Was Today A Glimpse Of What Flyers Will Look Like On Opening Night?
With a week til the Philadelphia Flyers open their 2020-2021 season, some spots in the Flyers lineup still need to be decided. Spots that today we got a first look at.
After mixing & matching on the first two days of training camp, head coach Alain Vigneault give a glimpse of his plans for the Flyers lineup this season. A lineup that could very well the Flyers lineup next Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Day3 of training camp, the Flyers lineup was…
Oskar Lindblom – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Claude Giroux – Kevin Hayes – Joel Farabee
James van Riemsdyk – Nolan Patrick – Jake Voracek
Michael Raffl – Scott Laughton – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ivan Provorov – Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim – Phil Myers
Erik Gustafsson – Robert Hagg
Lines courtesy of Jordan Hall of NBCSports Philadelphia
After practice, head coach Alain Vigneault didn’t deny this could be a future lineup. However, put some cold water on the possibility that it will be the opening night lineup.
“It was the same type of day- 35- 45 minute of practice. We were at 37 minutes of practice today exactly and then we had 50 minutes of scrimmage,” Vigneault said about todays practice. “We tried to regroup lines and d pairs that have had some history just to get them a better feel.”
Vigneault also added “we will be different not tomorrow but the next day after. We are not skating tomorrow. I felt that today put guys together or lines and d pairs that have played together in the past and start to see if we can see a little bit of chemistry and a little bit of good feelings.”
The one surprise today was Shayne Gostisbehere on the top pair with Ivan Provorov. Who was the latest Flyer to be paired with Provorov during camp.
After being paired with Justin Braun & Mark Friedman on the first two days, Gostisbehere got a look next to Provorov. Reuniting a pairing that had good success in 2018 under former head coach Dave Hakstol.
“Tomorrow, Provy’s going to be with somebody else,” head coach Alain Vigneault said after Day 1 of training camp. “I’m going to mix and match for the first two days, forwards and defense. Come Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, & moving forward, we’ll obviously take a look at a couple different options.”
Vigneault added his reasoning for that was “because of the fact that there are no true exhibition games, just one inter-squad game, we’re going to have to make up our mind and make the decisions. Hopefully we get that chemistry that’s needed early to have a good start. The start that we need to be what we believe will be a playoff team and one of the teams that took a giant step last year and needs to take another step this year.”
NBCSports Philadelphia To Broadcast Inter-Squad Game
With no pre-season games, the first action Flyers fans would have seen of the 2020-2021 Philadelphia Flyers would have been Game1 of the season. But, that will not be the case now.
On Sunday, the Flyers inter-squad game at the Wells Fargo Center will be broadcasted live on NBCSports Philadelphia. It will be the first live look at the Flyers lineup for the 2020-2021 season.
NBC Sports Philadelphia will provide live coverage of the game. Jim Jackson, Taryn Hatcher, and Al Morganti will call the game. Game-time is 7:00pm.
Photo Credit : Joe Siville – Flyers PR