The long-term impact of anything done in the pre-season is likely suspect at best. However, I do believe that the effort that is displayed is a big sign of preparedness especially for a club that had kids in a rookie tournament,  veterans that have been practicing together for a couple of weeks, and would not shut up about how prepared they were. In the first game against Ottawa it was embarrassing. In last night's game, defensively, it was impressive. Tonight, it was good. The Flyers had a pretty light lineup, as did the Leafs on the back end which was apparent, but the team fought back from two deficits and pulled out the win in a shootout.

Broad Street Hockey Recap

There was one terrible thing that happened last night:

Ron Wilson says Lebda's shoulder is bruised. Lebda said not to be in too much pain but will get treatment tomorrow and fully evaluated then.

Bob McKenzie

I actually saw a hilarious tweet that was suggesting that Lebda's injury was the reason that it's good to have defensive depth. Yes, it's fantastic that we have 43 defencemen so that when the 9th one on our depth chart gets injured our 12th one can step seamlessly into the...err...Marlies.

The highlight of the game had to be James Reimer's performance. He made a number of good saves including in the shootout:

He had a successful, injury-plagued season with the Marlies last year but certainly seems to have the tools to at least lead the line for them this season.

  • Luca Caputi, as seen in the video breakdown, set up another goal through some good work.
  • Christian Hanson potted a great penalty shot that basically broke the Flyers' goalie's soul.
  • Danny Richmond is looking comfortable with the puck. His progress will be interesting to track on the Marlies.
  • Kadri reacted well to his demotion with his best period. My biggest gripe is that he keeps entering the offensive zone while gliding. He has to hit it with speed and make something happen not wait for it to open up.
  • Kris Versteeg had a few Verbeauty moves and then a horrible penalty shot. It confused me.
  • Gustavsson looked like he had been drinking to start but then made a nice save on Hartnell's breakaway.

There's the abridged version. You've all talked this one around the block but I'd like to know if any of the players you saw, beyond the obvious, deserve to be in the last group of around 5 skaters to be cut.

Game Coverage