Philadelphia Flyers preseason: Five observations from a much better effort

1. Flyers better, still can’t score

Newsflash: the Flyers aren’t actually as bad as they looked on Monday against the New Jersey Devils, losing 6-0 and looking every bit as horrid as the scoresheet implied they did. Nor will they go the entire season without scoring a goal.

The preseason is important for two reasons: getting veterans ready for the start of the regular season, and giving those on the roster bubble a chance to earn their ways onto the NHL roster. Wins and losses don’t matter. Nor do stats.

That said, had the Flyers been blown out for the second straight game — and again been held off the scoresheet — it would have opened the organization up to criticism, however unwarranted. Luckily for them, they went out on Wednesday against the New York Islanders and produced a normal, uneventful preseason 2-1 loss.

Unlike Monday — which now does look more the result of a physically demanding camp sapping everyone’s energy prior to puck drop — the Flyers looked reasonably competitive and energetic, outshooting the Isles 30-19. They just struggled to score, which makes sense given the fact that their projected opening night fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway basically was their second line in this one. It took until the end of the third period for Poehling to finally break the Flyers’ preseason goalless drought, but make no mistake — they could have scored two or three long before that.

The 2-1 loss is ultimately meaningless, and will be quickly forgotten. But had the Flyers been blown out again — or even just held off the scoresheet for the second straight game — it may not have been, creating the potential for a capital ‘n’ Narrative. Instead, they played an average NHL preseason game. Thankfully.

2. Goalie battle between Ersson and Sandström now?

Over the first two games of the preseason, the Flyers chose to split the six periods of play evenly between the three goalies competing for the NHL backup netminder job: Cal Petersen, Felix Sandström, and Sam Ersson.

Who’s in the lead after 120 minutes of preseason hockey? Going purely by exhibition play, it’s impossible to say who is in the No. 1 slot. But it sure isn’t Petersen.

Sandstrom and Ersson “split” netminding duties on Wednesday — Sandstrom got the first period (he also played the third period in Newark on Monday) while Ersson had the crease for the final 40. The margin between the two of them was minimal. Both looked steady and in control, swallowing up rebounds and moving well laterally. Sandström’s final statline across the two games — 14 saves on 16 shots (0.875 save percentage) may be less impressive than that of Ersson (0.923 save percentage), but it’s hard to fault Sandström too much, given that the two goals he allowed came on a breakaway and via a double deflection. Sandström also faced higher quality chances than did Ersson, and still came out looking sound.

But both should be well ahead of Petersen, if the Flyers are truly valuing preseason play in deciding the competition. It’s not just that Petersen allowed five goals on 24 shots on Monday — after all, he had very little defensive help in front of him. It’s that Petersen was an unstructured mess even when he kept the puck out of the net, struggling with rebound control and letting pucks squeeze through him on a few occasions. There’s still time for Petersen to bounce back — four more preseason games, to be exact — but based on exhibition play, Ersson and Sandström should be the clear clubhouse leaders.

3. Konecny back, Atkinson and York out for now

After the events of the past few seasons in Philadelphia, it’s tough to blame Flyers fans for immediately conjuring up worst-case scenarios in their heads when key players unexpectedly miss time. They watched Ryan Ellis’ Flyers career end after four regular season games, Kevin Hayes require three surgeries to get right, Sean Couturier miss a season and a half due to double back surgeries, and what was originally presented as a sure-to-be-brief camp absence from Cam Atkinson last year turn into a season-ending issue.

So if any fans panicked when Travis Konecny missed both Sunday and Monday’s on-ice sessions, it’s easy to understand why. And it’s especially understandable if those same fans reacting with an exasperated “here we go again…” when Atkinson was a late scratch for Monday’s game in Newark.

Wednesday brought good news on one injury front, and some remaining uncertainty on others.

The good news: Konecny returned to practice with the NHL-heavy first non-game group, skating for the full session and taking questions from the media in the locker room afterwards. Konecny was coy about the nature of the issue that kept him out for two days — a “body” injury, he called it with a smirk — but expressed confidence that the minor problem was now fully behind him. Crisis averted.

Atkinson, on the other hand, was still missing from the ice on Wednesday, and he was joined by his fellow Cam, defenseman York, who played in Monday’s game. Given the fact that Tuesday was a full off day for the Flyers, their continued absences from practice was noteworthy.

Ian Laperriere — who coached the squad for the second straight preseason game on Wednesday — did his best to downplay Atkinson’s continued absence after practice, even while acknowledging that he didn’t have formal updates on either him or York.

“Well, he was in the gym today, that was the place I saw him, (and) he walked fine and had a big smile on his face,” Laperriere said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s anything major.”

Per a team source, both Atkinson and York’s issues are indeed minor, they were being held out for precautionary reasons more than anything else, and they could both return to the ice in a few days. Most likely, neither will play in Friday’s game in Boston, but it’s possible that one or both could be available for Saturday’s home preseason opener.

Still, it’s fair if fans wish to take an “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach when it comes to their returns to action — particularly when it comes to Atkinson, who would certainly benefit from as many preseason games as possible, given the fact that he’s coming off a full year layoff and likely needs to shake off some rust.

4. Prospect defensemen not banging down door yet

Given the Flyers’ projected NHL roster already includes six NHL veteran defensemen under contract — and semi-prospect Egor Zamula no longer waiver exempt — it was never going to be easy for one of the organization’s many close-to-NHL-ready actual prospects to earn a lineup spot right out of camp. They were going to have to truly bang the door down to do it.

On Wednesday, none of the candidates quite cleared that threshold.

Ronnie Attard came closest, racking up five shots on goal and nearly scoring on two golden scoring opportunities; over the final two periods, he was all over the ice, activating constantly and flashing his off-puck aggressiveness. The problem is that in the first period, he was a tentative mess, struggling with turnovers, getting outmuscled, and hesitating with the puck. Perhaps it was just early preseason jitters, and credit to Attard for pulling it together for the final 40 minutes, but two-thirds of a strong game does not an NHL roster spot make.

Emil Andrae was given another preseason game after struggling on Monday, and he dealt with some of the same issues this time around — namely, poor angles defensively and issues dealing with a heavy forecheck. He showed flashes of his puck skill, but right now, he looks like he’d benefit from AHL time to better acquaint himself to the pace and physicality of North American pro hockey.

Adam Ginning delivered a typically Adam Ginning game, unspectacular but steady, and even got five shots through to the net. But his skating limitations were apparent at times (he was burnt badly by Julien Gauthier on one rush) and he faded into the background on most of his shifts. Perhaps that’s what the Flyers expect and want from him, but it didn’t exactly scream “I need to be in the NHL.”

There’s still time for all three to make that statement. But none did on Wednesday.

5. Lacyznski closest to true standout, but not quite

The player who came the closest to making said statement? Probably Tanner Laczynski, who came about two or three inches from having a multi-point night and heading back to Philly with serious roster momentum.

Alas, his second period snipe caught iron, his beautiful PP setup of Attard in the slot was stopped, and Laczynski left Long Island pointless.

Laczynski needed a big game to change the organizational perception of him as a prospect on the verge of being usurped by the next generation of youngsters, and while his process was solid — he easily outplayed fellow roster bubble player Wade Allison, for instance — the results just weren’t there. Laczynski showed enough to deserve more looks later in camp, but he’ll need to produce tangible results in order to convince a skeptical John Tortorella that he deserves to be part of the 2023-24 plan.