The Philadelphia Flyers take the ice again tonight against the Montreal Canadiens, following a strong performance against the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon.
Bobby Brink and Olle Lycksell are the only players on this roster that also played against the Capitals.
The Flyers were able to come away with a 6-2 victory over Washington, with multiple players having great outings as the team gets used to playing games in the leadup to their regular season opener.
Tempering Expectations
The win in their first preseason game is obviously the best way to start their preseason game schedule, but head coach John Tortorella doesn’t want anyone getting ahead of themselves when it comes to assessing the team’s readiness for the regular season.
“It was a good performance, but not a lot of National Hockey League players in that Washington lineup,” he said. “You’ve got to temper this stuff both ways—when you lose or when you win an exhibition [game], because I don’t know what [Washington’s] camp has been like.”
Related: Three Takeaways From Flyers Victory vs. Capitals
But even with keeping expectations reasonable, he of course acknowledged that it was an ideal way to kick off their slate of games.
“[It was] good for our offensive games [to] score some goals, get some points—that’s always good,” he said. “The results are results. I really don’t pay too much attention to the results in exhibition [games].”
New Names
Most of the roster that will be playing against the Canadiens didn’t play in last night’s game, so there will be a completely new group for fans to keep an eye on. Players like Sean Couturier, Tyson Foerster, and Egor Zamula will give fans an idea of how the work they put in over the summer has helped them in game settings, like prospects like Oliver Bonk, Hunter McDonald, and Massimo Rizzo will continue to try and prove to the Flyers higher-ups that they deserve some real attention.
There’s plenty of talent at this year’s training camp, and with cuts expected to start happening soon, these games are a prime opportunity for players really fighting for a spot on the roster to show why they deserve to stay.
Grind Never Stops
John Tortorella runs a physically and mentally demanding training camp—we know this. To the average Joe, it can seem unfathomable to be worked as hard as these players have during camp, and still have enough feeling in your legs to play a tight schedule of games, but this team has embraced the grind.
Tortorella stated that this team “wants to be pushed,” and his players agree. While they acknowledge it’s anything but easy, they’ve commended how it toughens up their minds and their bodies, and allows them to grow closer as a team as they bond over the shared hardships after Tortorella’s seemingly endless skating drills.
Matvei Michkov summed it up perfectly when he said that the difficult practices make playing in actual games easier, and it’s looking like that is shaping up to be the case so far.
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