Flyers roster (mostly) set, Lindblom left off

The Philadelphia Flyers’ opening night roster is almost locked in, and Oskar Lindblom is undeservedly on the outside looking in.

The Philadelphia Flyers lost their preseason finale to the Islanders  5-2, but far more important than the score was the aftermath. The Flyers made the first of two cuts they have to make before opening night, and a late game injury could make an enormous difference in determining how the team handles the second.

Lindblom doesn’t make the team

After looking like a solid bet to make the roster for much of the preseason, Oskar Lindblom fell out of favor with the Flyers’ front office and will start the year in the AHL. Ron Hextall pointed to a lack of production in his defense of the move.

To put it mildly, I respectfully disagree (besides the fact that Lindblom getting the pink slip officially ruined my final roster prediction). The idea that Oskar Lindblom didn’t do enough to earn a spot on the roster because he scored only one goal in a mere 2 games is a load of horse manure. Guess how many points Matt Read, Jori Lehtera, and Dale Weise scored in the preseason? Hint: not as many as Lindblom.

Related Story: Flyers cut Vecchione and Vorobyev

And to reduce one’s evaluation of Lindblom to #pointzzz is to completely ignore the positive impact he made on the ice every night. Lindblom was a powerhouse along the boards, winning puck battles and making smart plays. His Corsi For % of 81.82% led the team. You heard that correctly: Oskar Lindblom did a better job of generating shot attempts and preventing opponent’s shot attempts than anyone else on the Flyers.

Lindblom will be donning the Orange and Black shortly, as soon as the injury bug hits or a forward has a particularly disappointing first couple weeks. But Lindblom’s failure to make the team is the clearest sign of Hextall’s senseless veteran fetish to date. Even in the face of such talent, it still wasn’t enough to overcome Hextall’s bias.

Philadelphia Flyers

I look forward to seeing Lindblom show the Flyers just how wrong they were in short order.

Gostisbehere injured

Speaking of the injury bug, Shayne Gostisbehere suffered an upper-body injury in the waning minutes of the Islanders game. It does not seem to be a serious injury, but there’s a definite possibility that Ghost will not be ready to go when opening night rolls around.

What does this mean for the Flyers’ roster? Hextall seemed to be in the midst of deciding who to cut out between Samuel Morin and Travis Sanheim (which deserves a seething rant of its own). But if Gostisbehere needs time to heal, both Morin and Sanheim will fly out west with the Flyers.

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That would be a nice reward for the two rookies, who are every bit deserving of roster spots. However, even if that comes to fruition, getting Ghost back into the lineup is the number one priority.

(Stats via Natural Stat Trick)