For the past few years, lack of power-play production has been one of the Flyers’ glaring shortcomings.
Meanwhile, their penalty kill has been a strong point, finishing as high as fourth overall in the NHL rankings last season.
In Monday night’s preseason game at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., things switched around. The Flyers scored two goals on their power play but also surrendered two on the New York Islanders’ extra attacker situations, and the visitors dropped a 4-3 decision.
Kyle Palmieri scored with 50.2 seconds to play for the winning goal.
New York’s Matthew Barzal scored on a power play at 18:43 of the first period and teammate Anders Lee matched that by connecting at 11:04 of the second.
Philadelphia’s Anthony Richard scored on a power play at 2:04 of the second. Rasmus Ristolainen also connected with the man advantage at 2:27 of the third period. The other Philadelphia goal came at even strength from Brendan Furry at 14:13 of the second period.
The Flyers face the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday, then complete the exhibition slate with a home game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
Philadelphia had to face four power plays in the first period and killed off the first three. But the fourth one was a charm for the Islanders, who scored with 1:17 left in the period. Matthew Barzal sent a long shot past Flyers starting netminder Ivan Fedotov.
Goaltender Alexei Kolosov, who just arrived at training camp from Belarus on Friday, took over for Fedotov midway through the second period.
Kolosov made a sensational save on New York’s Brock Nelson with 13 minutes to play to keep the game knotted at 3-3.
>Ginning holding steady
Defenseman Adam Ginning wasn’t exactly thrilled with his performance in the Saturday night overtime victory over the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center.
After the morning skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J., assistant coach Darryl Williams (who ran the bench on Monday night on Long Island) said there were probably a few plays that Ginning would have liked to have back.
“Positionally I think he’s played well,” Williams said. “He’s had the good stick. He’s a big guy, he’s been closing out plays in his own end. He’s probably got a correct read on how it was and I’m sure he wants to improve on each game.”
>Lycksell in contention
Forward Olle Lycksell has been in the system for a few years and now it looks like he’s making a serious push to earn a spot on the roster.
He was on the top power play unit on Saturday night vs. the Isles.
“He’s definitely pushing,” Williams said. “He’s doing what he needs to do to make management aware of what he’s done in the summer time and what his intention was going into camp.
“At the end of the day we will make our decision. But he’s definitely taken advantage of an opportunity.”
>Decisions on lines
Through the first five preseason games, the Flyers coaches have been experimenting with different line combinations to see if there’s any natural chemistry for regular-season play.
For instance, Matvei Michkov (who did not play Monday night) seems to be working well with center Morgan Frost and left wing Owen Tippett.
“Sometimes you just stumble up it,” Williams said. “You wind up with a match you don’t normally consider. They get on the ice, they play well. It’s like ‘let’s try that again.’ It (late decision making) is heightened more.”
>Short shots
Head coach John Tortorella watched the first five preseason games from upstairs but plans to return to the bench for the final two games at Boston and against the Devils.
