Tyson Foerster’s glad to be ‘full go’ for Flyers’ preseason game in Boston

Tyson Foerster had a big smile on his face in the Flyers locker room Monday after participating in the early skate.

It was easy to know why. The forward will suit up for his first preseason game when the Flyers visit Boston on Monday (7 p.m., nhl.com/flyers) in a preseason rematch with the Bruins, who beat them, 4-3, on Saturday.

“Feel good, feel really good,” Foerster said. “Just excited to get in there.”

“For me it’s just full go,” he added. “I’m sure the trainers are going to be watching it, but for me, it’s full go.”

Foerster started camp wearing a purple noncontact jersey as he continued to recover from an elbow infection. He underwent a procedure to remove the infection, which cropped up after he was injured playing for Canada at the World Championship in May. The team said he did not have any structural issues with the elbow.

Flyers general manager Danny Brière said in July there was “no guarantee” that Foerster would be ready for the season opener on Oct. 9 against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. But Foerster was confident when training camp opened, saying, “I think by the start of the year, I’ll be good to go.”

He was wearing a regular, full-contact jersey by Sept. 23.

“I think he works extremely hard on this rehab,” said coach Rick Tocchet, who revealed a few days ago that Sidney Crosby called him to rave about Foerster. “Give him a lot of credit. [It] doesn’t surprise me. He’s a character kid.”

Building on an impressive rookie season that saw him pot 20 goals, Foerster had 25 goals and 43 points in 81 games last season. The Ontario native ended on a high note with nine goals in his last nine games, including his first career hat trick on April 9 against the New York Rangers.

Now set to play his first game since May in front of a new coaching staff, Foerster will have some familiar faces next to him, as he is slotted with his buddies Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

The trio formed the Flyers’ most consistent, reliable, and fundamentally sound line last year.

According to Natural Stat Trick, across more than 568 minutes of ice time at five-on-five — the most by a wide margin — they outscored opponents, 29-23. The Flyers had 52.2% of the scoring chances when they were on the ice, along with 58.1% of the high-danger chances. Known to crash the net while maintaining the key foundational structure of the triangle, they generated 47 rebound attempts.

And they did it while playing against the NHL’s top lines.

“I think the work we did last year, we did a lot; we played well and we did a lot of good things,” Cates told The Inquirer, who like Foerster, noted that they haven’t been together too often in training camp but do have that innate familiarity.

“The biggest thing is just building off of it and continuing to do the work,” Cates said. “It was the little things that got us to playing well and playing hard together, so we can’t get away from those things. I think that’s the biggest thing when you come into a different year. You want to take a step, but you can’t get away from what gave you success.”

The trio has caught the eye of Tocchet, who said on Sept. 18 that they were “a pretty good line, I heard.” He’s already seeing that in practice.

“They really set the tone in practice with their intelligence,” Tocchet said on Saturday. ”And I know they were good last year — maybe it’s a line where I keep them together — but I like that one. There’s drills, they were tired, but they were still in good spots. That’s a good sign.”

The focus is on the future for Foerster, Brink, and Cates. So what’s the next step for them?

“Scoring more, I think,” said Foerster with a smile. “We had a bunch of chances last year, just couldn’t score all the time. But, I mean, we just play the same way we did last year, we should be OK.”

Trevor Zegras is not playing in Monday’s game and was not on the ice with the non-game group. A team source told The Inquirer that he had a recovery day. Zegras played his second preseason game on Saturday and had a power-play goal and a secondary assist on Nikita Grebenkin’s marker. ... The Flyers’ final preseason game on Saturday has been changed from a 3 p.m. starting time to 12:30 p.m. (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic). Before the game, Flyers Charities will host the Gritty 5K. ... According to Puckpedia, defenseman Helge Grans was placed on waivers Monday. Entering camp, Grans was a strong candidate to take Rasmus Ristolainen’s spot on the right side as he continues to recover from surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture. But in three preseason games, Grans was beaten twice by players streaking down the right wing and was minus-4.