Flyers-Islanders: Postgame Review

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers got off to another good start in Friday's game, but the finish was hardly similar to the previous three games. The Flyers suffered their first loss in the preseason since Sunday's opener, dropping a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Islanders.

Luckily, this one doesn't count for anything lost just yet. But it will in a couple weeks, and the way the Flyers lost the game does create a cause for concern.

More on Friday's game from Allentown in our Postgame Review.

Postgame Points

1. Gostisbehere Down? – The night started out like Monday's game for Shayne Gostisbehere. On a power play, he let go one of his patented slap shots from the blue line and scored to get the Flyers on the board. In that sense, he looks to be in midseason form.

   But after the second period, he did not return. Ron Hextall said that he was pulled from the game for precautionary reasons. The curious part of this is that there was no sign of an apparent injury to Gostisbehere or any incident that would cause you to think that something happened. For now, that's all the information there is. A further update will hopefully be provided on Saturday.

2. Goaltending - This is becoming more of an issue than anticipated. The Flyers have Brian Elliott still on the mend from offseason surgery, so he's only seen one period of action in the preseason so far. Earlier in the week, the team announced that Alex Lyon would be out for four weeks with a lower-body injury suffered in warmups on Tuesday. Michal Neuvith tweaked something at practice on Friday, so he was not a go for Friday's game and will miss "some time" according to Hextall. So that leaves Anthony Stolarz and Carter Hart as the only goalies left in camp.

   Stolarz is fresh off what was essentially a year off, playing in just four professional games after having major knee surgery. He was also very average in goal on Friday night in the second half of the game, allowing three goals on 10 shots.

   And then there's Hart. Of course, the fan base would love to see him sooner rather than later. But here's the part that seems cryptic. Dave Hakstol said that the team will not skip any steps with Hart. That seems to say that no matter how the kid's preseason goes, he will start the year in the minors. 

   But if enough injuries amount, do the Flyers really get the choice? Hart has stopped 45 of 47 shots faced so far this preseason, far and away the best save percentage of any netminder in the preseason. But there's always the possibility that the Flyers look elsewhere for an emergency veteran option to keep Hart on the track they want.

   It's certainly the most intriguing position at camp so far.

3. Carsen Twarynski – One of the standouts of this game was Carsen Twarynski. Aside from being a physical presence and hitting everything that moves, Twarynski has a good amount of offensive prowess to his game.

   He received a lot of praise from both Hextall and Hakstol for how he's come in and earned the attention of the team. While a lot of players have already packed their bags for Lehigh Valley, he's still sticking around because he's earned it.

4. TK Shows Off Speed - Travis Konecny was already flying at training camp practices, so it's really no surprise that he is starting to show it in games too. He was one of the more present players in the game after being relatively quiet for the last few games of the preseason.

   His line combination was an interesting one too, playing with Oskar Lindblom and Mikhail Vorobyev. Perhaps that's a preview of the team's third line.

5. Vorobyev Delivers Again - It was a night when Vorobyev was relatively unnoticeable before his set-up on the Konecny goal. He completed a nice pass, lifting the puck ahead to a streaking Konecny for a breakaway.

   That may have been the noticeable play, but from a defensive standpoint, not being noticed is a good thing. He's getting closer to locking in a spot.