Philadelphia Flyers preseason: At home opener, Brink strengthens case, Andrae thrives

The unofficial start to the “New Era of Orange” began on Saturday night before puck drop, with longtime anthemist Lauren Hart singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ backed by a vintage organ, a nod to both the present and the past.

Once the puck was dropped? The focus turned to the future, even as the Flyers lost their third of four preseason games this week by a 3-2 overtime score to the New Jersey Devils.

Goalie Carter Hart — who played the entire game — stood out in his first appearance of the preseason, making 19 saves on 22 shots despite a deluge of odd-man rushes. Wade Allison and Rhett Gardner scored for the Flyers, but it was the young prospects who rightfully garnered the most attention.

1. Brink gets a chance to make his case

In the lead-up to camp, one of the main reasons it seemed unlikely that Bobby Brink would end up on the Flyers’ opening night roster was a simple numbers game. There was one obviously available spot on the team’s top three lines, and Tyson Foerster — who excelled in his eight-game stint with the big club late last season — was the odds-on favorite to nab it.

He might not be the odds-on favorite anymore.

Brink clearly outshined Foerster on Friday night in Boston, and he was rewarded with a second start the next night back in Philadelphia, while Foerster found himself passed over in the lineup. (Personally, I think they should have started both Brink and Foerster on Saturday, but they dressed camp invites Brendan Furry and Matt Brown instead. Welp.)

“He has some momentum going right now,” assistant coach Rocky Thompson said on Saturday morning regarding Brink. “This is an opportunity.”

And when on Brink’s opening shift, he found Wade Allison with a gorgeous backhand pass for a goal, it looked like he was very much taking that opportunity and running with it.

But that proved to be the high point of the night for Brink, who aside from that moment was more fine than truly fantastic, even if Thompson praised his work in the third period (along with the rest of his team). Brink had a rough power play sequence in the first period, committing a turnover that led to a 2-on-0 (which Hart erased) and then handing the puck back to the opposition a second time on the next march up ice. But for the most part, he was effective but not dominant, though he did show that he could remain impactful even in the second game of a back-to-back against NHL competition (and in the midst of a demanding camp) despite his lack of imposing size; Thompson noted on Saturday morning that was a driving force behind giving him the second game.

“That’s my job, it’s to come in here and do my best to try and win a spot on the team,” Brink said.

The question now is whether he did enough during the back-to-back to truly jump Foerster, with only two more preseason games on the docket. Thompson did admit on Saturday morning that the coaches haven’t loved what they’ve seen from Foerster yet, but they believe he’ll ultimately figure it out.

“Was he executing at the highest level of capabilities (on Friday)? Not at all,” Thompson said. “He can execute at a higher level. And I don’t anticipate that he won’t be able to get that back into his game.”

Whether Foerster will start executing at that higher level over the next week will likely decide if he holds off Brink — who is emerging as his top competition — for that final top-nine wing spot.

2. Andrae’s best game by far

For those who didn’t watch Flyers development or rookie camp, they may have come away from Emil Andrae’s performances on Monday and Wednesday and wondered what all the fuss was about, why observers of those camps were raving about a small, turnover-prone defenseman lacking elite speed.

On Saturday, the exciting, promising version of Andrae made his first full-fledged appearance at main camp.

Like Brink, Andrae made his presence felt early, helping to create the Allison goal with an accurate stretch pass through the neutral zone. It was Andrae’s passes that stood out the most, just as they had throughout the summer camps. No other defenseman was making quicker reads with the puck in his own zone, and it was no accident that the Flyers collected 73.68 percent of the expected goals at five-on-five when Andrae was on the ice; he was a breakout machine.

That’s not to say Andrae was perfect. He directly helped to cause the Devils’ first goal, allowing a shot/pass to be blocked with time running down on a Flyers PP, giving Tyce Thompson — who had just jumped out of the box — the opportunity to embark on a two-on-one with Curtis Lazar that ultimately ended up in the back of the net. But Andrae shook off that error, and finished strong.

“I thought he had a really good third period,” Thompson said. “I like how he handles things, he doesn’t get down on himself or anything, he just goes about his business.”

Andrae was easily the most impressive of the three young blueliners who dressed on Saturday. Adam Ginning was more unspectacular than poor, but Ronnie Attard failed to build off his strong final two periods from Wednesday, struggling in defensive positioning on multiple occasions and lacking much of the offensive aggressiveness that made him so noticeable on Long Island.

Most likely, Andrae’s relatively underwhelming start to camp will keep him out of the mix for an opening night NHL roster spot, though that will become more clear in the coming days. But Saturday served as a reminder that even if it takes some time for Andrae to earn his way up to the NHL level, the Flyers have a very intriguing prospect looming.

