Rasmus Ristolainen
Alain Vigneault announced on Thursday that Rasmus Ristolainen and Patrick Brown will miss Friday’s season opener for the Flyers. In their place, Nick Seeler will play and Max Willman will make his NHL debut.
The Flyers claimed forward Zack MacEwen from the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. To make room for MacEwen on the roster under the salary cap limit, the Flyers placed Kevin Hayes on long-term injured reserve.
The Flyers claimed center Patrick Brown off waivers, putting the final piece into the puzzle for the 2021-22 opening-night roster. The Flyers final roster consists of 20 healthy players, the minimum 12 forwards, six defensemen, and two goalies.
On Tuesday night, it will be more of a ‘B’ team lineup for the Flyers against the Islanders, as cuts have started to begin, but another chance to see some new faces like Derick Brassard, Rasmus Ristolainen and Martin Jones.
The guys start by addressing Robin Lehner’s tweets and the allegations against the Flyers and Alain Vigneault before diving into the first three games of the preseason. They look at some of the new faces like Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen, Cam Atkinson and Keith Yandle and their performances and evaluate how some of the lines have played together.
The Flyers defeated the Capitals on Saturday night, but it was more than just the team winning a game for the first time this preseason. It was the players that really stood out and the coming together of a bunch of new faces to show signs that this season could be different in terms of the mood around the team.
The Flyers top power-play unit got on the board and some newcomers made contributions in a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals.
Saturday night will present the next opportunity for players to put the drills and systems worked on in camp to the test. As the Washington Capitals come to town, the Flyers will ice a more experienced lineup. Game time is 7 p.m.
You can imagine how the result looked when the Boston Bruins, playing in their first preseason home game, took the opportunity to load up with roughly 90 percent of the NHL roster. It’s hardly a way to evaluate how one team looks against another. It did present some early warning signs that need to be addressed and cleaned up with exactly two weeks remaining until the regular season opener.
The Flyers will face the Boston Bruins, playing in their third preseason game so far. They split the first two decisions, both on the road. Game time is 7:30 p.m.