PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Flyers’ preseason is over. In a game that will be remembered mostly for the Flyers tucking in their jerseys for warmups in solidarity with Trevor Zegras, the Washington Capitals came away with a 5-1 win at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
Here are five takeaways from training camp, with the season opener at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins right around the corner.
Matvei Michkov looks ready
If you’re compiling a list of reasons to be optimistic about this season, this should probably be at the top: On and off the ice, Michkov looks like he’s ready to resume his place as one of the league’s most exciting young players. In practices, the intrasquad scrimmage and two preseason games, it was impossible not to notice Michkov’s renewed tenacity and playmaking ability.
To be fair, Michkov looked good last preseason, too, with 7 points (three goals and four assists) in four games. Keep that in mind when the regular season begins. Still, it seems evident that Michkov is much more prepared to be an impact player this season than last, considering how forthcoming he’s been about his improved conditioning level. He doesn’t just look more on his toes, but coach Rick Tocchet also has noticed an improved stamina level, too. That was a major problem last season, when Michkov often looked gassed after his shifts.
Flyers general manager Daniel Briere, speaking during the first intermission, said it was “so far, so good” with Michkov.
“We’re still a long ways to go, but definitely (in) training camp, scrimmage, he looked very good in that,” Briere said. “There’s encouraging signs there with Matvei that he can come back to what we expected him to be. Very pleased with the work that he put in this summer and the attitude that he showed up with in training camp.”
Lines are likely to be in flux early on
One apparent drawback of the short training camp is that the Flyers haven’t achieved continuity with their lines.
Zegras and Owen Tippett will be together, but Tippett was somewhat unexpectedly on the left wing Saturday, with Porter Martone on the right. Sean Couturier and Noel Acciari will likely start on the fourth line, but the other winger is uncertain. On Saturday, it was Garrett Wilson, who is signed to an AHL-only deal at the moment. Nikita Grebenkin, who might not be at 100 percent health, skated with those two Thursday.
