Category: Sports

The most important thing to note is that preseason doesn’t matter. The games don’t start counting until Wednesday.

But there were a few warning flags in Saturday’s 5-1 preseason loss to a Capitals roster featuring none of their NHL regulars, especially since the Flyers iced something close to the real thing.

“Ugly,” defenseman Jamie Drysdale said. “That’s the only way to talk about the game. It was bad. That’s not how we’re going to play hockey. That’s just not a winning brand.”

Power play

The power play has been the talk of training camp, and for good reason. For a team that finished last in the NHL in power play percentage last year, improving on the man-advantage is a key part of taking the next step into contention.

The Flyers got just two looks at the power play in Thursday’s preseason win, to mixed results. On Saturday, the Flyers got eight minutes of power play time, all in the first period.

There were definite improvements, but they ultimately were held scoreless on all of their tries.

“Just the same old, we need to finish,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “I don’t know what else to say. There’s some good looks out there, but you’ve got to finish. You can’t just, ‘Oh well,’ we need some guys to finish for us, but I do like the looks.”

The best look came from Matvei Michkov deep into the double minor late in the first, a shot from the top of the circle that goalie Charlie Lindgren had to sprawl to reach.

Rough game for Jiříček

David Jiříček essentially locked the sixth defenseman spot up after Oliver Bonk was demoted on Friday, but Saturday was a game to forget.

His man scored the Capitals’ first two second-period goals. After Jiříček failed to close out on Andrew Cristall near the goal, he knocked in the first one against Aleksei Kolosov, who was out of position, and then turned the puck over along the boards to Maxim Schafer, who proceeded to score the second goal.

He took a penalty for high-sticking later in the period, which led to a power-play goal from Ethen Frank that put the Capitals up, 3-1. Jiříček also was on ice for the fifth goal after attempting the breakout to Noah Cates. The puck got turned over up the boards, and the Capitals came right back to score.

Danny Briére spoke at the first intermission and said Jiříček had played “OK” in the first and that no one had beaten him out, so he was still on the roster. But with Bonk the leader among a group of young defensemen pushing in Lehigh Valley, Jiříček will need to find greater consistency.

“He had a tough night,” Tocchet said. “Three or four guys had a tough night, but being a pro, you’ve got to bounce back. We’ll get some video, make them understand some things. You’re going to have a tough night. You’ve just got to make sure you stay consistent.”

Drysdale gets offensive

Drysdale opened the scoring with the Flyers’ only goal. He’s been working on his shot all summer to establish himself as more of a shooting threat at the point on the power play, but he managed to bury a wrister at even strength off Travis Konecny’s pass.

“It’s a broken record,” Drysdale said earlier in camp. “You shoot a few times early, they’re going to probably respect the shot, and then something will open up.”

He said postgame he’s been trying to get more active offensively and to pull himself off the blue line, deeper into the play.

“A few times when I get to the middle, I think I can throw the puck to the net more than throwing it off to the side again, and then going through that same process over and over again,” Drysdale said.

His goal was a good example, as Drysdale jumped into the play after receiving the pass near the blue line and carried the puck deep into the slot before taking the shot.

The puck drops on the Flyers season on Wednesday, and the group they will take into the 2026-27 season largely is set, with three players needing to be cut before final rosters are submitted to the NHL on Monday.

The three final cuts are expected to be forward Garrett Wilson, who’s on an American Hockey League deal; goalie Aleksei Kolosov; and defenseman Helge Grans, who could start the season on injured reserve after suffering a lower-body injury on Thursday.

So as the Flyers played their final preseason game on Saturday against the visiting Washington Capitals, general manager Danny Brière spoke to the media during the first intermission.

Updating the injuries

The Flyers have been without high-motor forward Denver Barkey since he suffered a lower-body injury in the team’s preseason opener against the Capitals.

Barkey, 21, skated by himself on Wednesday and joined the nongame group on Thursday, in a noncontact jersey. But while coach Rick Tocchet told the media he was a possibility for Saturday, the forward left practice, according to the Nasty Knuckles podcast, reportedly grimacing. He did not skate in Saturday’s optional.

“He’s going to miss a little bit of time,” Brière said. “Shouldn’t be too, too long. I don’t know if he’s going to be ready for the first game, but if not, it shouldn’t be very long after that.”

