Last Night's Preseason Performers (Sep 18)

The Philadelphia Flyers couldn't hold on to an early 2-0 lead at Nassau Coliseum, losing their preseason opener to the New York Islanders, 3-2 in overtime.

John Tavares got his preseason campaign off to a good start, scoring a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, leading his club by example on the score sheet.

For the Flyers, Jori Lehtera also got off to a good start with his new club, scoring a goal and an assist in the loss.  A start like that might give him a quick boost to his projections, ahead of the draft.

The preseason is all about showing off and making an impact and the Vegas Golden Knights did just that in their preseason debut, walloping the Vancouver Canucks, 9-4 on Sunday afternoon.  Yup, nine goals on the board in their preseason debut... don't expect that all year though.

Well, let's start with those Golden Knights... they played their 19-year old goaltending prospect Dylan Ferguson for the whole game and he made 29 saves for the win and by playing the whole game is the only way they get mentioned in these posts.  On the scoresheet, unsigned prospect Tyler Wong had a hat trick and an assist for a 4-point night, leading all skaters.  Forward Tomas Nosek had a goal and a pair of assists and defenseman Brad Hunt figured in with a trio of assists, both for 3 points.  Then multiple point games for Cody Glass, Nick Suzuki, Stefan Matteau and Tomas Hyka for the Golden Knights in the rout.

The Canucks were slouches throughout the game, but Brock Boeser wasn't... 2 goals and an assist, while Swedish newcomer Philip Holm had a goal and an assist as well in the loss.