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Musings: Quarter Pole State of Flyers, Prospect Updates, Carnival and More

November 19, 2017, 6:34 AM ET [434 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
MELTZER'S MUSINGS: FLYERS AT THE QUARTER POLE

1) The Flyers reached the unofficial one-quarter mark of their schedule yesterday, playing their 20th game of the season. They are 8-8-4 on the season (4-3-3 at home, 4-5-1 on the road). Jakub Voracek leads the team with 25 points (five goals, 20 assists), followed by linemates Sean Couturier (12 goals, 10 assists, 22 points) and Claude Giroux (nine goals, 13 assists, 22 points).

At this stage last season, the team was 9-8-3 overall. Wayne Simmonds led the team with 10 goals and 18 points at this juncture.

2) Prior to getting torched for three power play goals in the second period of yesterday's game, the Flyers had been in a good penalty killing groove. They had killed 14 of their last 15 penalties overall and 20 of 24 (83.3 percent) for the month of November, with one of the goals against having been a sheer fluke; a Mikkko Rantanen pass-out attempt in the Colorado game on Nov. 4 that Robert Hägg blocked but deflected into the net in the process.

One of the power play goals Calgary scored yesterday was also rather fluky. Taylor Leier appeared to get "Thoresen-ed" (i.e., hit in the cup) on a blocked shot by Johnny Gaudreau, and went down in pain on the ice. That turned the penalty kill into a 5-on-3 as the Flyers could not get a stoppage until they touched the puck, which never happened.

The puck went right back to Gaudreau, as Scott Laughton came over from the area where he was defending in order to defend Gaudreau. Johnny Hockey then passed to Sean Monahan in the now-undefended left slot. Monahan then finished off his power play hat trick. His first was a deflection directly in front of the net that trickled through Brian Elliott. The second was a juicy rebound of a Gaudreau shot.

3) From a Flyers' standpoint, the most galling part of what happened in Saturday's game was the fact that they were in firm control through 25 minutes. They were leading 3-1 on the scoreboard. They were back on the power play, after making quick work of their first one against the NHL's bottom-ranked penalty kill (an opportunity that came about after a brainless unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on ex-Flyer Kris Versteeg after the whistle on a routine and completely innocuous off-side by Philadelphia).

Philly then short-circuited their own power play with a careless high stick by Dale Weise on Calgary's Matt Stajan in a battle along the walls. Even then, prior to Monahan's first power play goal after the 4-on-4 became a 5-on-4 advantage for the Flames, the Flyers held a 9-0 lead in shots.

Things should still have been under control. Philly was getting the better of most of the 5-on-5 play. Back in the first period, they had yielded a counterattacking Gaudreau breakaway goal in the first period after an initial scoring chance by the Flyers' top line. Micheal Ferland made a great pass to Gaudreau, who cherry picked in the neutral zone to go off and score. Overall, though, the Flyers were dictating most of the play.

Rather than rolling up their sleeves and re-establishing their control after the goal that made it
3-2, the Flyers continued to pile self-inflicted wound upon wound.

Brandon Manning took the type of slash-to-the-gloves penalty that's been getting called frequently this season under league directive. That was turned into the second Monahan goal.

From there, the worried more about notoriously flighty and thin-skinned veteran referee Tim Peel's capriciousness than about the game at hand. Shayne Gostisbehere, who had been similarly slashed without a call, took back-to-back terrible penalties; a bench minor and then an elbowing penalty. The latter became Monahan's hat trick goal just 54 seconds after Nolan Patrick restored a Flyers lead at 4-3.

4) The Flyers' final self-inflicted wounds came in overtime. They'd entirely controlled puck possession from the start of OT -- with Couturier, Simmonds and Ivan Provorov on the ice and then giving way to Giroux, Voracek and Gostisbehere. Finally, a catchable pass from Gostisbehere to Giroux was not corralled, and Calgary got their first puck control of the 3-on-3 frame.

Not really a big deal or anything dangerous at this point, as the Flames T.J. Brodie was in the defensive zone and the Flyers had two players down ice. Giroux swung to the bench and was replaced on the ice by Patrick, while Voracek and Gostisbehere were still on the ice in man-to-man coverage.

Moments later, though, things quickly turned dangerous. Voracek unwisely tried to step up and poke-check Mikael Backlund, who eluded him. Now it was a 2-on-1, and Michael Frolik buried it to win the game before Patrick could arrive to help.

