Wrap: Flyers Lose on Long Island, 2-1
The Philadelphia Flyers dropped to 1-4-0 in preseason play as they lost, 2-1, to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Sunday evening. Unlike their previous three losses, the Flyers avoided a large-scale drop-off in any period. The game was pretty evenly played overall, despite the fact that the Islanders had many of their top players in the lineup (Mathew Barzal, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, and others) and the banged-up Flyers are missing many notables.
The first period was scoreless. In the second period, the Flyers and Islanders traded off power play goals by Tony DeAngelo (1st, 5-on-3 PPG) and Kyle Palmieri (1st, 5-on-4 PPG). At 15:18, a seeing-eye point shot by Scott Mayfield (1st) off a broken play sent the Islanders to the second intermission with a 2-1 lead. There was no further scoring in the third period.
Samuel Ersson looked sharp in stopping 21 of 23 shots. Semyon Varlamov played the first two periods for the Islanders, making 16 saves on 17 shots. Jakub Skarek went the rest of the way, stopping all eight shots in faced including chances in the waning seconds of the game for Noah Cates and DeAngelo.
Olle Lycksell - Scott Laughton - Owen Tippett
Jackson Cates-Noah Cates - Wade Allison
Morgan Frost - Adam Brooks - Tyson Foerster
Nicolas Deslauriers - Tanner Laczynski - Hayden Hodgson
Kevin Connauton - Tony DeAngelo
Cam York - Justin Braun
Egor Zamula - Louie Belpedio
Samuel Ersson
[Troy Grosenick]
For more on the game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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Quick Hits and Musings: Oct. 3, 2022
1) The Flyers have scored just five goals in five preseason games. They've scored two on the power play (both at 5-on-3) and three at 5-on-5. Morgan Frost has assisted on three of the five goals including primary helpers in setting up both of their 5-on-3 goals (with Tyson Foerster collecting the secondary assists on both).
2) Partially due to the wave of injuries once again afflicting the team and partially as an opportunity to take an extended look at young players, various players have dressed in four of the five preseason games to date: Noah Cates, Jackson Cates, Owen Tippett, Frost, Tanner Laczynski, Cam York and Egor Zamula among them. Travis Konecny, who is healthy and looked dominant at times in the preseason game in Buffalo, has only dressed in one of the five. Kevin Hayes and Scott Laughton have played in two games apiece.
3) Cam Atkinson (day-to-day, upper body injury) has practiced throughout the past week but has not played in any preseason games and only in the first of two intrasquad scrimmages. Joel Farabee (offseason neck surgery) has practiced daily throughout camp and is technically not cleared for contact but he's engaged in plenty of contact at practice while awaiting clearance to return to play. Sean Couturier (back, officially week-to-week) remains off the ice and has not practiced.
4) Among the players who have been playing regularly, Noah Cates has arguably been the team's best and most consistent all-around player. Older brother Jackson has also had a very good camp and outplayed Laczynski (who isn't having a bad camp but not as good as the elder Cates brother's all-around showing). Frost's camp has been a mixture of encouraging signs (the three assists and points in five of six exhibitions/scrimmages, demonstrably stronger on the walls, winning the decided majority of his faceoffs especially on his strong side, blocking shots, killing penalties) and areas he still needs to clean up or at least demonstrate more start-to-finish consistency.
York had by far his best game of the preseason on Sunday; very assertive and engaged in all situations. Previously, he'd been publicly challenged by three different coaches -- head coach John Tortorella, assistant coach Brad Shaw and Lehigh Valley head coach Ian Laperriere to push himself to elevate his game and to make routine plays routinely.
5) Carter Hart (day-to-day, lower body injury) took part in Sunday's optional morning skate in Voorhees, as did Farabee and Ivan Provorov. The Flyers' No. 1 goalie has yet to appear in a preseason game and only played one scrimmage due to a minor injury sustained in three-player collision at the net during a Sept. 24 practice. Hart said he will be fine for opening night and has been getting held out for precautionary reasons. He hopes to play in the preseason finale agains the Islanders on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center.
6) With Hart semi-sidelined (he's been on the ice regularly, just not in games), the best goalie in camp has been Ersson. Felix Sandström was also having a strong camp before he had to leave Saturday's game in Boston after the first period with a lower-body injury. Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher did not provide a Sandström update on Sunday. Troy Grosenick has looked decent overall in camp but not to the same level as the two Swedes. In the bigger picture, the injuries to Hart and Sandström are worrisome but, in the immediate term, goalie play has been a positive during camp.
7) Monday is a complete off-day for the Flyers. A slew of roster cuts are expected to be announced come Wednesday.
