Sandstrom suffers injury as Flyers are blanked; here comes Tortorella originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
John Tortorella, come on down.
Like … now.
It’s only the preseason, as they say, but the Flyers have generated little offense or buzz through their first four exhibition games. They were blanked by the Bruins, 4-0, Saturday afternoon at TD Garden in Boston.
The Bruins’ final goal was an empty-netter. The Flyers wanted a 6-on-4 power play in the third period, so they pulled their goalie.
The club is 1-3-0 in the preseason and has been outscored 10-4. Tortorella watched his final preseason game from the Flyers’ management suite. He’ll make his way to the bench for the last two exhibition matchups.
Against Boston, the Flyers went 0 for 3 on the man advantage in the first period and finished 0 for 4.
Marc McLaughlin and John Beecher scored two goals apiece for the Bruins.
• The Flyers decided this offseason it was time to let some of their prospects take a real stab at being Carter Hart‘s backup.
Felix Sandstrom entered Saturday as the front-runner to open the regular season as the Flyers’ No. 2 netminder. But he played only the first period against Boston after suffering a lower-body injury. He stopped the two shots he faced, giving him 32 saves on 34 shots through three preseason outings.
Troy Grosenick, who played for the Bruins’ AHL affiliate last season, saw the second and third periods, denying 20 of 23 shots.
The 33-year-old allowed a pair of goals to McLaughlin. He had little chance on the first, which came on a Boston power play. On the other McLaughlin marker, Grosenick struggled to cover up the puck in the crease and the Bruins batted away at it.
Beecher snuck behind the Flyers’ coverage for an easy flush to make it 3-0 in the third period.
Grosenick has stopped 46 of 52 shots in the preseason. If Sandstrom’s injury prevents him from being available for the start of the regular season, the Flyers’ backup job will be between Grosenick and Samuel Ersson. The 22-year-old Ersson has a real shot.
Boston backup Linus Ullmark went the distance and stopped all 21 of the Flyers’ shots.
• Zack MacEwen has to open the eyes of the new coaching staff.
Somewhat surprisingly, he was not with the big club group for Friday’s practice as the Flyers started going over system work. Instead, he was in one of the two groups on the opposite ice at Flyers Training Center.
MacEwen, who is battling for a fourth-line job, fought Bruins defenseman Nick…