5) Another galling aspect of the Flyers last week of hockey is that that there in position to guarantee themselves at least one point in two games against Minnesota and then in each of the last two against Winnipeg and Calgary if Philly had managed to score even a single goal in the third period. Instead of a possible six to eight points gained in the standings, the Flyers left the ice with two. That kind of thing often comes back to bite clubs down the stretch.

* Nov. 11 vs Minnesota: The tight-checking game was scoreless entering the third period. This should have been a good setup for the host Flyers. They were a rested team over most the week and Minnesota was playing for the third time in four nights and the fourth in six. Philly yielded a puck luck bounce goal to a scorching hot Jason Zucker early in the period. Still manageable. But the Flyers got outplayed over the rest of the game, which was quite disappointing. The Wild outshot the Flyers in the final stanza, blocking a slew of Flyers' shot attempts in the process. Philly lost in regulation, 1-0. Even a single goal in the third period would have produced at least one point from the game.

* Nov. 14 @ Minnesota: The Flyers trailed 1-0 entering the third period. As with the previous game, the Wild largely contained Philly to the perimeter and blocked quite a few shots when there initially seemed to be lanes. Even so, if the Flyers could have scratched out even a single goal in crunch time, they'd have had themselves at least one point on the night.

With Elliott pulled for a 6-on-5 attack, the Flyers generated a great scoring chance but couldn't get to a rebound in the slot. Moments later that turned into an empty net goal for the Wild that iced the game. Minnesota then tacked on an additional empty netter -- this one a long distance shot from the defensive zone by Zucker that went into the vacated cage at the other end.

* Nov 16 @ Winnipeg: The Flyers led 2-1 going into the third period. There were numerous chances to add an insurance goal, especially with Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck not exactly looking lights-out for much of the night. But Philly just could not pot that extra goal and then they failed to nail down a one-goal win in the final minute with an extremely passive approach to depending a 6-on-5 in their own zone. Presumably, the Flyers were trying to take away the middle and then trying to win a battle to gain possession and clear the zone. Philly won nary a battle and then they also lost track of the deadly Mark Scheifele, who sniped the tying goal.

A regulation win that was all but locked up turned into an overtime and then shootout game. Giroux had the bonus point on his stick in the skills competition but was unable to finish a five-hole attempt on Hellebuyck after both Voracek and Weal had gone upstairs to beat him. Two shootout goals in four rounds are often enough to win, but not when your goalie gives up three in four. Elliott had been so good during the actual hockey game and had gone 11-for-13 in shootouts last season for Calgary but was picked apart in this one.

* Nov. 18 vs. CGY: The Flyers and Flames entered the third period tied at 4-4. Philly actually played a good third period in virtually every aspect with and without the puck except one pretty important one. On a day where Mike Smith looked rather shaky and vulnerable -- lots of rebounds in the slot, lots of over-committing and leaving room to shoot -- none of the Flyers' forays resulted in a fifth goal. Even one more would probably have been enough to win in regulation, barring another disorganized 6-on-5 defense ala the Winnipeg game.

6) The outcome of yesterday's game overshadowed some positives the Flyers can build upon heading into a very tough stretch of five games in eight nights between Tuesday and Nov. 28.
Desperately in need of secondary scoring -- not just chances but ones they could actually put in the cash register --from sources beyond Couturier, Giroux and Voracek, the Flyers' got two goals from the blueline in the first period as Manning and Provorov scored their respective third tallies of the season. The Manning goal, a pinball shot off the post and off Smith's back, came with the Valtteri Filppula line on the ice and the Provorov goal came with the Laughton line on the ice and a faceoff win by Laughton that Jori Lehterä steered back to the left point.

The biggest positive, though, was the game that Nolan Patrick played in his second match back after a nine-game upper-body injury absence (a too-obvious-to-deny concussion that, while never disputed, was also never publicly acknowledged as such).

Even apart from scoring his second career NHL goal, Patrick had his best offensive game to date of his rookie season. He had two other excellent scoring chances by quietly getting behind defenders who were focused on the puck on the other side. The 19-year-old also set up a pair of really good chances for linemates Simmonds and Weise.

Patrick's goal came as he entered the ice in replacement of Couturier with Giroux and Voracek on the attack. Voracek powered his way to a stuff-in try near the right post and Patrick slipped by unnoticed at the other side to eventually claim and flip the puck over Smith. That one could be equally deemed a "secondary scoring" goal and a "top line" tally, since it fit both categories.

