VOORHEES, N.J. — For the first time this preseason, the Flyers will face an opponent that resides outside the state of New York as they welcome the Boston Bruins to the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers and B’s will square off in two of their final three games with the preseason finale Saturday at TD Garden in Boston.
• The Flyers are expected to make another round of cuts Tuesday with the roster currently set at 35.
“Tonight will tell us a little bit more," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "I’ll have a better idea after tonight. Tomorrow is a day off, so that will be a natural time to evaluate it.”
The news doesn’t bode well for forwards Tyrell Goulbourne or Carsen Twarynski, who both skated Tuesday morning and will not participate in Monday’s game. Goulbourne has played sparingly throughout the preseason while Twarynski has been one of the camp’s biggest surprises.
• Hakstol is still trying to determine who will comprise the third- and fourth-line center positions. Mikhail Vorobyev is inching closer to making the final squad, subbing in for Sean Couturier on the top line with Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny. Once Couturier returns healthy, by every indication, Vorobyev appears to be the team’s third-line center with Jordan Weal, Jori Lehtera and Corban Knight vying for the fourth-line center position.
• As for Knight, who Hakstol coached at North Dakota, he remains an outsider to win one of the two final two forward spots on the team. Knight has spent the past two seasons with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, coming to the organization with limited NHL experience. He has just 29 NHL games under his belt, having last played with the Florida Panthers in February 2016. Knight doesn’t possess blazing speed but plays a very responsible two-way game and isn’t caught out of position too often.
• After playing one period of action last week at Madison Square Garden, Brian Elliott is expected to split time with Anthony Stolarz. Elliott should see at least 30 minutes of action as the Flyers continue to bring him along deliberately from offseason hip and core muscle surgery. The Flyers are building Elliott up to be as close to 100 percent by opening night, but after his first 20 minutes of action against the Rangers, the Flyers' No. 1 goaltender needs to see work in the final three preseason games.
New mascot to make debut
As the Flyers unveiled their new mascot, "Gritty," at the Please Touch Museum, there were also plenty of reactions from inside the Flyers' dressing room in Voorhees, New Jersey.
“That’s not my mascot.” - Wayne Simmonds
“At least I’m leaving a mark somewhere.” - Radko Gudas
NHL
“Kids will love him. I don’t know about my kids, but kids will love him.” - Hakstol
How will fans respond to Gritty? We’ll find out tonight when the oversized, orange and hairy creature makes his debut inside the arena.
Here are the essentials for tonight:
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia+
Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com
Projected lineup
Forwards
Claude Giroux-Mikhail Vorobyev-Travis Konecny
James van Riemsdyk-Nolan Patrick-Jakub Voracek
Nicolas Aube-Kubel-Jori Lehtera-Dale Weise
Scott Laughton-Corban Knight-Michael Raffl
Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Shayne Gostisbehere
Andrew MacDonald-Christian Folin
Robert Hagg-Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Brian Elliott
Anthony Stolarz