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In their last home preseason game, the Flyers beat the Bruins 2-1 in overtime on Monday night.
Ivan Provorov buried the winner of the match thanks to a feed from Travis Konecny.
Sean Couturier scored the Flyers’ other goal. Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Joel Farabee have also had strong games for the Flyers, who are 2-1-1 in pre-season.
The next time the Flyers take to the ice at Wells Fargo Center, it will be for the Oct. 15 regular season opener against the Canucks.
• In his second preseason appearance, Carter Hart played all three periods and converted 24 saves.
Over five exposure periods, the 23-year-old stopped 41 of the 43 shots faced.
Hart allowed a power-play goal in the second period as Boston took a 1-0 lead. The Flyers were overworked in front of the net and Jack Studnicka was able to drop a rebounding puck.
While the Bruins didn’t play their perfection line and other regulars, Hart pulled off an accurate glove save and appeared himself through the show list. This is extremely important for the Flyers.
“He looks good,” Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said after the game. “He’s focused, he’s asserting himself around his net and he looks confident.”
• After playing with James van Riemsdyk and Farabee throughout camp and two preseason games, Morgan Frost crossed Oskar Lindblom and Cam Atkinson on Monday night.
Frost hasn’t scored a point in his three preseason games. It’s not just about scoring and he’s been responsible defensively, but the Flyers certainly want to see him produce some offense in his lineup. He’s still the favorite to be in the season opener for injured Kevin Hayes, but the Flyers are going to be keeping an eye on things.
• Couturier tied things up 1-1 in the middle stanza with a power-play explosion.
Keith Yandle was a cool customer and comfortable with the Flyers man advantage. He did a number of smart reads that ultimately led to Couturier’s marker.
The 35-year-old veteran was the Flyers’ top power play quarterback throughout training camp and will likely take on that role to open the regular season.
• The Flyers’ 13th forward is up for grabs, but it’s likely Connor Bunnaman will catch him.
In the second period, he protected the puck well along the board, which led to a point shot. In one strophe in the first stanza, he blocked a shot and then took a penalty to put the Flyers to their first power play.
Lots of little things Vigneault notices.
“He’s definitely there in the mix,” said Vigneault. “I think he gets better every day. I thought he had a good game tonight and I hope he gives us another one tomorrow.”
The head coach knows what he’s getting at Bunnaman when the 23-year-old’s number is called. Bunnaman was trusted to play four games in the 2020 playoffs and was the Flyers’ fourth-line center from mid-January until the February 24 trade deadline this regular season. The Flyers went 12-4-1 during that span while Bunnaman had a plus-7 differential before the club traded for veterans Derek Grant and Nate Thompson to improve their experience.
• The Flyers were impressed with Elliot Desnoyers’ work ethic and improvement. So much so that they wanted to give the 19-year-old an exhibition game before he returned to his QMJHL club, Halifax.
The 2020 fifth-round pick can play center or winger. He might be looking better as a winger at the NHL level, but he centered van Riemsdyk and Aube-Kubel on his preseason debut.
Desnoyers, known for playing the right way and scoring will-type goals, nearly scored one on the doorstep on a reverse pass from Lindblom. He then showed his blue collar mantra by dropping the gloves with 30-year-old veteran John Moore.
Desnoyers said he had never fought at the junior level.
“It was a part of my game that I wanted to show,” he said. “Not necessarily that I’m a fighter – it was actually my first fight – but just that I’m willing to do anything to make my team the W. I just felt like it was a good time, loser by a.”
Desnoyers will be worth keeping an eye on this season as he plays his final year of junior hockey.
• The Flyers travel to Bridgeport, Connecticut to face the Islanders on Tuesday at Webster Bank Arena (7 p.m. ET). They close their show list Friday when they visit the Capitals (7 p.m. ET / NBCSP).
The cuts are ahead. There is a good chance that many players who have adjusted tonight and are not realistically fighting for the Flyers’ opening roster of the season will be on loan to their respective clubs. And it will be the same after Tuesday’s game.
The club’s camp roster is currently at 43, excluding injured players. The Flyers must have a maximum of 23 before the regular season opener on October 15 and can only have 22 (one more forward, one more defenseman) for salary cap reasons.
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