Oct 17, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov (82) blocks a goal shot against the Seattle Kraken during the first period at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
The Flyers home opener is tomorrow night and they will be scuffling into it after dropping a third straight game, 6-4 in Seattle on Thursday.
And while it will surely be a spirited environment at the Wells Fargo Center, because it's the real home debut for Matvei Michkov, everyone should be keeping an eye on what is going on in Lehigh Valley as well.
That's because the Phantoms will be playing the second game of a back-to-back set with the Wilkes Barre-Scranton Penguins and Alexei Kolosov will most likely start both games.
What does that have to do with anything?
Well, here's your bulleted list of answers:
1. Wilkes Barre-Scranton is a very good AHL team.
2. The Flyers are on the clock with Kolosov and when they might want to see if he can face NHL competition.
3. Did you see Ivan Fedotov play in Seattle?
For the record, I couldn't watch the ugliness in Seattle live. Thanks to Hulu absolutely sucking at streaming live yesterday, I missed a lot of baseball and hockey.
(Which is also why you aren't getting a traditional, observations post from me today).
So, I woke up at the crack of dawn to watch what happened in the Flyers game since I knew I had to write something about it, and it didn't take long for me to see what everyone else saw.
Fedotov is not ready for prime time.
Now, two games shouldn't be the leash he's given. It's far too short - even if coach John Tortorella refuses to talk about him after the game - which he did and is a sign that he doesn't want to say anything negative about the guy.
But the Iron Giant looks like he was left out in a few rainstorms to rust and the Flyers can't find the oil can.
You can't let in goals at the professional level like this:
TGIF! 🎉
Kick off your Friday with all 6️⃣ #SeaKraken goals from last night’s dub! pic.twitter.com/DK6gPavF6K
Or this:
whenever you think he mccan't, he just mcdoes pic.twitter.com/4nS7mB6fyX
And you certainly can't expect to be successful when you give up "rebounds" like this:
NO TIME LIKE TOLVY TIME ⏰ pic.twitter.com/TgIZxNLWEx
And while the fourth and fifth Seattle goals that Fedotov allowed were more a result of poor play in front of him, it's all the more reason you can't have so many bad goals in one game. Those first two were from distance and both beat him through the five-hole. He didn't appear to be screened on either. The third goal was more of a fumbled puck than a rebound. He has to hold onto that and get a whistle.
If Fedotov stops any one of those three early goals, the Flyers might make it to overtime. If he stops two of them, they might win the game.
Mistakes are going to happen. But they have to happen here and there, they can't happen multiple times over in the same game.
And it wouldn't surprise if there's a reluctance to put him back in there. Fedotov might get another start next week when the Flyers have a back-to-back set with Washington, but a determination on Kolosov has to come soon, and the opportunity might be presenting itself.
The Flyers signed Fedotov to a surprising contract at two years and a total of $6.5 million. It was a lot of money for an unproven player. But there were some measured failsafe reasons for that contract.
1. Fedotov has the same agent as Michkov, and giving one client a player-friendly contract might make it a little easier to get the other player to come over to North America sooner.
2. If Fedotov didn't work out, it would be easier to move that bigger contract through wavers without having another team pluck him from the Flyers.
But the Flyers will only consider going that route if Kolosov impresses against Wilkes Barre-Scranton.
In his first AHL start, Kolosov picked up a shootout win. He allowed three goals on 25 shots in 65 minutes and then stopped 2-of-3 shootout chances against Hartford last Saturday.
It wasn't a standout performance, but it wasn't bad either. It was just your typical, run-of-the-mill outing.
Which is why the Flyers brass want to get eyeballs on him this weekend.
And if Kolosov does well, then GM Danny Briere and his staff have to think really hard about how they want to play it with their backup goalie situation, because they certainly don't want more of what they got last night.
