In Friday’s edition of Bailey’s Daily, we’ll be talking the latest Philadelphia Flyers news, NHL news, stories, highlights, and more from the last day.

Flyers News

In place of my normal Philadelphia Flyers game coverage that I would have had Thursday night, I figured it would just be best to discuss a little here.

I kind of had to rush out of Wells Fargo Center in order to eat dinner, since I have to fast for at least hours prior to having three separate panels of bloodwork drawn at 9:40 a.m. on Friday morning.

That also means no practice, and with the 73-mile drive in one direction, you can imagine how I was up against the clock. I’m writing this at 12:50 a.m., so it’s already pretty close. That’s why I didn’t cover the game as promptly as usual.

Anyway, the Flyers managed to just barely take down a New Jersey Devils squad that was effectively the AHL Utica Comets with a few NHL-caliber tryouts, squeaking out of Philadelphia with a 5-4 win.

Defenseman Emil Andrae finished with a goal and two assists and was the best player on the ice, as he should be. Although Oliver Bonk managed two assists, I thought he really struggled overall.

Bonk didn’t look sure of himself handling and receiving the puck, and his passes were frequently wildly inaccurate or bad decisions altogether. Another year of juniors with the London Knights will do him some good. He’s maybe not as close to the NHL as some of us thought.

Forward Anthony Richard popped more than Olle Lycksell did, finishing with a goal and two assists compared to Lycksell’s singular goal. I thought Erik Johnson and Garnet Hathaway also played well, and Noah Cates was fine.

Conversely, Oscar Eklind and Elliot Desnoyers were dreadful. Richard and Rodrigo Abols have looked like shrewd free agent signings so far, even if neither makes the team. Eklind just hasn’t looked the part. He’s slow and disorganized and has not been a factor on special teams throughout camp.

Sawyer Boulton got into a few fights (he suffered a one-punch knockout in the first one), so that made the game against the Utica Devils a little more fun during some of the leaner minutes of the game.

Ivan Fedotov was solid in goal, making seven saves on eight shots, but the Ryan Schmelzer shot that beat him clean over the shoulder was perplexing and probably one he would like back. It’s better he gives away clunker goals like that now rather than in the regular season.

As for Alexei Kolosov, he split the game with Fedotov and was credited with the win, but he only saved 10 of 13 shots (.769).

Devils forward Kevin Labanc beat Kolosov three times on Thursday night. One was a knuckler that went through Kolosov’s arms, the second was a 5-on-3 power play one-timer, and the third was a rebound that came after Kolosov got lost after moving post to post.

It was actually a nice play from prospect Cam Squires to poke the rebound out to Labanc at the side of the net, and you could argue that Lycksell got caught puck-watching and totally ignored Labanc on the sequence.

You could argue that Kolosov needs to not leave such a big rebound, but it can go either way.

But, to conclude, I don’t think any jobs were won or lost on Thursday night. We’ll find out for sure on Monday, though.