The Philadelphia Flyers never quite looked ready to play against the Montreal Canadiens in Tuesday night’s preseason game, and the 4-2 final score reflected that. However, the performance wasn’t all bad.
The Canadiens jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals from Cole Caufield and Florian Xhekaj, and Xhekaj’s goal was one goalie Sam Ersson will want back for sure.
The Canadiens prospect found an open zone with Nick Deslauriers and Ethan Samson pursuing Tyler Thorpe in the corner, received the puck, and fired a weak shot through Ersson’s glove side.
Prior to that, Caufield converted on a partial 3-on-2 where defensemen Helge Grans and Nick Seeler were the only two players back. Captain Sean Couturier fumbled the puck under pressure on the wall in the offensive zone, allowing Nick Suzuki to break free in the neutral zone.
Seeler was too passive in his defense on the play, as Suzuki gained the Flyers’ offensive zone with his only two pass options still outside the blueline. Grans covered Lane Hutson in the middle and possibly expected winger support on the weak side, but Caufield was all alone to get his one-timer off 53 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead.
Overall, I liked Grans’s game after this play, but I’ll need to see more from him to say with conviction that he deserves an NHL roster spot. Fortunately, there is still a lot of preseason left to play.
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As for other roster hopefuls, Dennis Gilbert surprisingly looked effective next to Travis Sanheim on the Flyers’ top defense pairing. The 28-year-old journeyman helped get the Flyers on the board midway through the second period, springing Anthony Richard for a breakaway with a long-range breakout pass and getting Philadelphia within a goal at 2-1.
Aleksei Kolosov took over for Sam Ersson after one period, contrary to what Rick Tocchet said at morning skate earlier in the day, and made 12 saves on 13 shots (.923).
The one goal he did allow was the straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back; Nick Suzuki’s second-period goal stood as the game-winner.
Defensively, the Flyers were again a mess on this play.
Hunter McDonald didn’t play Suzuki with enough urgency after Slafkovsky set up shop, and Oscar Eklind and Ethan Samson actually deflected Suzuki’s shot over Kolosov’s shoulder, with the Belarusian clearly expecting a low shot.
Owen Tippett mercifully delivered the Flyers a power play goal on the evening to make it 3-2, but the power play overall looked poor.
Winger Alex Bump hardly had a kick up until the third period, but finished the night as the Flyers’ most dangerous offensive player.
Bump started on a line with Deslauriers and Jett Luchanko, but eventually swapped places with Richard and joined up with Couturier and Bobby Brink.
That line was too sloppy and ineffective for a preseason game, but once Bump came aboard, things started clicking more.
The 21-year-old probably should have scored on a breakaway opportunity, too, but after deking Kaapo Kahkonen out of his skates, the finishing touch just went off the side of the net. You can guarantee Bump won’t mess up that finish again.
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For me, Bump and Luchanko should be put in more opportunistic positions by head coach Rick Tocchet in the next exhibition game they feature in.
It’s nothing against Deslauriers, but he was drafted as a defenseman and is a career fighter. He’s just not capable of playing a game that suits Bump and Luchanko, and especially not at his age. It wasn’t fair to him or the two youngsters.
At the same time, it’s only preseason and there’s no need to overreact. I just believe that the youngsters should be simulating real game settings as often as possible, but wasting two periods with that combination in a building like the Bell Centre after arriving in Montreal hours earlier isn’t going to work.
Overall, it’s hard to say any players played poorly, because most of the team did, and it’s relative, especially given the circumstances.
Alex Bump was certainly the most impressive and flashy, closely followed by Sanheim, Gilbert, and Kolosov.
Nobody else did much of anything, so we’ll need to see more preseason action before considering jumping to any conclusions.
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