If Flyers fans watched closely yesterday. Alain Vigneault divided the team into the Flyers, and a lot of the Phantoms were on the other ice. As time goes on the team will be divided up into a random pairing to give some of the young prospects chomping at the bit a chance to showcase themselves against the pros, mainly gaining valuable experience just in case their number gets called. Vigneault is purposely doing this to see who’s ready, “Tomorrow, Provy’s going to be with somebody else,” Vigneault said yesterday, “I’m going to mix and match for the first two days, forwards and defense. Come Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5, moving forward, we’ll obviously take a look at a couple different options. Because of the fact that there are no true exhibition games, just one intrasquad game, we’re going to have to make up our mind and make the decisions. When we went into the bubble in Toronto, we had those three games and right into the playoffs right away. We made some important decisions for the team’s benefit right away based on performances. This is a shortened season. Guys are going to have to be on top of their game right away. Our first objective obviously is to get into the playoffs. We’ll have a little bit of time to look at some options. Hopefully we get that chemistry that’s needed early to have a good start. The start that we need to be what we believe will be a playoff team and one of the teams that took a giant step last year and needs to take another step this year.”
This year’s group is pretty much the same as last years, minus Matt Niksanen (Retirement), and adding Erik Gustafsson. However, there are tons of prospects that are chomping at the bit to impress as some are or nearing NHL ready with the likes of Mark Friedman, Morgan Frost, Tanner Laczynski (Sidelined from core muscle surgery in the offseason), Wade Allsion, Linus Sandin, Yegor Zamula, and you can throw Wyatte Wylie in that mix to impress, as well.
Zayde Wisdom returned to practice after not practicing the day prior, and had a great scrimmage feeding Kevin Hayes for a goal. Samuel Morin had a great day today as he is always in the right spots to clean up the trash. Morin and TK were doing drills, and doing line rushes up the ice. TK scored a goal five-hole, but what was impressive was Morin joining the rush with his stick on the ice to clean up the trash.
What can be said of #86 Joel Farabee. His work ethic just really shows as he blows by everyone, and pushes the play up the ice. Farabee is always in position to make the RIGHT play, and his line of JvR, and Frost was just filthy today in a good way. They had instant chemistry, so this will be interesting to see how this pans out in the future. Farabee, JvR, and Frost were really good today, and JvR potted a goal five hole in the shootout.
Now for the battle. The Flyers defensive pairings could get very interesting, considering the Flyers have to figure out how many Defensemen they want to carry on their roster of 23.
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Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Erik Gustafsson, and Philippe Myers would be locks in my opinion, the other two vacant spots could be anyone’s guess. If I had to guess Mark Friedman is in another class of his own judging from his fresh new contract he signed this past Summer, so in my opinion he might very well make the roster of 23. I do not believe he would clear waivers if the Flyers try to send him to the Taxi Squad. Any player that is sent to the Taxi Squad roster MUST clear waivers if they are no longer waiver exempt, “I know we don’t have a lot of time to get ready and each team has their own philosophy,” Vigneault said, “A lot of teams have gone with their set lines and set units and their sub group right away. I wanted to look at the big picture. I wanted to see some of our younger guys right away with some of the veteran guys.”
Group A Lines and Pairings:
Giroux-Couturier-Sandin
Lindblom-Patrick-NAK
JvR-Frost-Farabee
Raffl-Hayes-Wisdom
Provorov-Friedman
Hagg-Gostisbehere
Sanheim-Pouliot
Zamula-Myers
Nolan Patrick what a move in the shootout during the scrimmage:
Can’t forget the goalies right? Look at Robert Hägg playing goalie doing a Tyler Pitlick from last season, and Brian Elliott had another good day at camp:
Samuel Morin:
Danny Briere @DannyBriere48 has become sort of a mentor to Morin:
“Danny B is great. He is such a good person. The advice he gave me was- like this morning I was watching my game yesterday on tape and when you are a big guy, people notice you right.”
“Yesterday I was with Laughts on the lines, so I asked him a lot of questions. Laughts is a guy that plays all kinds of roles, so he knows what to do. Today I was with TK and Bunnaman so I asked them a lot of questions. But obviously, there is no one here that does what I do. Like you can’t really point a guy that has that role. I’ve been watching tape of Matt Martin.”
Ghost:
Ghost on the trade rumors:
“Obviously, I pay attention to it because it’s my life and I’ve built a life here in Philly. Obviously, I am going to pay attention. It’s definitely not the best when you hear your name in trade rumors, but nothing happened, and I am happy to be here.”
“I’m healthy and feel really good right now. This is the first time in a couple of years that I feel really good. I think it was a good talk, and like I said, it’s a clean slate going into the season.”
Joel Farabee:
Farabee said #86 is his favorite number, and the first number he wore growing up. He’s also up to around 185 weight-wise,which is great because last developmental Camp I think he was around 170 he said to me.
“We will do everything to have a safe and healthy season.”
Alain Vigneault:
Vigneault said that they do not know if they’re going to carry seven or eight defenseman on the 23-man roster. He did say that the Taxi Squad roster could be of help for this.
Pictures:
What will day 3 bring, who knows, stay with us and find out tomorrow.
Thank you Flyers Nitty Gritty. Great coverage and it’s like water to a man lost in the desert ! Keep it coming !