The Philadelphia Flyers sported a roster mainly consisting of AHL players in their pre-season matchup against the Boston Bruins last night. On the other hand, the Bruins played many NHL regulars in their lineup. As one could guess, the results skewed in the Bruins favour as the veteran-laden team managed to control the play for most of the evening and best the Flyers 4-2. Due to the majority of Flyers players in the lineup aside from Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, JVR, Scott Laughton, Nate Thompson, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen and Martin Jones likely being AHL bound there wasn’t much that could be taken away from this pre-season bout from a Flyers perspective. Considering the roster the Bruins put together tonight it’s surprising the score was as close as 4-2.
First off, the Flyers opened the scoring on a power play that saw Joel Farabee pick up where he left off from his breakout campaign in 2020-2021. Potential second line center Morgan Frost made a very high talent play along the boards keeping the puck in and maneuvering it around two Boston forwards to JVR who was positioned down low by the corner boards. JVR then passed the puck to Farabee in the low slot who potted his first pre-season goal.
From that point on however the tide of the game turned into the Bruins favor, as they scored the next 4 goals straight. The Bruins converted on two power play chances where the goals were essentially broken plays. The first goal against saw Sanheim lose a puck battle while Ristolainen chased the play to the other side of the ice leaving Brad Marchand open for an easy goal. Newly acquired goaltender Martin Jones had no chance to make a save here. In particular that play could be a microcosm of what we potentially may see from the Sanheim-Ristolainen pairing throughout this season. Despite that possibility the two defenseman are working off the rust in their games and the Flyers will be hoping plays like that don’t continue into the regular season.
One goal that will have Flyers fans pondering over how things may play out in the regular season was the 3rd goal against. Martin Jones dropped to the butterfly position well before the puck left Brandon Carlo’s stick and Carlo made the goaltender pay, roofing a slapshot from the top right circle. This was undoubtedly a goal Jones would like to have back. It’s also worth noting Jones’ positioning on the play and over aggressiveness in dropping to his butterfly position so early are all staples of his game from his last few seasons in San Jose. Coach Alain Vigneault did point out in his post game press conference that the puck deflected off of Linus Sandin’s stick before it reached Jones. Although, the positioning of Jones during this goal is not something that tends to bring much success to goaltenders in the NHL. Typically patience is key and dropping into the butterfly so early is something the Flyers will want to gradually ensure Jones works out of his game. Aside from that goal against, Jones did all he could on the other goals against. The veteran goaltender showed a solid outing for his first pre-season game against a veteran Boston team with a young Flyers lineup playing in front of him.
The final goal of the evening saw Joel Farabee rifle a snipe from just above the left circle off of a nice setup feed from Cam York. Based on the play of Farabee in this game it looks like he’s going to be continuing his strong play from last season into the regular season. If he and Frost can find some chemistry they could be a dangerous duo. Also, seeing Cam York contribute positively is something the coaches will be happy with as I thought the young defenseman struggled at times at 5 on 5 throughout the game tonight. Overall, in just the second pre-season game of six for the Flyers there are still many question marks about the team but that is likely as a result of their lineups still not being NHL calibre at this point. Until the team begins putting out rosters onto the ice with several more NHL players involved it will be hard to take much away from these games apart from keying in on individual performances.
Speaking of that here are a few takeaways from tonight’s game:
- Joel Farabee is the real deal and is continuing his great play from the previous season in which he led the team in goal scoring. If Farabee can continue to improve that will be a real asset for the Flyers especially if he can take the leap to becoming a point a game player. As I predicted earlier in an off-season piece I believe the young forward can challenge for being this teams point scoring leader in the upcoming season, if he is given adequate power play ice time.
- Cam York didn’t have the best of games this evening at least in terms of 5 on 5 play. York seemed to struggle on the boards against the heavier Boston team and their forecheck. Though he did manage to show how valuable of an asset he can be for a team quarterbacking their power play, through a great setup feed to Joel Farabee. If this game is an indication of things to come it seems as though York is destined to begin the season in the AHL. He’ll likely need to work on some more details in his game before he is deemed NHL ready.
- Rasmus Ristolainen looked good tonight. The towering defenseman was physical on the boards and in front of the net when battling for pucks and positioning. While also exiting the zone very effectively. Aside from one penalty killing mishap, he and Sanheim seemed to play well off of each other. Sanheim’s puck moving ability and Ristolainen’s physicality could make for a good second pair. If the two can continue to mesh and gain chemistry with one another regarding the positioning in their defensive zone and fluidity of their zone exits the pairing should work in theory.
