After pulling together a tidy win in the series opener last night, the Flyers will look to close out the Rookie Series with a sweep tonight (and with some of their big guns in tow).
Puck drop: 5:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: Flyers website
Pregame reading
- It’s a quick turnaround, folks! The series kicked off last night and the Flyers are right back at it again this evening. Before we get into this next bit of action, let’s dig into some takeaways from last night’s win. [BSH]
- One of the biggest takeaways from that one: Alex Bump is here to make an impression. [BSH]
- And finally, sticking with prospect theme, here are a couple who could be sneaky standouts in main camp. [BSH]
Pregame watching
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
No morning skate for the Flyers today, so we won’t know how things are officially lining up until warmups, but here’s a best guess.
Bump – Luchanko – Knuble
Barkey – McLaughlin – Martone
Ciernik – Gard – Powell
Dingman – Berard – Sauer
Murchinson-Gill
Sokolovskii-Bonk
Steen-Liske
Sklenicka
(Psohlavec)
New York Rangers
Greentree – Beaudoin – Lamb
Aspinall – Roobroeck – Sykora
McConnell-Barker – Terrance – Anderson
Battaglia – Chrenko – Bowes
Smits – Fortescue
Farhammer – Dorrington
Trudeau – Passmore
Shaiikov
(Tung)
Storylines to watch
Bringing in the big guns
Head coach John Snowden wouldn’t confirm any specific changes to the lineup immediately post-game last night, but the word is that tonight will indeed see all of Denver Barkey, Porter Martone, and Oliver Bonk suiting up after taking last night off. For this group, who have a good bit of experience banked, there isn’t as much that they necessarily need to show compared to some others in this camp, but as the Flyers look to build on their momentum and end this series in a sweep, that experience and skill showing up for them is going to be paramount.
This is a good chance for these top prospects to get their legs going and get back into a rhythm to carry them through into main camp, but also to flex some of their ample skill and put on a good show for the fans in attendance (and watching along at home). There’s a little bit of a line that they need to walk, but this is a setting where it could pay for them to lean in and be a little bit showy. The more experienced group from last night’s lineup — Bump, Knuble, Luchanko, as well as Murchison — set the standard for what players of this ilk can and should deliver in this series setting, and now it’s up to this next group to rise to that standard.
Goalie check
With Carson Bjarnason getting to play out the full game last night, this means that tonight will bring the Rookie Series debuts of both goaltenders Marek Sklenicka (who backed up last night) and Martin Psohlavec. Both drafted by the Flyers in this most recent draft, we got a bit of a look at them back at Development Camp, but those settings are never really set up to evaluate goaltenders as best as possible (so it goes), but these competitive game settings will be another story entirely.
There’s been no indication yet of just how the game will be split — whether straight down the middle or if we’ll see more like a two period-one period share — but it’s safe to assume that we’ll see both of them seeing some action in this one. They’re both coming in with a bit of a clean slate here, and it will be interesting to see how they fare in what’s shaping up to be quite a spirited series.
Temperature check
In fact, to call this series spirited might actually be a bit of an understatement. There were some big hits taken and dealt throughout the game itself — Maksim Sokolivskii was really throwing the body around, while Cole Knuble and Jett Luchanko both took some big knocks (but did pop right back up!) — but all of that physicality really came to a fever pitch after the final whistle. It was a whole line scrum that gathered and ended in both Noah Powell and Ty Murchison dropping the gloves before the teams eventually trickled off the ice. There was, to be sure, no love lost in that opening game, and it will be interesting to see how much of that carries over into tonight’s matchup, when fatigue will also surely be coming into play for some, and how the Flyers work to manage the temperature and stay within bounds of playing a focused and effective game, to take care of business.
