Quick Hits: October 1, 2023
1) The Flyers played a decent game, especially from a territorial advantage standpoint, on Saturday night against the Devils but went down to a 3-2 overtime loss. Philly was prone to the "big mistake" at certain junctures of the game but settled in and just easily could have won as lost in OT. Carter Hart went the distance and was sharp in net for the Flyers. Wade Allison and depth center Rhett Gardner scored the Philadelphia goals. For a synopsis, recap, highlights and more, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
2) Preseason hockey, much like spring training baseball, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It's only been a week and it doesn't make sense to draw conclusions on what kind of season any players will have based mostly on the day-to-day highs and lows.
Bobby Brink is a perfect example. After the two Rookie Games in Allentown last weekend and the first preseason game (in which the entire Flyers side was on dead legs after a skating test and four scrimmages apiece in the span of four days, followed immediately by a game night), a lot of folks were down on Brink. Then he had a tremendous preseason game performance in Boston on Friday and followed it up with a generally strong game -- including a nifty assist on the Allison goal -- on Saturday.
Take it for what it is. There's never been a question over Brink's offensive vision or hands. He's made him noticed in a positive way the last two games. Hopefully, he can continue to build from there. For now, it's a two-game preseason sample but an encouraging one. As with most young players, getting a taste of success is the No. 1 way that confidence can build.
3) On a similar note, Emil Andrae had his best night of the preseason in Saturday's game. He moved the puck effectively, jumped into the play up ice and generally made good things happen when he was on the ice. It's a building block.
Actually, one of the most encouraging aspects of Saturday's game for both Andrae and Brink was that both players had a bad gaffe along the way but put it aside and responded well. Seeing how a player handles the adversity of a glaring miscue is part of the evaluation process. Both Andrae and Brink passed that test on this night.
Andrae had an ill-advised shot attempt at the end a power play that got blocked and went the other way for a 2-on-1 goal that tied the score at 1-1. Brink tried to make a diagonal pass from the right point, and the Devils got a 2-on-0 out that Hart stepped up to deny. Each of those was just one play and one shift over an entire game. The two players responded the right way.
The same thing goes for a rough period or a bad game. Get back on the horse and make the next play, the next period or the next game a good one. That matters just as much -- or even more sometimes -- than the play that makes the game highlights.
4) On the flip side to this, there's no doubt Elliot Desnoyers, who was among Saturday's roster cuts, would have liked to have had a better Rookie Camp and week of NHL Camp than he was able to produce? Of course.
What does it mean in the short term? It means that Desnoyers was assigned back to the Phantoms several days earlier than he might otherwise have been. What does it mean in the big picture? Not much.
Desnoyers is still coming off a very promising rookie pro year with the Phantoms (and briefly with the Flyers in a fourth-line cup of coffee). He's still the same conscientious, versatile and speedy prospect he showed himself to be over the course of last season. A good season matters more than a bad week. Now he just has to channel the adversity the right way.
Meanwhile, Samu Tuomaala has had a good NHL camp so far after a good rookie camp. Consequently, he's still around in camp, and deserves to be. Last night, he earned a hard-working assist on Gardner's game-time goal.
It's encouraging. But, in the big picture, Tuomaala is still a player who struggled to crack Liiga in Finland the last two seasons and did not make the national team for the World Junior Championships in his last year of eligibility. That needn't be fatal to a career, and he's been taking noticeable strides in the 2023 calendar year, both in Mestis and NHL camp.
However, if you ask me which prospect has further to go in his development to be a serious NHL candidate, I'll tell you without hesitation that it's still Tuomaala. One week did not change that perspective, at least in my eyes. What has changed is that Tuomaala noticeably looks stronger physically, more mature in his shift-to-shift approach and closer to finding his identity than he did when he attempted to crack the AHL as an 18-year-old a couple of years ago. That was too much, too soon for him. Now he seems to be on the right track, and we'll see where the upcoming months will take him.
5) Cam Atkinson got his first game since April 2022 out of the way last night, and settled in as it went along after feeling his way through the first period or so. Notably, Atkinson tried to get himself into the game early by being the initiator of a hit or two. There were times when the rust was evident, including a two-on-one shot that could have been better executed. The bottom line was that he was given a lot of ice time, got better as the game along and finished the game just fine. It's taken a lot of work to get that point. The same can be said, of course, about Sean Couturier, who played in his second preseason game and looked a bit better with the puck than in the first outing. It won't all click overnight.
6) The Flyers originally had a practice day on the schedule for Sunday. The practice was wisely replaced with a teamwide off-day after an exceptionally busy first week-plus of training camp. The Flyers will host the Boston Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday evening.
6) The Flyers decision-making brass had a meeting at event level last night. Look for additional roster cuts to be announced soon as the team move to the final two games of the preason and gets down closer to the final roster decisions.
7) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms' begin their AHL training camp today. Ian Laperriere's club will play a preseason game at home on Tuesday against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
8) Flyers 2023 Entry Draft picks Matvei Michkov, Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey and Alex Ciernik all have hand standout moments in games this weekend. Sticking with the theme of handling adversity, it was encouraging to see how Michkov bounced back immediately from a rough game (both individually and for HC Sochi as a team) against two-time defending champion CSKA Moscow with a downright dominating performance against Torpedo. Beyond scoring a rebound goal and generating an outstanding assist on a pass out from behind the net after shrugging off a check attempt. Michkov had a slew of positive shifts and was in the middle of several other scoring opportunities. There was nothing he could do about the CSKA game once it was done but he could buckle down to make the Torpedo game a much better one, and that's exactly what he did.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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