Preseason Gameday: Flyers vs. Rangers
Playing their final North American game of the 2019 preseason, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-2) are in Manhattan on Thursday night to take on David Quinn's New York Rangers (1-3-0). Game time at Madison Square Garden is 7 p.m. EDT.
The game will be televised on MSG. There is no Philadelphia area television broadcast for this game. The radio broadcast is available on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast at
Flyers Radio 24/7.
After Thursday's game, the Flyers with gather at the Skate Zone on Friday but will not have practice before departing at night for Switzerland. The team will hold a practice in Lausanne before playing Swiss National League club Lausanne HC on Monday.
As of Thursday morning, there are still 27 players in the Flyers' camp, including injured players. Chuck Fletcher indicated on Wednesday that he expects the season-opening roster to change fairly quickly after the opener in Prague, and for there to be significant player movement and and down from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms within the first six weeks of the season.
All of the remaining opening roster bubble players who are available to play will be in the lineup on Thursday at MSG. Three players who are locks for the roster -- the defense pairing of Shayne Gostisbehere and Justin Braun, plus winger Oskar Lindblom -- are likely to be rested until the team goes to Europe.
There will not be a morning skate for the Flyers on Thursday. Based on Wednesday morning's practice -- which saw injury rehabbing players Morgan Frost (groin) and Tyler Pitlick (off-season left wrist surgery) skate and the healthy regular starters who are not slated to appear on Thursday practice per normal -- the Flyers lineup against the Rangers will be:
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 13 Kevin Hayes - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Michael Raffl - 21 Scott Laughton - 49 Joel Farabee
81 Carsen Twarynski - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 44 Chris Stewart
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
8 Robert Hägg - 15 Matt Niskanen
55 Sam Morin - 5 - Phil Myers
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
Scratches: 25 James van Riemsdyk, 53 Shayne Gostisbehere, 61 Justin Braun.
Injured: 48 Morgan Frost (groin, day-to-day), 18 Tyler Pitlick (wrist, week-to-week), 19 Nolan Patrick (upper body, week to week), 3 Andy Welinski (lower body, week-to-week).
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Quick Hits: September 26, 2019
1) If you missed Episode 1 of Behind the Glass on NHL Network, which looks at the Flyers' training camp, here is a rundown of
memomorable moments and quotes from the installment that debuted on Monday night. The article also contains the upcoming broadcast schedule for each new episode.
In the first episode, there were segments devoted to Claude Giroux discussing his outlook at this stage of his career, new head coach Alain Vigneault addressing his team on the first day of camp, and Kevin Hayes talking about his decision to come to Philadelphia.
The program then moved to brief segments on second-year NHL Carter Hart (accompanying him on a grocery shopping errand) and rookie pros Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. The subsequent feature looked at the arrival of Travis Konecny in camp after signing a new six-year contract and made mention of Ivan Provorov's new deal as well. Interspersed throughout was commentary from Chuck Fletcher, Vigneault and the players themselves.
Veteran pro Chris Stewart discussed his tryout with the Flyers in the next feature, acknowledging that it might be his "last kick at the can" to re-establish himself as an NHL roster player. A player competing with Stewart for the same role on the team, Kurtis Gabriel, talked about his belief that the time was right for himself to land a regular spot with the Flyers rather than shuttling between the NHL and AHL.
The final segments of the show were, arguably, the most memorable portion of the opening episode. The program runs through each of the team's first two preseason games. The behind-the-scenes access is at its most dramatic in documenting Gabriel's left knee injury in the third period of the game in Uniondale; including his painful journey up the tunnel (with assistance from Carter Hart), and pleading aloud that his injury not be as bad as he and the team feared it to be at the time.
Before concluding with a pan-out shot from the team training complex at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, there is coverage of a meeting with Chuck Fletcher, Brent Flahr and the hockey operations staff talking with Vigneault and his assistant coaches the day after the second preseason game. The show depicts some candid opinions from Vigneault and assistant coach Mike Yeo in particular.
2) Scott Laughton has had an exemplary training camp for the Flyers this September. If one walked into the Skate Zone without knowing anything about the roster and players, Laughton could easily be mistaken for a player who was trying to make the team rather than as a lock for the roster. He reported in outstanding physical condition and has competed his tail off, not just in preseason games but also day-to-day in practice.
Laughton said the other day that he doesn't feel he can ever take anything for granted, especially in light of his early career experiences that saw him spend nearly a full season back in the American Hockey League (2016-17) after being in the NHL the prior year. At this stage of his career, Laughton has nothing to worry about in terms of securing a roster spot. Even so, he feels there's always something to play for and something to prove.
"No matter what profession you are in, you've got to work hard as you can and try to get better every day. That's why I try to do. I'm still fighting for a spot. There's a lot of young kids coming in. There's a lot veteran guys who are in on tryouts and [two-way contracts]. who are trying to make the team. I'm trying to move up in the lineup and get those minutes. I've got to show what I can do to this new coaching staff -- they're all new -- to help this team and be a consistent player," Laughton said.
Alain Vigneault has noticed. Last week, he singled out Laughton, along with Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux, as veterans who have shown the kind of passion and day-in-day-out commitment he wants from the entire team.
For more,
click here.
3) During Wednesday's practice, Flyers PTO winger Chris Stewart was one of five players participating during a shootout segment during practice. There was a lot of joking around in the pressbox that Stewart, if he makes the team, would be just about the last guy asked to take a shootout attempt.
Colby Cohen, who was on-hand for practice and recalled Stewart as being good on breakaways and shootouts, looked up Stewart's lifetime shootout numbers on Hockey Reference. It turns out that he is 12-for-28 (42.9%) in his NHL career in shootouts, and also 3-for-3 on penalty shot opportunities. If he were to make the team, Stewart would actually enter the 2019-20 season with the highest shootout success rate of any player on the Flyers' roster.
Shootout ability alone won't get Stewart a spot on the team, nor a spot in the lineup if he does get offered a contract. However, if he makes it and gets into the lineup, deploying him in a shootout would be a potential use for him if any given game were to get to a skills competition. Of course, his main reason for dressing would be to provide size and toughness in limited minutes.
Stewart was a two-time 28-goal scorer in the NHL much earlier in his career. He actually does have good hands. The hands are the one things that remain after other parts of players' bodies and games break down over time.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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