Erik Gustafsson finally saw some real game action instead of just practicing against his teammates. He played in his first game of the season on Saturday night when the Philadelphia Flyers took on the Detroit Red Wings.
He had been a healthy scratch for the first five games of the Flyers season in favor of fellow defenseman Andrej Meszaros. The only ice time Gustafsson had seen so far this season was during practice and preseason.
The defenseman looked pretty good in the 18:19 he spent on the ice. He moved the puck out of his own zone well, which Meszaros had failed to do in his five starts. If Gustafsson made a mistake, he was quick enough to be able to fix it; whereas, Meszaros has looked slow and sloppy in the early season.
He knew when to pinch in the offensive zone and when to stay back so he could be in a good defensive position if the Red Wings went on the attack. On one shift, Gustafsson was paired with Kimmo Timonen and everyone on the ice kept cycling the puck and the Flyers managed to get a couple of good scoring chances out of it.
In the second period, Brayden Schenn got the puck back to Gustafsson at the point, and he took the shot. The puck took a weird bounce in front of the Red Wings goalie, Jimmy Howard, and went into the net.
The puck movement was better coming out of their own zone since Gustafsson was in the lineup and not Meszaros, who isn't know for his puck-moving skills. Meszaros is the bigger of the defensemen, but Gustafsson has the puck-moving skills and has better mobility than Meszaros.
The two defensemen play both the power play and the penalty kill. Meszaros is coming off a season where he missed the majority of the season due to a torn rotator cuff and Gustafsson is coming off of a summer in which he won the World Championships with Sweden.
The new head coach, Craig Berube, will make the final decision on who plays and who sits, but Gustafsson should be in the lineup again on Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
