The Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-0 in the preseason) are right back in exhibition action on Saturday evening as they host the New Jersey Devils (3-0-0) at the Wells Fargo Center. The game will be televised on NBCSP+ with the radio feed on 97.5 The Fanatic.
The Flyers are coming off a well-played and entertaining 4-3 (2-0) shootout win on the road against Boston Bruins on Friday evening. Joel Farabee (1st of the preseason), Ryan Poehling (PPG, 2nd), and Bobby Brink (1st) scored in regulation for the Flyers. Brink and Morgan Frost tallied in the shootout. Samuel Ersson started Friday's game in goal for the Flyers, stopping eight of 10 shots in 28:59. Cal Petersen went the rest of the way, denying 16 of 17 shots in 35;50 before going 2-for-2 in the shootout.
For a full recap and highlights from Friday's game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
For Saturday's game, look for various Flyers who have yet to play in the preseason to appear for the first time in the exhibition slate (barring a game-day setback or change of plans). Most or all of the likes of Travis Konecny, Cam Atkinson, goalie Carter Hart, and defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Marc Staal could be in the Philadelphia lineup for the preseason home opener. Likewise, Sean Couturier (who play on Monday in Newark) could be in the Flyers' lineup.
The Flyers played a considerable better game in Wednesday's 2-1 road loss to the Islanders than they did on Monday in Newark. Despite an improved effort, Philly still couldn't pot a goal until Poehling scored at 6-on-5 with 2:22 left in regulation. Wednesday's performance was taken up another notch on Friday in Boston -- a genuinely entertaining game, especially by preseason standards, with the Bruins having many of their key vets in the lineup.
It's also notable that once the Flyers worked through the heavy legs that plagued them on Monday after an ultra-high volume of skating in Days 1-4 of camp (skating test on Day 1, six scrimmages over the next three days), they've played two pretty good games. The teamwide off-day on Tuesday and more normalized practice workloads this past week for the non-game groups resolved the extremely low-energy showing in the preseason opener. Now the Flyers have their first and only preseason B2B, although there probably won't many players who appear on Saturday if they played Friday's game. That's especially true for the likes of Ryan Poehling, Nic Delauriers and Garnet Hathaway who played both on Wednesday and Friday. There's no need for anyone to do a 3-in-4 right now, especially not veterans.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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