8) After Sunday's morning skate, I asked Tortorella about the Flyers' seeming tendency -- including but not limited to the majority of players in the age 21-to-24 category -- to make some good plays when things are going well for the team as a whole but to lack assertiveness when things are going against the team. He did not deny that it's an area of concern, nor just limited to the younger players.
'We have a ways to go in learning to carry ourselves with confidence and a professional attitude when the momentum turns. That's a mental thing, not physical. It is a concern," Tortorella said.
On Monday's edition of Flyers Daily, Jason Myrtetus and I discuss why (along with hammering home physical conditioning) Tortorella has played so much of his emphasis on what might be called "mental conditioning"). Systems work finally got started a couple days ago and will continue to be installed between Wednesday at the regular season opener on Oct. 13. But the mental toughness and physical conditioning messaging has been a constant and will continue to be emphasized relentlessly.
Jason and I also discussed to team's last four preseason losses -- 2-1 to Buffalo, 3-1 to Washington, 4-0 to Boston and last night's 2-1 loss to the Islanders with 21, 21, 21 and 25 shots on goal generated. We talk about what can and can't be inferred. My view is this: Until the Flyers PROVE that they are better offensively that the team that finished 31st in GPG and dead last on the power play last year, the anemic output of the past week is not out of character regardless of it being the preseason and who is present or absent in the lineup. Over the latter part of last season, the Flyers DID improve in generating shots and chances (which hasn't been the case in the preseason) but they were still getting modest dividends on the cash register.
I do believe, however, that the Flyers will be a better defensive team than the last two seasons and they will more consistently play within structure. Even as the team has only had one day of in-depth systems work so far, I see a conscious effort among pretty much everyone who has played to be responsible without the puck. Thus, the fact that the Flyers have held opponents to two or one goal in three of the five preseason games (four of five if you exclude Washington's empty net goal in Wednesday's 3-1 loss), has to be considered an early encouraging sign if we are to read the severe lack of scoring output as a troubling one.
To listen to the podcast,
click here.
9) In case you have not been able to watch the preseason games thus far, here's a quick synopsis of each of the five goals the team has scored so far. The big picture, of course, is that they call be described in a single Quick Hit.
Sept. 24 vs BOS (2-1 win)
Noah Cates (Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster) 1:42 of the 2nd period
On a 5-on-3 power play, the rebound of a Foerster shot went to Frost near the left post. Frost made a backhanded pass across to Noah Cates for a slam dunk. The goal gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Jackson Cates (Egor Zamula, Hayden Hodson) 15;20 of the 3rd period
With the score tied at 1-1, Hodgson's forechecking work helped get the puck out to Egor Zamula at the left point. From the mid-slot, Jackson Cates deflected Zamula's shot into the net for the game-winning goal.
Sept. 27 @ BUF (2-1 loss)
Travis Konecny (James vanRiemsdyk, Morgan Frost) 14:42 of the first period.
This was the Flyers only goal of the preseason scored off the rush. Good puck movement from Frost to James van Riemsdyk to Konency through the neutral zone enabled the Flyers to gain the attack zone with speed. On a nicely executed give-and-go with JVR, Konecny finished it off from the bottom of the right circle. The tally tied the score at 1-1.
Sept 28 vs. WSH (3-1 loss)
Kevin Hayes (Owen Tippett) 3:44 of the third period.
He didn't get an assist on the play, but Wade Allison made the sequence possible. On the forecheck, Allison forced a Washington turnover along the left side boards. Tippett claimed the puck and the Flyers now had a mini 2-on-1. Tippett made a nice cross-ice feed to Hayes, who finished it into the open right side of the net.
Oct. 2 @ NYI (2-1 loss)
Tony DeAngelo (Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster) at 3:26 of the second period.
Noah Cates won a faceoff and Philadelphia went to work with good puck movement. The puck went high-to-low and Foerster passed around to Frost. From behind the net, Frost centered a feed in front to DeAngelo at the right hash marks and the offensive defenseman fired a shot home for a 1-0 lead. The goal gave the Flyers a temporary 1-0 lead.
10) Episode 2 of the Flyers preseason docuseries, The Standard, will be posted this evening to the team's official YouTube page. I will have an episode recap on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
11) On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers PowerPlay power wheelchair team -- the winners of the last two North American power wheelchair hockey championship against teams from across the United States and Canada before the pandemic scuttled the tourney in 2020 and 2021 -- played a wheelchair game against a team of Flyers Alumni and Flyers front office staff at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers PowerPlay side won, 12-8. Participating Flyers Alumni included Brad Marsh, Doug Crossman, Chris Therien, Riley Cote Todd Fedoruk, Neil Little and Bob Kelly.
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