If Barkey cannot play for a bit, the Flyers have Carl Grundström and Nikita Grebenkin, who played his first game since March on Thursday, available to slot in. The likelihood of Cole Knuble, who had an outstanding training camp but was sent down to Lehigh Valley on Friday, being recalled is slim, with Brière saying, “We have enough players here as it is.”

Goalie Dan Vladař also is on the shelf after suffering an upper-body injury Tuesday against the Boston Bruins. On Wednesday, Tocchet said “I think we dodged a bullet,” and Brière all but confirmed that on Saturday.

“It looks very promising. He should be ready for Game 1,” he said. “Probably could have played if we had played a regular-season [game] tonight, but we just want to play it safe and let him get as close to 100% for the start of the regular season.”

The Flyers’ No. 1 goalie left in the first period after mishandling a dump-in; he was down with his arms extended on the ice, and forward Tanner Jeannot crashed the net for the rebound. It didn’t look like there was significant contact between the two, but Vladař let go of his stick immediately and appeared to be holding his right arm awkwardly before Michael Eyssimont scored.

Vladař practiced with the nongame group on Saturday at the Flyers Training Center for approximately an hour.

On Matvei Michkov

Brière also shared his thoughts on Michkov after the young forward came into camp slimmer and having spent the summer working on his skating.

“It’s been good to see. There’s still a long way to go, but definitely training camp, the scrimmage [last Saturday], he looked very good in that,” Brière said.

“He looked really good in the first game he played [on Thursday]. I thought he was moving well again today in the first period,” said Brière, who noted that the power play, which Michkov plays a key role on, looked good.

“So, so far so good. … So there [are] encouraging signs there with Matvei that he can come back to what we expected him to be. So very pleased with the work that he put in this summer and the attitude that he showed up with to training camp.”

Michkov had a goal in his first preseason game.

On the rising youngsters who were sent down

The Flyers sent four players down on Friday. Along with Knuble, forwards Jett Luchanko and Jacob Gaucher and defenseman Oliver Bonk were returned to the Phantoms.

Brière liked their camps and said Bonk is “knocking on the door,” but with a shortened training camp, the Flyers opted to “with the status quo, give some of the young guys a chance to play a lot of minutes, play every situation, rather than play in a backup role here.”

The hope is that with the extended ice time, “When we need them, they’re ready and they feel ready to go and help out,” Brière said.

But the fact is Knuble, Luchanko and Bonk had fantastic camps. Luchanko flashed his speed and a newfound eye for shots on goal, putting three on, while chipping in three assists.

Knuble showed he has a high motor — like Barkey — a keen ability to put pressure on the opposition, and some offensive pop, especially around the net. He entered Saturday leading the Flyers with two goals, and tied with Luchanko with three points.

And Bonk is just so steady and calm on the blue line that he looks like a grizzled 20-year veteran.

“The message to them was, keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve done everything you could have done at training camp. Keep developing your game,” Brière said. “Staying here in the case, for example, of an Oliver Bonk, staying here as a seventh or eighth defenseman does you no good. We’d rather have you facing the top players in the American League every night, playing 22 minutes, playing some power play and some PK.

“I think it gives them the chance to be more successful when they’re needed for a bigger role at this level.”

On David Jiříček

At the trade deadline, the Flyers acquired young defenseman David Jiříček from the Minnesota Wild. Brière previously revealed that the Flyers had serious discussions about him before the 2022 NHL draft and then again before he got traded from the Columbus Blue Jackets — who drafted him — to Minnesota in 2024.

It has long been expected that Jiříček would break camp with the Flyers because he is no longer waiver-exempt. He inked a two-year, $3 million contract extension in April.

Entering Saturday, Jiříček played two preseason games and had three shots on goal, including a low, high-powered slap shot from the point on a power play — something Brière called “a weapon.” But he was minus-2 and on the ice for two more goals in the second period of Saturday’s game against the Capitals, one coming from a turnover by him.

“I thought David played OK,” the GM said during the first intermission.

“Didn’t get beat by anyone to lose his job, so he’s going to be given the chance. I thought he had a solid first period today. He’s going to start on the roster, and it’s going to be up to him to show us that he deserves the minutes and he deserves to stay in the lineup.”