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Meltzer's Musings: 10/2/11 |
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In last night's preseason finale in Newark, the Flyers lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils. Philadelphia followed the expected course of resting as many of their veterans as possible, while taking an extended last look at the remaining players who entered camp on the bubble of earning an opening night roster spot.
Philadelphia did not play poorly last night, but it was a pretty dull game even as they took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission courtesy of a Scott Hartnell power play goal. Petr Sykora beat Ilya Bryzalov (18 saves on 20 shots) on a breakaway for the first New Jersey goal, while David Clarkson cashed in a rebound in close for a power play goal that was ultimately the difference in the game.
The Flyers rested a host of healthy and injured players last night, and there were no reported injuries to the ones in the lineup last night. The Devils went mostly with regulars.
Among the players who sat out last night were Chris Pronger (played first game Thursday after off-season back surgery), Kimmo Timonen (healthy) , Matt Carle (healthy), Claude Giroux (healthy), James van Riemsdyk (groin), Jaromir Jagr (healthy) and Danny Briere (healthy). The team also kept rookie forward Brayden Schenn (shoulder) and Andreas Nodl (lower body) out of the lineup. The Devils started the likes of Zach Parise, Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias up front and Anton Volchenkov, Henrik Tallinder and Andy Greene on defense. Martin Brodeur went the distance (25 saves on 26 shots) in goal.
Even if Matt Read had played a terrible game last night, he probably would have done enough to earn an opening night roster spot. He ended up being arguably the best player on the ice for the Flyers over the balance of last night's game, playing 21:50 (seeing the ice in all manpower situations), logging an assist on Hartnell's goal and recording 4 shots on goal.
Sean Couturier had a decent game overall, but struggled once again in the faceoff circle (5-for-17, 29 percent). However, he was good in the trenches, doled out a game-high 3 hits and was also credited with 4 shots.
Among the other fowards trying to earn their way onto the roster, Zac Rinaldo was credited with 2 hits and was minus-one in just 8:32 of ice time, and Harry Zolnierczyk played 9:44 and was credited with one hit.
On the blueline, Peter Laviolette started all four of the defensemen who are on the bubble (Andreas Lilja, Oskars Bartulis, Matt Walker and Erik Gustafsson). Gustafsson had the best game of the four, while both Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn looked well-prepared to start the season.
Final roster cuts will be announced by Oct. 5.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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