Flyers takeaways: Bobby Brink breaks through, Travis Sanheim makes strong preseason debut

BOSTON ―The Flyers wrapped up the away portion of their preseason slate on Friday night, and did so on a positive note, defeating the Boston Bruins, 4-3, after a shootout.

Outside of getting off the schneid with a win, the Flyers delivered their best preseason performance to date. Here are five takeaways from Friday’s victory:

» READ MORE: The Flyers have a future Selke candidate in Noah Cates. Now, can he take a leap offensively?

With the Flyers entering training camp with only two or three forward spots up for grabs, Bobby Brink needed to have a huge training camp to make the team.

Friday he increased those long odds with a two-point night, setting up Ryan Poehling with a beautiful feed for a power-play goal in the first period and later scoring a goal of his own with a wicked wrist shot from the slot.

Brink, who led the NCAA in scoring in his final season at Denver, is an extremely creative and skilled player, but that has yet to translate in his limited NHL opportunities. Friday was a positive step in that regard as the diminutive winger not only exhibited terrific patience on his assist but also some ruthlessness, pouncing on a Bruins turnover and blistering one by Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark. The 22-year-old later capped his big night with a nifty goal in the shootout, as he waited out Ullmark on the deke and then flipped a hard backhander from a nearly impossible angle just under the crossbar.

Brink still has a lot of work to do to make the opening-night roster, but a two-point night is a start.

After a thoroughly disappointing 2022-23 season and a summer of trade rumors, Travis Sanheim made his preseason debut against the Bruins. The result was a strong effort from the veteran defenseman, who logged a team-high 28:13 of ice time, registered four shots on goal, three hits, three takeaways, two blocked shots, and was plus-1.

While Sanheim didn’t have any points, he was active all night long, particularly on the offensive end, where he repeatedly — and refreshingly — got involved in the rush. He started the passing sequence that led to the Flyers’ second goal on the power play and also displayed a mean streak that we are unaccustomed to seeing out of him, mixing it up with Bruins captain and all-world instigator Brad Marchand on multiple occasions in the third period.

Ahead of a pivotal season for him individually, Sanheim looked engaged from the opening whistle. Flyers fans will hope that continues.

If the Flyers are going to make some noise this season — and maybe surprise a few people — they will need bounce-back seasons from a couple of key guys. One of those is Joel Farabee, who since scoring 20 goals as a 20-year-old, has struggled with consistency and injuries the past two seasons.

After being limited last offseason while recovering from disk replacement surgery, Farabee was challenged by John Tortorella to get stronger and have a big summer in terms of training. While it is too early to tell if the hard work as paid off, it was nice to see Farabee get off to a scoring start.

The goal was the exact type of goal the Flyers would like to see more of from Farabee, as he picked off a pass at center ice, flew inside the offensive zone, and confidently picked his spot with a wrister to beat Ullmark.

It wasn’t all good for Farabee, though, as a careless neutral-zone turnover in the second period led directly to David Pastrňák’s second goal of the night. The play was a brain fart from Farabee, who was far too casual in throwing the puck across the middle of the ice. Friday night presented perfect examples of the good and the bad from the talented winger.

After being lit up for five goals on 24 shots, including four goals in the first period, in his Flyers debut on Monday, the only direction goalie Cal Petersen realistically could go was up.

He did just that against the Bruins, stopping 16 of the 17 shots he faced in a period and a half of action plus overtime. The veteran, who was acquired this offseason from the Los Angeles Kings as a cap dump in the Ivan Provorov trade, delivered a much-improved performance despite being under seige for spells against the likes of Pastrňák and Marchand.

Petersen’s highlight moment came with just over two minutes to play when he made an absolutely ridiculous sprawling save to rob Danton Heinen and keep the game tied. It was an extremely athletic save from the 28-year-old, who is looking to rediscover his game and win the backup job behind Carter Hart.

Petersen deserves as much credit as any Flyer for the win.

When the Flyers signed Poehling on July 1, the most common reaction from fans probably was a shoulder shrug. But the Flyers look to have landed a useful player on a relative bargain contract (one-year, $1.4 million).

That was on display against the Bruins, as Poehling scored for the second straight preseason game and also showcased several attributes that should endear him to his new city. While his goal was a tap-in following a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing sequence involving Tyson Foerster and Brink, Poehling’s energy and effort was visible all over the TD Garden ice.

The former first-rounder, who once scored a hat trick in his NHL debut, isn’t going to go out and score 30 goals this season. That said, his elite speed, work in the faceoff dot, and penalty-killing prowess will all be assets to the Flyers’ bottom-six. He is also the type of depth player that could be coveted around the trade deadline if the Flyers are out of contention.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ new-look fourth line has been one of the few constants so far at training camp