Photo Credit: Frankie Steskal
This past Saturday afternoon the Flyers rookies beat the New York Rangers rookies 6-3, and on Sunday the Flyers rookies fell 3-2. But, overall they did show promise in the loss, and both netminders in Kirill Ustimenko and Samuel Ersson played rather well this weekend.
However, Sunday’s loss came with a heavy price, as Wade Allison had to be helped off the ice and helped into the locker room as he exited with an apparent leg injury of some sort. Wade Allison put forth a great Developmental and Rookie Camp, it’s a shame that this injury overshadows all the good that some Flyers rookies have endured through camps with the likes of Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster, Wyatte Wylie, Egor Zamula, Linus Sandin, Kirill Ustimenko, and Samuel Ersson in particular.
“Well, I’m sure he is going to take it hard,” new Lehigh Valley Phantoms Head Coach Ian Laperrière said following the game. “No matter what. If it’s a week, two weeks, a month or two months. You put in all that work in the summer. You came in. He looked great all week. He looked great yesterday. He played the way he should be playing, in a rookie game. He only knows one way to play. Again, I really feel bad for him. Unfortunately, it’s part of the game. Injuries are part of the game, especially when you play that style of hockey. Again, I don’t know what the injury is and hopefully it’s going to be a quick one.”
“Yeah, I can’t say it enough. I feel for kids like him, just doing all that work and playing the right way. He could have come to camp. He played NHL games last year. Could have taken it easy, flowed out there but he didn’t. He played his style. He played physical, probably why he got hurt. Again, I do really feel for a kid like that.” – Phantoms Head Coach Ian Laperrière
Wade was indeed very physical this past weekend, and you couldn’t tell him that it was a rookie game. He was hitting, fighting. Unfortunately, he went to issue a hit last night and his right leg apparently got tangled between the player/boards, and had to be helped off the ice, into the locker room. Hockey is a physical sport, and sometimes these ugly injuries happen to good players.
“He’s a warrior. One of my good buddies. I hope he gets better.” – Morgan Frost
On brighter notes, Morgan Frost looked bigger, stronger, as he played both the power play and penalty kill. Ian Laperrière did state if Frost played in Lehigh, he would expect him to play on the penalty kill, which is great as the Flyers organization could use more skilled players in that particular area.
Cam York tallied a big Power Play goal last night. I say big because he is a quarterback of the future for the Flyers organization with the man advantage. He ripped home a shot, while York really showed his calmness and poise with the manning the top power play unit.
Both goalies in Ustimenko and Ersson played well in both games. They both moved laterally post to post well, and Ersson clears the porch himself by pushing players out of his way to see the puck.
“I like both of them,” Laperrière said. “I know we gave up 2 PK goals there, but he made a couple of big saves, explosive saves. That’s the new generation of goalies. You think that they’re beat, but all of the sudden they are over there. It was pretty cool to watch. I’ve never seen [Samuel] play. I saw Usty play, well practice with us last year. It was nice to see just the way he was moving out there. Both of them had great weeks. They look great all week. I felt like they looked good today.”
Another Rookie Camp comes to a close, as training camp starts Thursday September 23, 2021. What will happen is anybody’s guess, would like to the injury to Allison is not serious.
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Samuel Morin
A very credible reporter in Anthony SanFilippo has reported that he heard Morin has sustained a significant injury this past weekend in practice. I will have a full report when it’s released by the Flyers.
