Preseason Opener Packed With Brotherly Love
VOORHEES, N.J. — When the Flyers open their preseason slate against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, they’ll have a lot of new faces. And as if those players didn’t feel uncomfortable enough already playing for a new team, two of them could potentially be facing their own blood.
Brayden Schenn and Blake Kessel will head to Toronto for their first game in a Flyers uniform against NHL competition. Both played well in last week’s rookie game against the Washington Capitals, but this game will be a whole different beast.
“It will be good. It’s just playing with the veterans when they’re added to the lineup,” Schenn said. “It’s gonna be different obviously playing in the Air Canada Centre. I played their once with the World Junior team, but I guess for me the first time facing Toronto and who knows, maybe my brother. It could be a different thing, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Indications from north of the border suggest that Brayden’s brother Luke will be in the lineup Tuesday night when the Maple Leafs take on the Flyers. He is not in the lineup for Monday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators.
“Obviously there’s been talks ever since the schedule came out that there would be a chance for us to play against each other,” Brayden said. “If he plays tomorrow, or if he doesn’t, it’s not gonna change anything for me. You’ve just gotta go out there and do what I do.
“I’ve played him in juniors when I was 16 he was 18 and I’m not even sure if he’s playing [Tuesday] or not yet, but I’ll find out later today if he is. It will be pretty exciting, pretty cool for us since we haven’t played each other in a while.”
Ditto for Blake Kessel and his brother Phil. Blake has seen his older brother blossom into an NHL star, scoring 30 goals in each of the last three seasons. He too would like the chance to face his brother.
“If I’m playing, I kind of hope he is playing,” said the younger Kessel, fresh off a new contract with the Flyers. “Just to get out there against him, it’d be nice to finally play against him after being around him so much all my life, and him always trying to help me. It would be nice to kind of put my skills to the test against him and see how things would go.
“It’s nice to see someone like that who has the experience and obviously the opposite for me — the forward who comes down and can teach me a little bit. It would be nice, and hopefully I’ve learned enough that I can stop him if I play against him.”
Kessel still hasn’t had a moment to stop and gather his thoughts. Things have gone very quickly for him. Last Wednesday he signed an entry-level contract. Thursday he got a goal and an assist in the rookie game against Washington. Not even a full week has gone by before he has the potential to play against his brother in his first NHL preseason game with the Flyers.
“Obviously it’s been exciting,” he said. “It’s unbelievable it’s actually happened like this. I couldn’t be happier. The Flyers organization has always been one of the top teams in the league and this is probably the best spot I could have imagined going to.”
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