Flyers Fall in Montreal, 5-0
One night after a Flyers lineup with more offensive capabilities drubbed a Washington Capitals squad with mostly prospects and secondary NHL role players, 6-2, a Flyers lineup with only a couple of projected upper lineup players traveled to the Bell Centre to play a somewhat deeper Montreal Canadiens lineup.
The result wasn't pretty. A rather dull, low-event game for the first 40 minutes -- scoreless at the first intermission, Montreal leading 1-0 heading into the third period -- turned into a rout in the final 20 minutes. The Habs laid a four-goal deluge on veteran goaltender Cal Petersen and a mostly inexperienced Flyers' blueline. Final score: Canadiens 5 - Flyers 0.
Cayden Primeau (13 saves) and Jakub Dobes (12 saves) shared a shutout for the Habs. Eetu Makiniemi (12 saves on 13 shots) played fairly well in 31 minutes of action for the Flyers. Petersen made a couple of very nice saves but also yielded goals on two shots in the third period that were not unstoppable. The bigger issue was that he couldn't stop the bleeding one the Habs went up by two goals. Petersen was also hung out to dry a couple of times.
The defense pairing of Rasmus Ristolainen and Egor Zamula played well. The other two pairings collectively -- individually, Ronnie Attard and 2023 first-round pick Oliver Bonk in particular -- hade some gaffes in reads and coverages.
Up front, Bobby Brink had some good moments despite being just one of two Flyers to play both games of the back-to-back set. As a team, other than a disallowed late first period power play goal, the Flyers didn't generate much bonafide attack all night. The absence in Monday's lineup of All-Star winger Travis Konecny and the contingent of forwards who stood out positively on Sunday (Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, 19-year-old Matvei Michov and 18-year-old Jett Luchanko) was noticeable.
On the flip side, the Flyers dressed three of their four projected opening-night centers (Sean Couturier, Ryan Poehling and Scott Laughton). The projected third pairing of Zamula and Ristolainen was the top pairing in Monday's exhibition game.
The disallowed goal for goaltender interference was a blown call with the near-side referee well out of position to view what happened. There was nothing even close to interference until the puck was already clearly over the goal line past Primeau. The officials conferred at the scorer's table but clearly made the wrong call.
Tuesday is an off-day in Flyers camp. Practice will resume on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Flyers will host the New York Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center. Travis Konencny and Travis Sanheim could play for the first time this preseason along with goalie Samuel Ersson (none were in the lineup against the Capitals or Canadiens).
Monday's starting line combinations for the Flyers were as follows:
Tyson Foerster - Sean Couturier - Anthony Richard
Olle Lycksell - Ryan Poehling - Bobby Brink
Oscar Eklind - Scott Laughton - Massimo Rizzo
Elliot Desnoyers- Jacob Gaucher - Nicolas Deslauriers
Egor Zamula - Rasmus Ristolainen
Hunter McDonald - Olver Bonk
Louie Belpedio - Ronnie Attard
Eetu Makiniemi
[Cal Petersen]
For more on Monday's game, see the Postgame 5 on the Flyers' official site:
click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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