3. Atkinson returns, Couturier makes home debut

On Monday, Sean Couturier made his return to the Flyers lineup for the first time since a long layoff.

Saturday night, it was Cam Atkinson’s turn.

“I had one good hit behind the net there, and I heard the boys all cheering,” he said with a smile.

In the first period, Atkinson wasn’t especially noticeable. But he emerged in the second, flashing his energy and speed — he still has the same burst as he did pre-injury — and blasting away at Vitek Vanecek quite a few times. The Flyers coaches seemed to notice — by the second period, he was regularly getting shifts with Couturier and Travis Konecny, on the top line, playing an unfamiliar LW position.

It didn’t faze Atkinson at all.

“The first period was a little dicey, but honestly, I didn’t feel too bad, other than my timing and getting the puck, and realizing that they were on you pretty quickly,” he explained. “But I feel like, as the second and third period went on, I was way more comfortable.”

As for Couturier, he looked significantly better than he did on Monday, even if some rust was apparent. But he was making more plays, helping to generate more scoring chances and disrupting more opportunities by the opposition. He nearly picked up an assist in the second period, sending a tricky shot on Vanecek that original linemate Brendan Furry proved unable to bury.

But by the third period, the Furry experiment was over — an odd decision in the first place given the importance of helping Couturier to knock the rust off, which would seemingly be easier with NHL-caliber linemates. The new-look Atkinson-Couturier-Konecny line thrived, generating 13 shot attempts to the Devils’ three over 7:31 minutes of total ice time at five-on-five, and a whopping 91.14 percent of the expected goals.

Konecny, who noted this was one of the first times he had ever skated with Atkinson in particular (not surprising given the fact that both are natural RWs), loved what he saw from his veteran teammates.

“When you’re playing with guys like that, they say they’re rusty, but they’ve played a lot of games, and they know what to do. They’re still doing a lot of things right,” Konecny said.

Saturday night certainly was a step in the right direction for both players as they continue to embark on their respective comebacks.

4. Allison keeps himself in mix, Lacyznski’s last shot?

Wade Allison and Tanner Laczynski just seem linked. They were selected by the Flyers in the same draft (2016), both spent four years in college, signed their entry-level contracts the same summer, and saw their NHL debuts delayed by injuries.

Now, they’re similar in yet another way — they both find themselves on the Flyers’ roster bubble, with a new generation of prospects aiming to sweep them aside as they pursue their own NHL dreams.

Allison made the stronger case on Saturday to remain in the mix, scoring off Brink’s slick pass and flashing significantly more of his signature high-effort brand of on-ice chaos that makes him such a fan favorite. Laczynski’s game didn’t lack for solid moments — he made a few strong defensive plays and drew an interference penalty on a zone entry by keeping his feet moving through a checking attempt — but lacked the kinds of standout moments that bubble players tend to need in order to lock down NHL roster spots.

Allison, at the very least, should stick around through the end of camp, and remains a favorite to at least earn a roster spot, even if he begins the season in the press box. Laczynski, on the other hand, will have to sweat out the rest of this week and hope that the coaches give him at least one more look, one more chance to solidify his case.

5. A look at the roster

The cuts keep coming and they don’t stop coming. (RIP, Smash Mouth guy.)

On Saturday, it was Elliot Desnoyers, Helge Grans, Jordy Bellerive and Jacob Gaucher who were sent down, in anticipation of the start of Phantoms training camp on Sunday.

Bellerive and Gaucher were no surprise — both are on AHL-only deals and would have needed to sign NHL contracts to even have a chance to make the big club. Grans had his moments in rookie camp, but mostly faded into the background during main camp and always was likely to need more AHL seasoning after a rough year with Los Angeles’ top minor league affiliate club in 2022-23.

Desnoyers was the only surprise, if a mild one, since he entered camp very much in the mix to nab a roster spot. A favorite of the organization and Phantoms coach Ian Laperriere, Desnoyers led Lehigh Valley in goals last season and appeared in four NHL games in 2022-23. It was going to be tough for him to convince the Flyers to abandon their plan to start with a fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway, but with a strong camp, Desnoyers could have done it.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a strong camp, and underwhelmed on Friday in Boston despite quality linemates (Joel Farabee and Foerster). That likely was the final nail in the coffin of his roster chances, and less than 24 hours later, he was gone.

There will likely be more cuts coming soon.

Matt Brown and Brendan Furry are both camp invites like Bellerive and Gaucher; presumably, their appearances in Saturday’s camp will be their last major ones at camp. Copper Marody, Louie Belpedio and Adam Brooks — older AHL regulars — are likely to join their Phantoms teammates soon enough as well, now that Lehigh Valley camp is beginning. Not counting the injured Jon-Randall Avon and Matteo Mann, that would leave 33 players for 23 spots.

With two games to go, the true NHL bubble is starting to take shape.