The Flyers will return home to the Wells Fargo Center for their third preseason contest when they take on the Washington Capitals. Philadelphia is still looking for their first win of the preseason as are the Capitals.
Philadelphia is coming off a 4-2 loss in which they faced an NHL-heavy Bruins roster. Joel Farabee grabbed both goals in the loss, one of them coming on the power play. Martin Jones will be back in the net after a less than stellar first game. While he wasn’t the only one to blame for the loss, he certainly would like to get off to a better start in front of the home crowd. Hopefully it was all about shaking off the rust in the first game.
This time around, the Flyers will throw out a lineup that looks very much like what we could see on opening night, sans Carter Hart who will not dress in this one. Jones is expected to play the entire game so unless something goes wrong, Felix Sandstrom will just be there as the backup. Matthew Strome and Logan Day are expected to be the scratches as well.
This is how the #Flyers are expected to line up tonight.
— Ariel Melendez (@a_melendez10) October 2, 2021
Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
van Riemsdyk-Frost-Farabee
Lindblom-Brassard-Atkinson
Laughton-Thompson-Aube-Kubel
Provorov-Ellis
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Braun
Jones
Sandstrom
Morgan Frost will be back in the lineup and after feeling the nerves and some tentativeness in his first game against Boston, he is looking to eliminate those feelings against Washington.
"“I think now that I’ve got the first one out of the way, I can kind of calm the nerves down a little bit and just do my thing. So I’m excited to do that.””I obviously want to make this team and want to make an impression. But I don’t want to be gripping my stick too tight or like I said before, over thinking things.”"
Frost also said that it’s been great playing with a guy like James van Riemsdyk. He’s helped him out a lot and has been a very calming presence to be around
Flyers fans will get their first chance to see the Travis Sanheim-Rasmus Ristolainen pairing up close. The two made their preseason debut together on the road against Boston on Thursday. New additions in Ryan Ellis and Keith Yandle will also take the ice on the defensive end as well.
This is the halfway mark of the preseason for Philadelphia. They will play a total of six preseason games. So it isn’t too surprising we are seeing an almost complete NHL roster take the ice against the Capitals. Chemistry will once again be the name of the game as Vigneault is looking to give these lines some more time to gel.
Things will look a bit different for the Capitals as forwards such as Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom did not travel to Philadelphia. Defensemen John Carlson will also not be in the lineup. The Flyers will still have to contend with the likes of Evgeny Kuznestov, Carl Hagelin and Ilya Samsonov.
Both teams are almost certainly eager to get that first preseason win under their belt. The Flyers come in at 0-2-0 while the Capitals are 0-1-1.