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Flyer for graduation in Calgary
Update Information

Flyer for graduation in Calgary

The game: 10:00 p.m. ET, NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR

After a long wait for the Flyers to finally begin their regular season, the games are now just around the corner. We saw them – well, those of us crazy enough to be awake for a 10pm puck drop – open their season last night in Vancouver and put in a reasonably solid performance. It wasn't perfect, and some nasty defensive mishaps almost brought them to their knees – interesting that they seem to be playing with the same defensive group tonight, but more on that later – but thanks to two pairings they made it to overtime to come with goals from Tyson Foerster and Cam York and ultimately prevailed in the shootout.

They're still working on polishing some things up, but they're hoping they can get it done on the road and keep the momentum going leading up to tonight's Flyers After Dark show in Calgary – and handing the Flames their first loss of the season in the process.

Players to watch

Noah Cates

It doesn't look like we'll see too big of a change in the lineup tonight, but the big change is that after a good but not spectacular debut last night, Jett Luchanko will be out of the lineup and Noah Cates will be coming on , after starting the season as a healthy freshman. And there's a pretty big opportunity here for Cates – he had a rough season last year and didn't seem to have made up all the ground he lost, but this is his chance to break through in these more meaningful games. and get back into the conversation for a more permanent roster spot. Well, it will certainly be a bit of a process, but we'll see what kind of foundation he can lay in the minutes he gets tonight.

Sam Ersson

The most surprising thing about the continuity from last night to tonight is that it looks like Ersson will be in goal again. Now we know that John Tortorella isn't afraid to keep the ball moving and play against his goalie on both nights in a row, and given the game Ersson put together last night – he stopped 24 of the 26 shots that he was exposed (including eight of nine dangerous shots) and limiting the Canucks to just two goals compared to their 3.13 expected goals and leading the team to a shootout victory – perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that he continues to clear Hand wants to stay on the winner's podium. But we also have to keep in mind that the Flyers actually want to see what they have in Ivan Fedotov, now that he's had a summer to prepare for NHL action, and tackle that action under more normal circumstances, and that's it feels a little strange that they aren't getting into it as soon as possible.

In any case, it's clear they see Ersson as the guy and he has a good chance of really backing that up with another strong performance tonight. We'll see how this plays out.

Matvei Mikkov

After a pretty stellar run of preseason play, Michkov made his official Flyers debut last night, and while he didn't exactly rock the world in that debut, he still managed to have some really positive moments. He was stopped from the board, but it wasn't because he didn't try. He had a total of four shots on goal on the night (leading the team) and also finished the game second on the team in individual expected goals, both at 5-on-5 and in all situations. His confidence with the puck was evident and we saw him create good opportunities both at even strength and, perhaps more importantly, on the power play.

All in all, we can't expect much more from Michkov in his debut and he has laid a very solid foundation for himself going forward. It feels like it won't be long before the points come for him.

The lineup

Aside from Cates coming into the lineup and Ersson sticking around, the most notable roster (non)update is that Emil Andrae, despite being recalled from Lehigh Valley and joining the team in Calgary, remains a scratch for tonight will, and the defense seems to be in line just like last night. The forward lines are a bit questionable though as they were put in some sort of blender last night, but that's more or less what we found at the end of the game. However, we have to wait until the warm-up to confirm.

Michkov – Frost – Konecny
Tippett – Couturier – Foerster
Farabee-Cates-Brink
Laughton-Poehling-Hathaway

York-Sanheim
Johnson-Drysdale
Zamula – Ristolainen

Ersson
(Fedotov)

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