QUICK HITS: OCTOBER 16, 2017
1) After taking an off-day on Sunday, the Flyers return to practice on Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, in preparation for Tuesday's game against the Florida Panthers at the Wells Fargo Center. Practice is slated for 10:30 a.m. EDT. Off to a 2-2-0 start through their first four games, the Panthers are coming off a 4-3 road loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
2) Dating back to a goal he scored against the Capitals on March 4 of last season up through his three-point game (two goals, one assist) against Washington in Saturday's home opener, Flyers center Sean Couturier has compiled 23 points in his 24 games. In that span, he has notched seven goals and 16 assists. Couturier finished last season with 17 points over his final 19 games.
3) Over on the Flyers official website, I took an in-depth look at he long and winding road Robert Hägg took from 16-year-old prodigy in Swedish junior hockey to an NHL rookie at age 22. Much of it looks at his three full years in the AHL as he gradually found his identity as a young player. It's a longer-read piece (1,733 words) but there have been a lot of twists and turns in his career arc to date. For more
click here.
4) The Flyers organization deserves credit for having stuck with Hägg through the ups and downs of his first season and three-quarters in the AHL. Other organizations may not have been as patient. A somewhat similar protracted process took place with Scott Laughton, who is also now paying dividends to the team at the NHL level.
5) Congratulations go out to Flyers forward prospect Maksim Sushko for his four-goal game for the OHL's Owen Sound Attack on Saturday night. It was the first hat trick, much less four-goal game, of his season-plus career in the OHL. He scored again on Sunday and added and assist. The Belarusian forward now has seven goals and nine points through the first seven games of the regular season. He had 17 goals and 32 points last season.
6) Flyers forward prospect Connor Bunnaman is a bit of a streaky scorer by nature. He scored in bunches during the OHL preseason but the goals stopped coming for the Kitchener Rangers captain one the season started. Now he's heating up, with back-to-back two goal games. Over his three games, Bunnaman has seven points.
7) Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov ended a two-game pointless stretch on Saturday with a three-assist game for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. He has not yet tallied a goal in five games but has already racked up six helpers.
8) Among the Flyers collegiate prospects, the one off to the fastest start is Western Michigan power forward Wade Allison. The Flyers' 2016 second-round pick has seven points (two goals, five assists) through the first five games of the season.
9) After a 5-0 debacle in the first game of their road-home-road three-in-three weekend gauntlet, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms rebounded for wins on Saturday and Sunday to take four of a possible six points from divisional games against the Wilkes Barre/ Scranton Penguins (home-and-home set on Friday and Saturday) and Hershey Bears (away on Sunday).
10) In Sunday's tilt in Hershey, the Phantoms trailed 1-0 entering the third period and went on to win via shootout, 4-3.
Rookie defenseman Phil Myers, who immediately returned to the lineup after hobbling off the ice on a blocked shot in the third period of Saturday's game, scored his first pro level to knot the score at 1-1 at 4:50 of the third period. On the next shift, Nicolas Aube-Kubel's second goal of the season gave the Phantoms the lead. At 8:18, Danick Martel scored his fifth goal of the young season to build a 3-1 lead with 11:42 left to play.
The Phantoms were unable to protect the lead. One shift after the Martel goal, Hershey drew back within 3-2. The Bears then tied the game again on a power play goal with 2:30 left, to force OT. After a scoreless overtime, third-round Phantoms shooter Chris Conner scored the lone goal of the skills competition after unsuccessful attempts by Corban Knight and Mike Vecchione.
Starting all three games over the weekend and all five of Lehigh Valley's games to date, Alex Lyon improved his record to 3-1-1 on the season as he stopped 34 of 37 shots in regulation and overtime and then went 3-for-3 in the shootout.
Phil Varone, Greg Carey, Mikhail Vorbyev, Martel, Vecchione and Sam Morin chipped in one assist apiece for the Phantoms. Oskar Lindblom is still looking for his first point of the AHL season after five games, but hit the goal post twice in Sunday's game (three times thus far in the early going of the season) and created a few power play opportunities in this game.
The Phantoms went 1-for-20 on the power play over the weekend, including 0-for-7 on both Friday and Sunday nights. They were just 2-for-4 on the penalty kill on Sunday.
Lehigh Valley returns to action on Friday, hosting the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The next night, the Phantoms are on the road to play the Binghamton Devils.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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