7) After the Winnipeg game, I truly thought Simmonds was just one game away from ending his goal drought and starting his inevitable next binge of scoring goals in bunches (mostly on the power play but also a few in other manpower situations). It didn't happen against Calgary but he had a pair of good chances. In general, he's skating much better again and is back to winning most of the battles he's accustomed to winning.

8) On Saturday, defenseman Travis Sanheim had his fifth near-miss of the season in his quest for his still-elusive first NHL goal. As a rookie with the Phantoms last year, Sanheim scored all 10 of his goals after Dec. 8 and did so with veteran T.J. Brennan and to a lesser extent Will O'Neill getting the bulk of power play quarterbacking duties. Nine were at even strength. While it might be tough for Sanheim to get double-digit goals as an NHL rookie, it's not hard to look ahead to a time when that will become the norm for him at the top level, too.

My over/under prediction for the rest of this season is that, if Sanheim remains a regular in the Flyers' lineup, he bags five or six goals. I don't see why he would be pulled the lineup except perhaps an odd scratching here or there. He's quietly started to settle in nicely in his two-way game since a debacle against Arizona. He's playing pretty well in his own-zone reads and coverages.

This season, despite roughly a half-dozen hiccups that have either ended up in the Flyers net or gone for very dangerous opposing scoring chances, Sanheim has been making more and more good plays and fewer and fewer costly ones in recent weeks.

The Winnipeg countering 2-on-1 power play goal on Thursday was a case of Sanheim trying to do a little too much. It almost seemed like a set play by the Jets, however. As soon as the puck was dropped and Couturier drew the puck back to Sanheim at the left point, two Jets swarmed the rookie defenseman. Sanheim was in a tough spot but his mistake was to try to make a play with no room to do so, getting immediately snuffed out and consequently caught up ice. Even if he'd have played the situation more defensively, he was still outnumbered and may have lost the puck anyway. However, he'd have been in better position to get back.

On Sunday, Sanheim joined an early second period rush, took a feed across the ice from Konency and narrowly missed his still-elusive first NHL goal. There was room high to the short side but the rookeie defenseman didn't quite hit the mark. However, back in the first period Sanheim made a positive offensive contribution that deserves a mention.

With some line changes going on, Sanheim took advantage of open ice to skate the puck himself through the neutral zone. There wasn't a chance to attack the net, nor would it have been a good play to try to, but he had plenty of room to fire on net from just inside the blueline. It was a routine shot that Smith absorbed and held for a whistle. His shift over, Sanheim went to the bench and was replaced by Provorov.

Why was with very mundane sequence notable? Sanheim's mobility and not-too-aggressive but not-too-conservative read set up an offensive zone left circle faceoff. The Flyers won the draw and Provorov scored.

So much of hockey is about sequences of little details such as those. Execute them properly and frequently and eventually it pays off in the bigger plays that make the highlight reels. On the flip side, there were a few other shifts yesterday where Sanheim missed some details -- caught up ice again without sufficient support on one, three charged giveaways (one bad one, two that were bank passes with a little too much steam that got picked off the neutral zone). On this day, none ended up in the Flyers' net so they get quickly forgotten.

Back in the Winnipeg game on Thursday, I loved how Sanheim handled a much less-discussed failed execution moment on a third period PK. He had an opportunity to clear the zone but was unable to do so. Sanheim simply kept battling and checking tightly. About five or six seconds later, he had a second clearing opportunity and succeeded. You don't always get that second chance once the puck is lost but he buckled down to get it and then got the puck to safety to relieve pressure with his team leading 1-0 at the time.

Bear with me here: This next section is not a complaint or a criticism but a request to those who track advanced stats and are skilled at doing so (I am most certainly NOT good at that). If this topic is not of interest to you, just skip ahead to the 10th topic of today's Musings.

9) The Flyers will learn today of the suspension fate of Radko Gudas, stemming from his slash to the neck of Winnipeg Jets forward Mathieu Perrault in the first period of Thursday's game. He will get credited with a game served for yesterday's game against Calgary.

The supplementary discipline process in the NHL is self-contradictory but unapologetic in sheathing its contradictions within the Collecting Bargaining Agreement (CBA) language.

On the one hand, the CBA states that no supplementary discipline rulings are to be made until there can be a hearing and the player has opportunity to explain his actions against video evidence and any reports/complaints filed with the league the preceded the announcement of the hearing.

