Flyers Quick Hits: Camp, Bump, and More

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Montreal wrap: Fatal first period for Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers dropped to 1-1-0 on the preseason as they lost, 4-2, to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday. If you have not already read Anthony Mingioni’s three takeaways from the game, they’re worth checking out. Meanwhile, here are a few odds and ends of my own.

Preseason quirk bit Philly in first period

During the regular season, the Collective Bargaining Agreement forbids teams from game day air travel. However, that restriction does not exist during the preseason. Consequently, it’s not uncommon for teams to hold a morning skate at their home rink, fly to a visiting city, and go straight to the rink.

That’s what the Flyers did on Tuesday. It showed with predictable results. I’ve rarely NOT seen a team have “bus legs” (actually airplane legs) in the first period of such preseason games. The Canadiens dominated the first period to an almost embarrassing degree. They led. 2-0, at intermission but it could have been worse.

Philadelphia’s play picked up in the latter 40 minutes. However, they never caught up on the score board.

Deslauriers injected some energy

I don’t know what the Flyers will decide about Nicolas Deslauriers’ status for 2025-26. Will he be the 13th (or 14th) forward for Rick Tocchet’s team? Will the veteran old-school enforcer end up in Lehigh Valley as a $1.75 million supplement to veteran captain Garret Wilson? There’s no spot for Deslauriers in the regular NHL top 12 at this point.

I do know these things:

The Flyers originally planned to have Owen Tippett skate on a line with Jett Luchanko and Alex Bump. Tocchet made a last-minute switch in Montreal. Tippett went to Christian Dvorak’s line. Deslauriers skated on the Luchanko line. I suspect Tocchet placed Deslauriers there as a deterrent to Arber Xhekaj from running at one of the rookies. “Delo” later fought Florian Xhekaj, just about daring older brother Arber to tangle with him.
Whatever your views on fighting in today’s NHL, this much was clear. The Flyers looked much more energized after Deslauriers dropped the gloves and fought the younger Xhekaj brother. At least on Tuesday, they needed SOMETHING to get them going.

Tocchet clarified what happened with Ersson

The Flyers head coach announced at the morning skate that Samuel Ersson would go the distance in goal. As such, alarm bells went off when Aleksei Kolosov (who played 40 minutes on Sunday) entered the game at the start of the second period.

Sure, Ersson gave up a leaky goal on Montreal’s second tally of the first period. The Swede had little chance of stopping Cole Caufield’s snipe on a tac-tac-toe transition rush in the game’s first minute. One bad goal hardly seemed like cause for a performance-driven change in net. Likewise, a 2-0 game in the preseason rarely triggers a “change the momentum” switch in goal after one period.

Was Ersson injured? He’s had groin problems before. Was he under the weather? If he was, why not take Dan Vladar to Montreal instead of Ersson?

Thankfully, it turned out to be a simple mistake. Tocchet apparently misread the goalie work plan for the week (which comes from the front office during the early exhibition slate). Ersson was only slated to go 20 minutes all along. He’s not injured or sick. Moreover, the change had nothing to do with the score or the Florian Xhekaj goal.

Bump had an excellent third period, Luchanko played so-so

In the first period on Tueday, virtually no Flyers played well. Consequently, the fact that Jett Luchanko skated well stood out positively, even though he didn’t get much else done. Overall, he had a meh game including losing a puck that ended up as Arber Xhekaj’s empty net goal. He also had a so-so scrimmage on Saturday. He looked like someone who missed Development Camp. the Summer Showcase and Rookie Camp.

Meanwhile, Alex Bump got better and better as Tuesday’s game went along. He was especially good in the third period. Unlike Luchanko (offseason groin issue), Bump was able to play in Development Camp and Rookie Camp. He looked like he’s working the summer hockey blahs out of his system. Luchanko isn’t there yet.

However, the same four-word caveat applies as always:beware small sample sizes. There are no big-picture insights, positive or negative, to draw from a couple practices and one exhibition games. What IS fair to say is that Luchanko must play better than he has so far if the 19-year-old is to make the NHL roster this October.

Tuesday game lineup

Anthony Richard – Sean Couturier – Bobby Brink
Alex Bump – Jett Luchanko – Nicolas Deslauriers
Rodrigo Abols – Christian Dvorak – Owen Tippett
Oscar Eklind – Matthew Gard – Jacob Gaucher

Dennis Gilbert – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Helge Grans
Hunter McDonald – Ethan Samson

Samuel Ersson
Aleksei Kolosov

Wednesday practice groups

Group A

Forwards

11 Konecny, Travis
12 Kaplan, Devin
17 Luchanko, Jett
18 Abols, Rodrigo
20 Bump, Alex
27 Cates, Noah
29 Grebenkin, Nikita
44 Deslauriers, Nic
52 Barkey, Denver
73 Nesbitt, Jack
74 Tippett, Owen
78 Gaucher, Jacob

Defense

3 Grans, Helge
5 Zamula, Egor
8 York, Cam
13 Ginning, Adam
47 Juulsen, Noah
48 Gilbert, Dennis

Goalies

35 Kolosov, Alexei
80 Vladar, Dan

Group B

Forwards

10 Brink, Bobby
14 Couturier, Sean
19 Hathaway, Garnet
22 Dvorak, Christian
39 Michkov, Matvei
42 Eklind, Oscar
46 Zegras, Trevor
56 Tuomaala, Samu
71 Foerster, Tyson
85 Robertson, Tucker
90 Richard, Anthony
92Gendron, Alexis

Defense

6 Sanheim, Travis
9 Drysdale, Jamie
24 Seeler, Nick
36 Andrae, Emil
41 McDonald, Hunter
42 Gill, Spencer
67 Vlooswyk, Luke
96 Murchison, Ty

Goalies

33 Ersson, Sam
64 Bjarnason, Carson