Things are finally starting to pick up around here, as the Flyers are kicking off their run of preseason games this evening in Hershey tonight. It’s a thinner lineup on both sides, but the door is open for some key players on the bubble through this exhibition slate to continue building their cases for a spot on the opening night roster.

Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic

Pregame reading

  • First, the news. In case you missed it, the Flyers trimmed down their training camp roster ahead of the beginning of this run of preseason games. [BSH]
  • Also, Matvei Michkov has really been showing out so far. [BSH]
  • And finally, we’ll touch on the lineup for tonight a little bit later in this post, but we also went a little deeper on it herein. [BSH]

Pregame watching

Projected lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Zach Aston-Reese — Denver Barkey — Porter Martone
Alex Bump — Jett Luchanko — Cole Knuble
Carl Grundstrom — Jack Studnicka — Matthew Gard
Garrett Wilson — Riley Thompson — Noah Powell

Simon Benoit — Oliver Bonk
Ty Murchison — David Jiricek
Hunter McDonald — Helge Grans

Joseph Woll
(Carson Bjarnason)

Washington Capitals

We’ll have to wait a little longer to see the official lines that the Capitals will be rolling out, but for now, let’s take a look at the lineup they’re bringing to Hershey:

Storylines to watch

The kid line

While this isn’t anything close to a full powered NHL lineup that the Flyers will be icing tonight, there’s still a whole lot to be intrigued by in this mix. Towards the top of that list, surely, is the rolling into this game with that trio of Alex Bump, Jett Luchanko, and Cole Knuble, after they showed some really nice pop and chemistry together back in the first of the two rookie games. It will be fun to see what this group is able to do with a little bit more runway opened up for them, but even more critically, it will be interesting to see which individual is able to rise to the top of the group.

That is, Bump is in a position most directly of having to fight for a spot on the opening night roster, but both Luchanko and Knuble are in that sort of murky middle space of being positioned to, at the very least, make their cases a little more interesting. This won’t be a make-or-break showing for anyone, but the case building is really picking up now.

Barkey at center

Also notable from that projected lineup is the fact that we’ll see Denver Barkey lining up at center towards the top of the lineup tonight. It’s a look that they’ve been experimenting with a bit, and while it’s not one that we’d necessarily give a high likelihood of seeing carry into the season (given some of the other personnel that the Flyers have to fill out their center depth), it will be valuable to see what Barkey’s able to do in the shorter term in this different spot, if nothing else, to see if it can open up his game even more and give the Flyers an idea of whether this is a spot they can move him over to in the season if the need arises, rather than immediately going the way of pulling from the AHL squad to fill in. It’s an interesting little experiment that they’re conducting, and that’s exactly what even a shortened preseason is for.

Martone good to go

Sticking with that same line, it’s nice to see that Porter Martone is indeed alright to jump straight into this preseason opener, after he had a bit of a scary moment in this weekend’s scrimmage, where he got into a bit of tussle with defenseman Spencer Gill and came out of it seemingly favoring his hand. All is well with him, as it seems, and even though he’s not one of the players coming into this game with the absolute most to prove, the hope is that he can deliver another big showing tonight after standing out in the rookie game, and continue building up his positive momentum as the regular season approaches.

First impressions

And finally, tonight will also allow us to get our first real look at some of the newcomers to this lineup in actual competitive game situations. As far as the skaters go, we’ll get a first look at new defenseman Simon Benoit, who we expect to join the Flyers’ lineup in a depth role, as well as center Jack Studnicka, who should be playing a big role for the Phantoms this season.

But, the even bigger piece here is the debut for goaltender Joseph Woll. It will still be a somewhat limited look of him, both in the fact that he won’t be facing a full lineup of NHL competition, as well as because he’s only set to play through the first two periods of the game, before switching off with Carson Bjarnason. All the same though, even if it’s a slower working up to seeing what he can do at the very top of his game, we’ll gain a bit of useful context as far as his starting point goes in whatever he’s able to do tonight, and that’s useful as well.

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