On the other hand, the CBA also states that if a hearing can't take place ahead of the next game played by the player's team, the player is ineligible to play until there's a hearing and a ruling. This is basically like saying "we're going to give a fair trial while you're already in the hangman's noose." Other pro sports permit a player to continue playing until there's a hearing/ruling.

10) Gudas is going to get a steep suspension; I suspect it will either be seven games (with credit for one served) after getting a six-gamer last year or else it will be the more headline grabbing round number of 10 (nine additional games). Had Perrault been injured on the slash, it would have been even steeper.

11) Jordan Weal is officially day-to-day with an upper body injury. It seems quite possible that the injury stems from an open-ice high hit the diminutive forward took from the much, much bigger Dustin Byfuglien in Thursday's game in Winnipeg.

Is the injury a concussion? That certainly seems possible, even likely, although Weal didn't miss a shift after the hit and then scored in the shootout. However, it would hardly be unusual if concussion-like symptoms did not take hold until later that night or some point on Friday (an off-day for the team) or Saturday morning.

If this one is a concussion, is it Weal's first of the season or the second with roughly a month? He missed two games in October with an upper-body injury of undetermined (or at least unannounced) origination and type. Weal was noticeably less effective for a couple weeks after his return although he played his best game in quite awhile when he was moved from left wing to center (his natural position) for the match in Minnesota.

13) About a week ago, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said that he believed Andrew MacDonald would not need very long to get back into the lineup once he resumed skating. The Flyers road alternate captain took to the ice for the first time this week but is not ready yet to return. It remains to be seen in days to come what his prospects are for playing by Tuesday, Wednesday or at least by the annual Black Friday game.

14) If MacDonald isn't ready to return imminently, I suspect that those clamoring for Samuel Morin will get their wish. He had a rough first game back on Wednesday after missing a couple weeks with a nagging undisclosed injury of his own. However, he was excellent in the Phantoms' win in Laval on Friday.

It would work like this, in all likelihood: The Flyers would send Mark Alt (who has quietly done a competent job as a fill-in sixth defenseman) back to the Phantoms and recall Morin. In terms of the Flyers' defense pairings, I would think be arranged as Provorov-Hägg, Sanheim-Manning and Gostisbehere moving back to his off-side and paired with Morin.

It's less clear if there will be a forward recalled from Lehigh Valley. That depends on whether Weal is truly day-to-day or realistically ends up more week-to-week ala Patrick's absence. If Weal is not concussed now and his previous injury was also not a concussion, a quick return seems way more plausible than if he's dealing now with a concussion (and most especially if his October injury was anything along the lines of concussion-like symptoms). Monday's practice and Tuesday's morning skate and game could be more telling.

If the Flyers do recall someone from Lehigh Valley, the top candidates right now are Mike Vecchione or Danick Martel. If it is Vecchione, the Flyers could move Filppula to left wing. Vecchione was experimented with on a wing in the preseason but is pretty clearly more effective in the middle. If it is Martel called up as a skill-set replacement for Weal, he'd go to left wing either with Filppula or Patrick.

15) Today's blog is a very lengthy one already and there are more topics that I want to cover, so I won't discuss Dale Weise or Jori Lehterä in this one. I will in a future off-day blog. I'm by no means a Weise hater, especially relative to most of the Philadelphia fanbase but, no, I did not enjoy seeing Weise on the second power play unit especially in a tied game in the final two minutes of the third period. I understand why Hakstol has periodically used him on power plays -- he's looking for second unit board work and some havoc around the net -- but I don't think it's been effective.

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EYE TEST AND ANALYTICS

Charlie O'Connor of the Athletic wrote an interesting article the other day trying to align the discrepancy between the eye-test vs. analytics with Robert Hägg. Charlie always comes up with thought-provoking material and he's by far the best local writer at covering the analytics bases.

We didn't entirely come to the same conclusions, but I think he's on the right track as to why Hägg seems to be pretty good by the "old-fashioned eye test" but his puck possession analytics are abysmal.

I am going to piggyback something onto this discussion in the name of trying to find ways to reconcile more of the disconnects. Could someone start tracking a few analytics that I have heard some NHL teams internally keep as proprietary stats? If these already exist somewhere in public forums, can someone help point me to where to find them? Thank you in advance.

I think these make for interesting slice-of-the-game tidbits to factor into statistical analysis alongside shot attempt differentials and other more often-discussed stats.

