Quick Hits: February 6, 2022
1) 2022 NHL All-Star Game: Flyers captain Claude Giroux earned MVP honors at the 2022 NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas, tallying a combined four points (three goals, one assist) as the Metropolitan Division All-Stars defeated the Pacific Division All-Stars (6-4) and the Central Division All-Stars (5-3) to win the 3-on-3 mini-tournament.
The winning team's players split a $1,000,000 prize amongst themselves. Per All-Star Game tradition, Giroux also received an automobile as the event's MVP. It's customary for the MVP winner to subsequently give away the prize or donate it to charity.
Giroux's young son, Gavin, was along with him throughout the weekend including in the victorious team's postgame locker room and the initial post-game media availability. This was Claude Giroux's seventh All-Star Game selection. He was also on the winning team in the 3-on-3 tourney at the 2019 All-Star Game in San Jose.
For more, including highlight clips and video of Giroux's postgame press conference, see the related article on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
2) Phantoms Lose in Hartford: One day after putting forth a strong overall team effort in a 5-1 home blowout win against the Providence Bruins, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms suffered a 6-4 road loss at the hands of the Hartford Wolf Pack on early Sunday evening.
The Phantoms led 2-0 after the first period but often seemed heavy-legged and inattentive to detail. Subsequently, they got blitzed for five goals against in a disastrous second period. The Phantoms, who coughed up two shorthanded goals in the game, got back within 5-3 in the third period and had a power play opportunity to narrow the gap down to one goal. Instead, Lehigh Valley yielded another shothanded goal.
On the latter shorthander, which came shortly after the Phantoms dodged a bullet on a 2-on-0, Lehigh Valley goaltender Garrett Metcalf turned the puck over behind the Phantoms net. Jonny Brodzinski, had an easy wraparound goal into an empty net, to extend his goal-scoring streak to a record nine straight games. Jonny Brodzinski is the older brother of Flyers' prospect Bryce Brodzinski (a University of Minnesota junior) and the son of Philadelphia native and former minor league player Mike Brodzinski.
Hayden Hodgson (12th goal of the season), Charlie Gerard (3rd), Wyatte Wylie (3rd) and Isaac Ratcliffe (5th) scored in a losing cause for the Phantoms, who slipped below hockey .500 again on the season. Ratcliffe's unassisted goal came in the game's final half-minute and was meaningless apart from giving him a two-point day (1g, 1a) and narrowing the final margin of defeat from three goals to two. However, Ratcliffe had some other solid moments while the game was still within reach.
While both Morgan Frost and Cam York played well overall in Friday's win over Providence, neither player was effective or seemed particularly engaged in Hartford. Frost did get a little better in the third period on Saturday, making a few plays and creating a power play chance. York assisted on the Gerard goal in the first period. Overall, though, Sunday's game was a pretty forgettable performance overall for both players. Maksim Sushko, who has been rumored to be in the mix for an NHL look-see, was another player who was better in Saturday's game than in Sunday's.
With Felix Sandström having played on Friday, Samuel Ersson still out with an injury (recurrent lower-body issue suspected to be groin-related), Pat Nagle at the Olympics for Team USA and Kirill Ustimenko with the ECHL's Reading Royals to ensure more playing time, the Phantoms turned to Metcalf. The 25-year-old former Anaheim prospect performed decently in his first couple outings for the Phantoms but he got strafed in Sunday's game. Several of the goals were plays where he got hung out to dry on point blank chances or got screened. However, there were also a couple misplays by the netminder himself, especially on the Brodzinski shorthanded goal that put a stranglehold on the game for Hartford.
Saturday's game was the start of the statistical second half of the 2021-22 regular season for Lehigh Valley. The Phantoms (15-16-8) will now begin a six-game homestand that will keep then in Allentown through Feb. 20. The homestand kicks off this Wednesday when the Belleville Senators (17-18-0) pay a visit to the PPL Center.
3) Coming off a four-point game in his previous outing, Flyers prospect Bobby Brink assisted on a third period five-on-three power play goal in Denver's 2-0 shutout victory over St. Cloud State on Saturday. The pint-sized playmaking winger leads all players across NCAA Division 1 hockey with 41 total points, 32 assists and a 1.56 points per game average. The Flyers are hoping to sign the player, who will turn 21 on July 8, to an entry-level contract following the conclusion of his junior year.
4) Feb 6 Flyers Alum birthday: Robert Sirois (1954)
A Montreal native, right winger Robert Sirois was born Feb. 6, 1954. Drafted by the Flyers in the third round of the 1974 NHL Draft, Sirois was a talented offensive player who had trouble cracking the Flyers' deep NHL roster.
Sirois put up good offensive numbers for the Richmond Robins, the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate, in 1974-75 and 1975-76. At the NHL level, he dressed in three games for the Flyers in 1974-75 and one the following year, scoring his lone Flyers goal and point in the third period of a 6-4 road win over the Kansas City Scouts on Jan. 14, 1975.
On Dec 15, 1975, the Flyers traded Sirois to the Washington Capitals for a player to be named later. The deal was completed when the Caps sent John Paddock to the Flyers. Sirois later represented the Capitals in the 1978 NHL All-Star Game. The next season, he posted an NHL career-high 29 goals.
Sorois' playing days came to an abrupt end in 1982 due to a serious back injury. The injury caused partial paralysis, with the 28-year-old player losing use of his left leg. He subsequently went on to become a player agent, among other ventures.
Sirois always preferred to be referred to by his French name, Robert, rather than his English nickname, Bob. However, he did not publicly complain about the anglicizing of his first name until he authored a post-career book in 2009 called "Le Québec mis en échec" ("Quebec Checked"), in which he claimed that francophone players in the NHL were treated as second-class citizens and discriminated against unless overwhelmingly more talented than other players.
5) Today in Flyers History: Legion of Doom Explodes for 16 Combined Points
On February 6, 1997, the Philadelphia Flyers skated to a 9-5 blowout win against the Montreal Canadiens at the CoreStates Center. The Flyers led 4-1 after the first period and never looked back.
The Legion of Doom trio of center Eric Lindros (1G,4A), left wing John LeClair (4G,2A) and right wing Mikael Renberg (1G,4A) combined to record 16 points in the game to set a new team record for most points in a game by one line.
For LeClair, his four goals marked his first career four-goal game and tied the team record for most goals in a regular season game. LeClair (six points) and Renberg (five points) each set new career highs for points in a single game.