Heather Barry

*Folks we made it to Friday and it’s the start of the long Labor Day weekend and, as such, the end of the Summer. Which makes it a great time to look ahead to the Flyers season, and yesterday we got the full lineup of national broadcast games the Flyers will play this year. [ Flyers ]

Finally, months after watching the Washington Capitals pot an empty net goal to clinch the last Eastern Conference playoff spot, the Philadelphia Flyers will play games this month. They are meaningless in the standings, but thanks to Matvei Michkov, the games will be must watch TV (or streaming). Here then is a breakdown of what games the Flyers have this coming month and what you can expect from most of these contests:

The 2023-24 season was a big one for Travis Konecny. Through 76 games, he set new career highs in goals (33) and total points (68), and led the league in shorthanded goals with six. Under the hood, his 5-on-5 advanced metrics were also some of the best of his NHL tenure: he posted a 55.60 Corsi-For percentage (CF%) and a 52.96 Expected Goals percentage (xG%), meaning the Flyers controlled play and were more likely to score whenever Konecny was on the ice. Off the ice, Konecny cemented himself as a central part of the Flyers’ leadership group by earning an “A” on his sweater, and parlayed two very good years into an eight-year contract extension with an $8.75-million AAV that kicks in at the start of the 2025 season.

Today’s open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes…

Michkov-apalooza commenced Thursday morning with the lineups outside to get in to see him and then him taking to the ice. [NBCSP]

Keith Jones, the Flyers’ President of Hockey Operations, says there’s a small chance that Oliver Bonk makes the roster when the regular season begins. It’s not a certainty, but it’s not a non-starter either. He hopes that the defenseman’s play results in a hard, difficult decision being made when the final roster cuts are announced.

It was a jam packed weekend of action as the Flyers took on the Rangers for their annual pair of rookie games, and for the Flyers — with a team pretty heavy on speed and skill — the resulting outcome was a bit of a mixed bag.

We’ve only been underway for a few days, but rookie camp has already been something of a roller coaster for Emil Andrae. Nowhere was this more clearly illustrated than in the run of events through Saturday’s second rookie game — the Flyers, struggling to string together much momentum, were given a golden chance to get rolling when, in the second period, a major and a game misconduct for spearing was levied on the Rangers, and they would be given a five-minute power play to work with. That power play, though, began just about as badly as one could imagine, as it saw a turnover by Andrae turn into a shorthanded goal for the Rangers, and a bit more air coming out of their sails.

*More from the Rookie games! Here’s our five standouts from the weekend of showcases. ( BSH )

Tortorella, Couturier, Ristolainen and (obviously) Matvei Michkov were part of the storyline after the Flyers’ first day of training camp.