QUICK HITS: JANUARY 14, 2017
1) The Flyers held an optional practice on Monday. Ordinarily, there is no practice on the heels of a set of back-to-back games. However, with the Flyers have had a five-night bye week (and four days with no practice), Monday and Tuesday nights off and the All-Star break on the other side of back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday, the optional was scheduled.
The team will hold a full practice Tuesday. On Wednesday night, the Flyers have a nationally televised road game at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.
The next game will be a big test of whether the Flyers actually turned a corner in Sunday night's overtime in Brooklyn. The Rangers in general and MSG games in particular have given the Flyers fits in recent years. On Thursday, the Flyers are right back in action, hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thereafter, the Flyers (expect for All-Star Game participant Wayne Simmonds) will have another four-night hiatus overlapping the All-Star break.
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2) Keeping in mind that accommodations had to be made for the Wold Cup of Hockey, the NHL's schedule this season may be the worst I've ever seen overall and a particularly brutal one for the Flyers with all the three-in-fours and four-in-sixes they've played, followed by excessively long breaks.
With that said, all these long hiatuses, the Flyers absolutely will not be able to lean on schedule fatigue as an excuse heading into the trade deadline and stretch drive. In fact, the teams that had much lighter first-half schedules will be ones with the stretches of four games in six nights as they continue to make up their games in hand. In fact, the Flyers now even have a game or two in hand on some of the teams surrounding them in the standings.
Not even the Flyers' western Canada trip this year -- which is pretty much the end of their long-distance travel this season, except for games in Winnipeg and Minnesota in March -- is that bad schedule wise. From Feb. 12 to 21, the Flyers have three nights of before back-to-back road tilts in Calgary and Edmonton, then two nights off before playing in Vancouver followed by an additional two nights off. From Feb 20 to 24, the Flyers have only one game (at home against the Capitals).
The difficulty of opponents is pretty high, because the Flyers have a slew of divisional games left to play. In terms of travel and rest-up opportunities, though, the team is not in bad shape in the upcoming weeks.
As of last night's games, the Flyers would be the lower wildcard seed in the playoffs if the season ended today. This spot is pretty much the only realistic target at which the team can shoot, because the Rangers are 11 points ahead for the higher wildcard.
As such, the Flyers are, at least temporarily, more in competition with Atlantic Division teams than they are the ones in their own Metropolitan Division. This is part of why I strongly dislike the current NHL playoff format of three guaranteed playoff spots per division (which artificially aids the weakest divisions and punishes the tougher ones), but that's a topic for another day.
Boston and the Flyers both have 50 points but the Flyers currently have two games in hand (48 games played to 50). The Bruins, however, hold a 21-18 edge in regulation and overtime wins. Toronto, currently an automatic playoff team by virtue of being in third place in the weaker Atlantic Division, is one point ahead of the Flyers, holds a 21-18 ROW edge and three games in hand on the Flyers. Ottawa is up three points on the Flyers and has three games in hand.
The more Atlantic Division teams the Flyers can finish ahead of in the standings, the stronger their chance of holding onto a playoff spot over whichever team winds up fourth in the Atlantic when the season ends. '
In terms of finishing no lower than fifth in the Metro, although the Flyers still can't seem to beat the Devils, the rest of the league is doing it plenty. New Jersey still is three points behind the Flyers. So are the Carolina Hurricanes, who hold a game in hand on Philly and a 19-18 ROW edge. The Canes have been cooling off of late, losing four in a row in regulation after a strong stretch enabled them to make up a lot of ground on the Flyers as the bottom dropped out on Philly after its 10-game winning streak. The Islanders are seven points behind the Flyers with three games in hand.
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3) Having fact-checked and partially transcribed the background interviews for Jay Greenberg's
Flyers at 50 book, I was already somewhat familiar with Flyers team president Paul Holmgren's family background and the story of his relationship with his late brother, Dave. However, Holmgren went into much greater, and heart-wrenchingly honest detail about Dave's story and the sacrifices he made on Paul's behalf to pursue his hockey dreams in an
outstanding article for the Players' Tribune.
Even for non-hockey fans who simply want to read a slice-of-real-life story of inspiration, brotherhood and the nearly impossible-to-shake regrets that can consume someone when misunderstandings are not cleared up while both parties are still alive, this article is a must-read. It's also an interesting account of what life was like growing up athletically inclined in a hard-working family in Minnesota in the 1960s to early 1970s.
For Flyers fans, I think the article may also provide a whole different perspective on who Paul Holmgren is and where he came from in life.
An unrelated story with a similar moral: When I first started covering hockey as credentialed media, former Flyers tough guy Donald Brashear always struck me a very guarded figure. It wasn't that he was hostile or totally unapproachable -- in fact,to the contrary, he was reasonably accommodating and soft-spoken -- but he always seemed to be sizing everyone up, almost like he would with someone he might have to fight at some point even if the current interaction was innocuous. He never seemed at ease, even after a win in which he played well.
After a little while, I convinced myself that maybe I was just imagining that vibe. I knew nothing of the person -- only the on-ice tough guy -- and perhaps it was an unconscious prejudgment.
Years later, though, I learned about the
extraordinarily difficult upbringing "Brash" had, and that he was, in fact, something of an ill-at-ease loner who had a very hard time trusting people and felt that fighting was his only real means to a better life. He was also rather musically inclined as well as athletically talented; a complex person.
Suddenly, with the benefit of perspective, I had a better understanding of a human being who had been physically and psychologically abused and then largely abandoned. He had to fight and scrap for everything he ever had because, in his formative years, virtually no one else was in his corner. No wonder, as a man, he always seemed to be sizing up just how on-his-guard he needed to be at any given moment around strangers. It made a whole lot more sense.
The commonality: the old saying that you really don't someone unless you've tried to walk a mile in their shoes -- in other words, to gain some perspective on the things that shaped them and their outlooks -- is true. As stoic and company line oriented as hockey lifer Paul Holmgren may seem, there's a well of life experiences, inspirations, self-reflections and redemptive second chances that shaped not only his loyalties and outer stoicism but also how he pays things forward in numerous ways that have never been intended for self-aggrandizement.
I got a sense of some of that from Paul's many lengthy interviews with Jay that I transcribed. They go way back together, and there was complete mutual trust and heartfelt candor that was actually very refreshing. As such, it did not surprise me one bit to see Paul Holmgren pour himself, heart and soul, into the Players' Tribune piece, once he decided to publicly tell the story of what his late brother, Dave, had done for him in his youth. There's a big heart underneath the stoic demeanor.
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The Flyers Alumni Team is going to Russia. From Feb. 13 to 21, the team will be headed overseas for games highlighted by an outdoor game in Red Square.
Several Alumni who were not able to make it for the Golden Anniversary weekend -- including 1990s fan favorite Shjon Podein and 1980s era mainstay Lindsay Carson -- will be playing for the Alumni in Russia.
Jeff Chychrun, who played on the Penguins Alumni side in the 50th Anniversary Game, will also be playing for Flyers Alumni. Chychrun was drafted by the Flyers and broke into the NHL with Philly for the first five years of his pro career.
Full details and rosters will be posted shortly prior to the trip.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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