planned number of roster cuts in order to reduce the camp roster down to one practice group (18 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goalies). Vigneault decided to significantly increase the number of preseason games that the veteran locks for the roster will play. Additionally, a potential off-ice day on Sunday will be a full on-ice practice.

Eighteen roster cuts were made in all. As a result five originally planned starting forwards in Saturday's initial lineup will instead be assigned directly to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (non-waiver eligible players) or be placed on waivers on Saturday and assigned to the Phantoms on Sunday barring a waiver claim. The latter group includes both entry-level contracted prospects and veterans on AHL contracts rather than NHL deals.

There were no surprise names among the cuts, as all of the players were pre-camp longshots to make the NHL team out of camp. The most notable cut was 2017 second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe, who had a strong Rookie Camp but struggled both in practice drills and in game action during NHL camp. Another name of note were forward prospects David Kase, Maksim Sushko and Matthew Strome. All of the youngsters were originally slated to be in the lineup on Saturday night; in Strome's case, for the first time since the Rookie Game on Sept. 11.

Including injured players, the Flyers camp roster now stands at 36 players. Below is the full list of Friday night cuts.

Five players to be placed on waivers Saturday for purpose of AHL assignment:

26 Tyler Wotherspoon (D)
39 Nate Prosser (D)
43 TJ Brennan (D)
51 Kyle Criscuolo (RW)
60 Reece Willcox (D)

Thirteen players assigned to AHL camp with the Phantoms:

32 Felix Sandström (G)
46 Cal O’Reilly (C)
52 Greg Carey (LW)
64 Maksim Sushko (RW)
67 Kirill Ustimenko (G)
70 Gerry Fitzgerald (C)
71 David Drake (D)
72 David Kase (C)
75 Pascal Laberge (RW)
76 Isaac Ratcliffe (LW)
78 Matthew Strome (LW)
80 Rob Michel (D)
85 Josh Couturier (D)

The list of injured players in camp is as follows:

3 Andy Welinski D (lower-body, week to week )
18 Tyler Pitlick RW (wrist surgery, week to week)
19 Nolan Patrick C (upper body, week to week)
29 Kurtis Gabriel RW (lower-body, week to week)

Vigneault was asked on Friday if his track record -- coaching two Stanley Cup finalists, winning a Jack Adams Award, and winning a President's Trophy -- would enable him to get buy-in from the veterans in the Flyers locker room to play at least two more exhibition games than originally planned.

"They have no choice," Vigneault said. "That's just how it is."

Travis Konecny is still slated to make his first appearance of the 2019 preseason on Saturday. However, he will skate with two different linemates in the game after playing with Kevin Hayes and Oskar Lindblom at practice on Friday. Lindblom and Hayes, who were part of the same line on Day 1 and Day 2 of camp, may or may not remain together for Saturday.

One line from the original game group that may carry over from Friday's practice is the trio of Scott Laughton centering Michael Raffl and tryout veteran Chris Stewart. The rest of the combos will be different.

Several players from the original non-game group will now be in Saturday's starting lineup. The list could include many among Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek, James van Riemsdyk

Carter Hart will still get the start in goal on Saturday. He is slated to play the first and second periods, with J-F Berube coming in for the third period.

The Rangers dropped a 4-2 road decision in Newark to the New Jersey Devils on Friday. Based on Friday's roster, it is likely that the New York lineup against the Flyers will include many among superstar offseason addition Artemi Panarin, 2019 first-round pick Kaapo Kakko, top line center Mika Zibanejad, new top pair defenseman Jacob Trouba, collegiate hockey standout blueline addition Adam Fox, and/or goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. Henrik Lundqvist got the start against the Devils.

Rosters and/or lineups for both teams will be posted when available.
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