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Meltzer's Musings: Voracek, Stolie, Injuries, Alumni, Keith Allen & More |
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MELTZER'S MUSINGS: DECEMBER 13, 2016
1) Winner of nine straight games, the Philadelphia Flyers took a well-earned complete day off on Monday after playing eight times in a span of 13 nights. On Tuesday, the team will practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, before departing for a Wednesday night road game in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche.
2) On Monday, the Flyers announced that defenseman Mark Streit, who left Sunday's game in Detroit early, will be about approximately two weeks with an upper-body injury. The injury is believed to be a sprained left shoulder. In the meantime, Shayne Gostisbehere is still day-to-day with a hand injury suffered in Saturday's game. He sat out the game in Detroit.
Depending on Gostisbehere's status, the Flyers may need to place Streit on injured reserve and recall a defenseman from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Since both "Ghost" and Streit are prominently used on the point in power play situations, veteran T.J. Brennan (who is essentially a power play specialist at the NHL level) could get recalled should one be deemed necessary.
Another option should Gostisbehere miss another game: Veteran Nick Schultz could return to the starting six with Ivan Provorov and Michael Del Zotto (who returned to the lineup on Sunday after being a healthy scratch the two previous games) assuming more power play time along with perhaps Brandon Manning. A Phantoms callup for Streit would then be just an extra body on defense should another player go down during the team's trip to Colorado and Dallas.
When the Flyers eventually recall prospect Samuel Morin, it will most likely be as a part a plan for him to get some playing time. He's not a power play guy necessarily at the NHL level, nor is it ideal for him to simply sit out as a seventh defenseman. Part of why the Flyers signed Brennan was to have a veteran recall option, especially if there were circumstances such as the current one with two power play point men nursing injuries.
3) Last week, Flyers goaltender Steve Mason was named the NHL's First-Star of the Week. This time around, congratulations go out to Flyers right winger Jakub Voracek for earning leaguewide player of the week honors. Recording back-to-back four-point games will tend to do that!
4) Congratulations also go out to Flyers rookie goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who earned a shutout on Sunday in his second NHL start. Stolarz, who had only gotten into a single game in three-plus weeks, was fighting the puck early in Sunday's game in Detroit -- he was a bit fortunate than none of the rebounds he left out were put in the net -- but settled in and got better and better as the game progressed. His play in the third period in particular was crucial to the Flyers getting the game to 3-on-3 overtime before Brayden Schenn won it on a perfectly executed give-and-go with Provorov.
With fans -- not just Flyers fans -- being prone to make overblown judgments of players in general and young players in particular based on very small samplings of games, it was not surprising that there were some who got a little carried away in reading more into Stolarz's future than can or should be inferred from two starts. There is no book on him yet in the league; no detailed prescouts and only sparse video to dissect. That would be the next test.
However, perhaps the most impressive thing about Stolarz is the mentality he brings to the net with him. He's confident but not cocky, and has been good about staying on a pretty even keel. In his first NHL start, Stolarz let in a leaky goal on the second shot he faced but he didn't let it affect his focus on the next shot and the ones after that.
With Michal Neuvirth getting close to being ready to come off injured reserve, those traits will serve Stolarz when he eventually returns to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It will also be interesting to see how the goalie duties get split in Allentown.
Stolarz was on a roll for the Phantoms when he got recalled to the Flyers following Neuvirth's knee injury. However, Stolarz's NHL recall has given first-year pro Alex Lyon extensive time in the Phantoms net over the last month. He's responded with generally solid play. Lyon takes a 10-5-1 record, 2.57 GAA, .914 save percentage and one shutout on the season into the Phantoms upcoming tilt on Wednesday against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
5) Speaking of the Phantoms, the Flyers AHL farm club is coming off a successful weekend that saw the club win both of its weekend home games (Friday and Saturday) against the Rochester Americans. The Phantoms are now in a three-way points tie (35 points apiece) atop the brutally tough Atlantic Division along with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears.
The Penguins hold first place by virtue having played just 24 games; one fewer than the Phantoms or Hershey. The Sound Tigers have also played 24 games, and are three points behind the division leaders. The Providence Bruins (25 GP) are four points off the pace.