* Board pins. Which players (defensemen especially), when they have a chance in defensive zone to staple an opposing player to the boards and keep the puck there to create a 50-50 trench battle for possession do so the most effectively? I have a hunch that Hägg would score pretty highly in this facet.

* 50-50 pucks. When there's a 50-50 battle, whether on the walls or for loose pucks/ rebounds what is a player's winning percentage and losing percentage. We all know faceoff percentages for the centers (or replacements) who are on the dots but what about these other areas? They could either be tracked collectively under the 50-50 puck heading or else broken down individually by type. It was my understanding that now-retired longtime Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen was off the charts when it came to claiming and clearing defensive zone rebounds, for example. In the offensive zone, when Simmonds is on a roll, he likely gets to a comparatively high percentage of his loose pucks opportunities compared to other guys who try to play netfront.

* Clearing attempt success. This is especially important on penalty kills, of course, but also to make sure your line doesn't get hemmed in and worn down while also potentially put the next line out in a defensive posture to start their shift (assuming you don't get scored on, ice the puck or take a penalty). An icing would not be a successful clear, even though there are times where it is at least preferable to a goal against or a penalty.

* Goalie rebounds. Shots on goal, saves, goals against and save percentages are all fundamental and readily available stats for goalies. But how many rebounds does a goalie leave relative to his total number of save opportunities? Not every rebound is preventable, of course, but a goalie who struggles to track the puck on a given night and/or leaves out too many rebounds on chances to absorb the puck or steer it to safer areas is playing with fire.

There are "hot zone" charts for where goalies get scored on and where they make saves (i.e., blocker/stick, glove side, five hole, high/low, etc.). I'd like to also see which goalies tend to absorb the highest and lowest percentages of shots to their pads and glove and which one turn the most initially routine saves into tough ones on rebound second-chances.

Which goalies blocker the most shots into the corner and which one put them right back into harm's way? Who is the most likely to freeze the puck for a faceoff and the most likely to try to keep play going -- and if he's played for multiple teams, has that percentage changed much?

* Goalie screens. In the defensive zone, which D men are good at boxing out? There's plenty of tracking of where shot attempts for/against originate, but who good at assisting in giving the goalie a clear line of vision and who either gets used as a screen or fails to prevent an opposing player from "taking your goalie's eyes away"? Who yields the most and least deflection opportunities? The same can be tracked on the attack, too.

* Partial shot suppression. This could construed either negatively or positively, depending on the situation. Negatively, as a sub-category of shot blocks to shot block attempts, who is most and least likely to create the dreaded "partial" block where the subsequent movement of the puck is pure potluck. Constructed more positively, while opposing shooting percentages from various shot origin areas are tracked, can someone track which defenders are the best and worst at causing hurried or weak attempts that go for saves or missed nets? This fine tunes the shooting percentage numbers a bit.

Ultimately, I think if these various analytics were tracked and weighed in tandem with the Corsi/Fenwick type of individual and relative numbers and other ones (offensive vs defensive zone starts, for instance, or carry-ins vs dump-ins) that typically get mentioned the most, I think there would be a) a more diverse and accurate statistical picture of how hockey is played in the trenches, and b) greater understanding of why players who may not have good Corsi/Fenwick type numbers either for themselves or in tandem with certain teammates could still be viewed as valuable and effective players by their coaches.

Put another way, most of the areas I'm referring to geared toward trying to quantify are traditional "eye test" areas that most of the common non-proprietary analytics aren't always very good at measuring. I'm no statistician nor do I pretend to be, but I am always intrigued by various different ways of looking at the many components of the games-within-the-games.

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FLYERS WIVES CARNIVAL

Today at the Wells Fargo Center is the 41st edition of the Flyers' Wives Fight for Lives Carnival.
A new feature was just added as an attraction for fans and fundraising revenue generator for Flyers Charities: a one-hour meet-and-greet with Flyers general manager Ron Hextall.

From 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., Hextall will host an informal Q & A session with fans. From 1:00 to 1:30 p.m., attending fans will have the opportunity to get two items signed and one photograph taken with the Flyers Hall of Fame goalie turned GM. Fans must bring their own camera for the photograph.

Price: $75 per person. In other words, one admission only per ticket.

Event location: The Q & A will be held in the Hall of Fame Room in the Broad Street Atrium.

