|
Flyers Gameday: 2/19/17 @ VAN |
|
|
|
|
|
MINI-PREVIEW: FLYERS @ CANUCKS
Need a win to salvage something from what has thus far been a disastrous western Canada road trip, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (27-24-7) are in British Columbia on Sunday night to take on Willie Desjardins' Vancouver Canucks (25-27-6). Game time at Rogers Arena is 10:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
The Flyers, who are just 1-4-1 in their last six games, are coming off back-to-back losses in Calgary and Edmonton. Although Flyers assistant captain Mark Streit said to the media on the trip that he doesn't feel the team "played bad in any way" against either the Flames or Oilers, the reality is they played with a lead for all of 2:28 of 120 minutes, got outscored 9-4 between the two games and had significant breakdowns leading up to a few of the opposition goals.
Philly has posted a sub .500 record on the road in two of the last three seasons, and that's where the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders. The Flyers drag a 10-15-3 road record into Sunday's tilt. Over the course of this road trip, the Islanders, Panthers and Sabres have all surpassed the Flyers in wildcard chase either by virtue of points or ties in points plus games in hand.
Jordan Weal (upper-body injury) will not play in Vancouver. He will be re-evaluated when the team returns to Philadelphia on Monday.
Vancouver, like the Flyers, has generally been a good club at home (17-8-3) this season and abysmal on the road (8-19-3). The club has lost two in a row and seven of the last 10.
********
FLYERS ALUMNI RUSSIA TOUR UPDATE
Today's blog is being written from our hotel in St. Petersburg shortly before we depart for an early flight to Moscow. Tomorrow is the tour culminating outdoor game in Red Square.
Yesterday, we played the SKA Alumni team, which included not only former NHL star Alexei Yashin but also the likes of Alexander Medvedev and Roman Rotenberg -- two of the most powerful and influential men not only within the Russian hockey infrastructure but also within the country itself. Former Flyers draftee Alexander Drozdetsky also played for SKA.
On the Flyers Alumni side, former Flyers winger Andrei Kovalenko was in the lineup as one of the guest players. We also had world-famous jazz saxophonist Igor Butman (a fine junior hockey player before dedicating himself full time to his music), Dimitry Yashin (Alexei's brother), Bobby Carpenter, Andrei Nikolishin, Alexander Semak, and longtime CSKA and Russian national team mainstay Sergei Gimayev among the guest players on the Flyers Alumni team.
A bad first period, which saw SKA dominate and jump out to a 3-0 lead, was the difference in the game. The Flyers Alumni goals were scored by Lindsay Carson, Chase Watson and Nikolishin. The third period was largely controlled by the Flyers side but it was too little and too late to come back.
The game itself was a huge success, selling out the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg. Afterwards, we stayed at the arena as guests to watch the KHL game between the current-day SKA team (featuring Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk) and Torpedo (featuring ex-Flyer Nikolay Zherdev).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»