Physical Play, Jones’ Rebound Help Flyers Defeat Capitals

– Martin Jones looked much better tonight than he did on Thursday in Boston. He seemed much more calm and collected in the net, and made some pretty good saves to help the Flyers come out on top tonight.

– The Travis Sanheim-Rasmus Ristolainen pairing looked very effective tonight. Sanheim was good at breaking up plays with his stick and looked very solid, while Ristolainen was just a wrecking ball on skates tonight. He was very effective and is endearing himself to the Philadelphia fanbase very quickly.

– Claude Giroux got on the board with his first goal of the preseason in the first period. The captain looked like his usual self and was great in all three zones of the ice tonight.

– Keith Yandle made a very good impression tonight. He made a great play to keep the puck in the zone on the Giroux goal, he was skating well and so far looks to be the power play quarterback the Flyers need to replace Shayne Gostisbehere’s production in that spot.

– I love what Derick Brassard did in the Provorov-Hathaway scrum. He stepped in to defend a teammate, especially a star teammate versus an Average Joe in Hathaway. Even Keith Jones on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast mentioned how pleased he was with Brassard. Brassard is very much a team-first kind of player and tonight proved that, and it was very refreshing to see, especially after how much the team lacked in protecting one another last season.