Ticket purchase location: Fans may purchase tickets once doors open. Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of the executive steps in the Broad St. Atrium. Fans may leave and come back but must be back in line by 12:15 p.m. at the latest.

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PROSPECT UPDATES: SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday was another strong one, at least offensively, for the Flyers' cadre of CHL and NCAA prospects. This update won't cover everyone who was in action (such as German Rubtsov) but will mention the night's top performers.

* OHL: Matthew Strome collected a pair of goals in the Hamilton Bulldogs' 5-2 road win over the Ottawa 67s. The two tallies were his 10th and 11th of the season and extended his current point streak to seven games: six goals, seven assists and 13 points in that span. For the season, Strome now has 20 points in 20 games after a bit of a slow start offensively.

* OHL: Connor Bunnaman netted a shorthanded tally that proved to be the game-winning goal early in the third period as the Kitchener Rangers claimed a 3-1 road win over the Barrie Colts. Later in the third period, the Kitchener captain added a power play assist. The streak-scoring Bunnaman is scorching hot of late. He has 13 goals overall but eight goals in the last nine.




* OHL: Maksim Sushko had been on offensive tear in October but then cooled off considerably. Last night, he got back in the goal scoring column with a third-period tally in the Owen Sound Attack's 5-3 loss to the Saginaw Spirt and celebrated it with a Jaromir Jagr-like salute. The goal ended a seven-game drought (during which time, the Belarusian forward mustered two assists). He now has 10 goals and 17 points through 18 games.

* NCAA: Cooper Marody generated a goal and an assist in Michigan's 4-4 tie with Wisconsin while defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk collected three apples for the Badgers. Marody, a junior, has now posted eight straight multi-point games for the Wolverines. He has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) through the team's first 12 games. Teammate Brandon Warren, who plays more of checking oriented role, did not figure in any scoring plays. As for Kalynuk, the mobile 20-year-old freshman has posted 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) through 15 games.

* NCAA: Power forward prospect Wade Allison bagged two goals on the same first period shift in Western Michigan's 5-2 home win over Omaha. Allison scored an even-strength goal at 13:05 of the opening stanza. He followed up with another one just 13 seconds after play resumed. Allison, who finished with seven shots on goal, had multiple cracks at his second hat trick of the season but couldn't get it on this night and was not on the ice with a two-goal lead when his team finally bagged an empty net goal with 1:01 left. For the season, sophomore right winger Allison has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in 13 games to date.

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A PERSONAL NOTE FOR THANKSGIVING WEEK

Today's very lengthy blog will serve as a dual Sunday-Monday blog. Today is a travel day for me, as I am heading to Texas to spend Thanksgiving week and a few days beyond with my wife, children and my wife's family. I will miss covering Monday's practice in Voorhees and the Flyers next three home games. These will be the only games in Philly that I do not cover in person this season.

Even while I am away, however, I will continue to write my typical features here on HockeyBuzz as well as for the Flyers' official website (Philadelphiaflyers.com). Here's what you can look for:

On HockeyBuzz, they will simply be constructed at shorter length, such as road-game type wrapup blogs, and shorter-form gameday previews. The next blog will be on Tuesday morning: a game preview as the Flyers host the Canucks. Although I'll be in Texas, I will not resume Stars blogs until I get back up here. Those will pick up again on Dec. 1.

On PhiladelphiaFlyers.com, there will be a to-be-determined article topic or two that I will write during the stretch of holiday games. The game day video previews co-hosted for home evening games by Tim Saunders and I will resume in early December. Tim and Steve Coates may have a couple of road game video previews ahead of then.

On Flyers Radio 24/7 (flyersradio247.com), there will be a new episode of the Flyer Buzz podcast cohosted by Brian Smith and I. Before I go to the airport today, I am recording a new episode with Brian. Check the Flyers Radio 24/7 page on Twitter for airing times. I'll also post a link on my Twitter and Facebook pages to the archived audio for those who can't catch on the Flyers' internet radio station.

All Flyers Alumni social media will be maintained uninterrupted and FlyersAlumni.org will have a front page update later this week.

As Thanksgiving week is upon us in the United States, I want to express my gratitude to my readers for their amazing loyalty, to the Flyers organization and to HockeyBuzz. You have made my lifelong dream of being able to watch, write and talk about hockey in general and Flyers hockey in particular into an actual way to make a living. With an amazing family, great friends and colleagues and a job that I can't truly describe as work because it's a labor of love, I have many blessings to count. Thank you all!
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