The Philadelphia Flyers will play their second preseason game ahead of their 2023-24 campaign when they take on the New York Islanders at UBS Arena at 7 p.m. The Flyers lost their previous preseason fixture to the New Jersey Devils 6-0, and the Islanders, who are playing their second game in as many days, lost to the New York Rangers 4-2 on Tuesday.
Flyers items to know
- Cam Atkinson was a last-minute withdrawal from Monday’s lineup against the Devils, and still hasn’t practiced since. The Flyers were off Tuesday, so there’s at least a little significance to his current ailment. He was, however, spotted working in the gym during the skate.
- If the 34-year-old cannot practice this week, he’ll have two more opportunities to get a game in ahead of the start of the regular season: Oct. 2 vs the Boston Bruins, and an Oct. 5 rematch with the Islanders.
- Cam York also did not skate after a disastrous preseason debut Monday; his injury is not expected to be an issue
- Travis Konecny, who was ‘banged up’, did practice with the rest of the Flyers players who are not playing against the Isles
- Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway will make their unofficial Flyers debuts
- Samu Tuomaala, Wade Allison, Emil Andrae, Brendan Furry, and Felix Sandstrom are the only repeats from the lineup that played against New Jersey
- Sandstrom will start, and Samuel Ersson will draw in for the final two periods.
- Scott Laughton makes his preseason debut
- The game can be heard on 97.5 The Fanatic, or seen at philadelphiaflyers.com
Flyers lineup @ NYI
The Flyers will ice a mostly fresh group of forwards tonight:
Scott Laughton – Noah Cates – Samu Tuomaala
Nicolas Deslauriers – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Wade Allison – Rhett Gardner – Zayde Wisdom
Brendan Furry – Tanner Laczynski – Cooper Marody
Once again, the team rotated the defense pairings, which may look something like this:
Emil Andrae – Ronnie Attard
Adam Ginning – Louie Belpedio
Victor Mete – Adam Karashik
Sandstrom starts, with Ersson cleaning up the final two stanzas.
NYI lineup vs Flyers
The Islanders are scrimmaging today and did not release their roster ahead of their game against the Rangers, so their lineup will be mostly guesswork until puck drop. The Isles lines for tonight might resemble the following:
Simon Holmstrom – Bo Horvat – Mat Barzal
Eetu Liukas – Karson Kuhlman – Oliver Wahlstrom
Matt Martin – Casey Cizikas – Julien Gauthier
Dmytro Timashov – Ruslan Iskhakov – Brian Pinho
Adam Pelech – Noah Dobson
Robin Salo – Dennis Cholowski
Travis Mitchell – Paul LaDue
Ilya Sorokin and/or Ken Appleby could appear between the pipes.
So, just like Monday, it seems that the Flyers will again have to face a lineup littered with NHLers, or at least NHL-caliber talents, without many of their own. Philadelphia might just be waiting until later in the preseason to get everyone together, but right now it feels like many of the players are still feeling the effects of head coach John Tortorella’s grueling training camp festivities.