The next three games are a big test. Lehigh Valley returns to action on Wednesday, hosting Bridgeport at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA. The Phantoms will then renew hostilities with Hershey in Allentown on Friday and host Providence the next night. Thereafter, coach Scott Gordon's squad will go on a nine-night hiatus until Boxing Day,when the Bears are back in town again. The December schedule will conclude with a pair of road games (Dec. 28 and 30) in Rochester.
An in-depth Phantoms report will follow during the team's upcoming schedule break, while the Flyers are also on enjoying their own holiday break (no games on Dec. 23 to 27, overlapping the NHL's mandatory Dec. 24 to 26 Christmas hiatus for all teams). The holiday break will also afford an opportunity to talk about Flyers prospects in the World Junior Championships and, more generally, in European, major junior and the collegiate ranks.
6) With the American Hockey League All-Star Game at the PPL Center in Allentown this season (January 29-30, 2017), the AHL has named former Flyers forward Danny Briere and Terry Murray (who played for and coached the Flyers as well as being the former head coach of the Phantoms) as the honorary captains for the events.
7) Tickets are on sale now for the Flyers Alumni Golden Anniversary Weekend in mid-January. Most Flyers fans are already aware of the upcoming 50th Anniversary Alumni Game between the Flyers Alumni and Pittsburgh Penguins Alumni on Jan. 14th at the Wells Fargo Center.
With dozens of Flyers Alumni from every generation of team history in town for the weekend -- including the guys who are playing in the Alumni Game and quite a few who are not -- there has also been another special event added for the night before the Alumni Game itself.
On January 13, there will be a "Golden Anniversary Reception" at the Sugar House Casino in Philadelphia, at which all of the Flyers Alumni in town will take part. Flyers fans in attendance will have a chance to meet and mingle with the Alumni.
As a special facet of Golden Anniversary Alumni Weekend, there will be a reunion of the surviving members of the Flyers' inaugural team of 1967-68. There will also be dozens of Alumni from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s on hand over the weekend. A full rundown of the activities will follow here in days to come.
Fair warning: The general admission tickets for access to the reception at the Sugar House are not cheap. They run $250 for a single ticket or $350 for a pair.
Keep in mind, though 1) This is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime access opportunity for Flyers fans to meet so many players from team history in one shot, and 2) The Flyers Alumni Association is a non-profit organization that funnels all revenues beyond expenses into charitable and community organization in the Delaware Valley, including the big Snider Hockey rink-building project to which the the Flyers Alumni have pledged a $2 million contribution.
Access to various additional VIP activities along with the attending Alumni on both nights are available only via sponsor packages that range from $2,500 to $10,000.
8) During Saturday's game in Philly against Dallas, Flyers writer Jay Greenberg hosted a special thank you reception at the Wells Fargo Center for all who helped on the massive "Philadelphia Flyers at 50" book project. The early feedback on Jay's book, for which I assisted on the drafting several chapters, fact checking all of the others and transcribing some of interviews he did, has been gratifying.
The same day, I finally had the chance to meet Blake Allen -- the son of legendary Flyers general manager and inaugural head coach Keith Allen -- face-to-face for the first time. We've corresponded for a few years. Blake was on hand that afternoon, signing copies of his own new book, "Keith the Thief", outside the fan gear shop on the main concourse at Wells Fargo Center.
Blake's book is not a biography of his dad. Rather, it's a series of memoirs, anecdotes and glimpses as to what life was like looking outside the fishbowl. It gives a loving but straightforward picture as to who Keith Allen was as a father, husband, a boss and employee who happened to have one of the most astute hockey minds of the 20th Century. I plowed right through the book and felt that I emerged with a better sense of who Keith Allen was a human being with his own set of strengths, passions, idiosyncrasies and foibles just as we all have. The chapter about the loyalty that Mr. Allen engendered within the Flyers family being returned in the love and attention he received from some of his former players during his latter years of failing health and dementia is especially poignant.
This book is about a man as viewed by his son and not a year-by-year chronicle of a hockey legend. It's a nice addition to any Flyers' fan's library of books about the team, because it rounds out the picture of one of its primary architects. I came away with even more respect for who Keith Allen was as a person.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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