Quick Hits: August 1, 2023
1) World Junior Summer Showcase: Team USA bounced back from a pair of ugly losses on Saturday as USA Blue downed Team Finland, 4-1, and USA White hammered Team Sweden, 10-1, in action on Monday.
In the USA White game, Flyers 2022 first-round pick Cutter Gauthier potted a pair of goals amid a four-goal barrage by the Americans in the third period. Frank Nazar led the way for USA White with a monstrous four-goal, one-assist game. Flyers prospect Devin Kaplan did not get on the scoresheet. The eighth overall pick of the 2023 Draft, Boston College bound winger Ryan Leonard, also made a big impact on the game with his aggressive physicality, a goal and an assist to get USA White rolling.
Gauthier's first goal
Cutter Gauthier snipes are back …¼ï¸
— Nasty Knuckles (@NastyKnuckles) August 1, 2023
Puts USA up 7-1 pic.twitter.com/ziftUCeR4M
2nd goal of the night for Cutter pic.twitter.com/Mqz9Shxfoq
— Nasty Knuckles (@NastyKnuckles) August 1, 2023
2) Today is an off-day at the WJSS. Games resume tomorrow, with Sweden and archrival Finland clashing at 1:00 p.m. EDT and USA White and USA Blue going head-to-head at 4.
3) Alex Bump has elected to enter the NCAA transfer protocol in 2023-24 rather than attend the University of Vermont. The Catamounts' program has been rocked by a scandal involving now-former coach Todd Woodcroft allegedly sending inappropriate texts to a student. Bump has the option of returning to the USHL for the upcoming season without losing his college hockey eligibility. He will retain all four years of NCAA eligibility.
4) Today in Flyers History: August 1, 1970
The Flyers sold the contract of 34-year-old left winger Claude LaForge to the Denver Spurs of the Western Hockey League. LaForge, who never again played in the NHL, was not the same player he'd been before the 5-foot-8, 160 pound left winger was victimized by a sucker punch in a sneak attack by the St. Louis Blues' Noel Picard amid a brawl between the Flyers and Blues in Game 5 of the 1968 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals. LaForge, who was primarily a finesse-oriented player, was a bystander during the brawl, which made him an easy target to get blindsided by Picard.
Right after this incident, Ed Snider said aloud that he never again wanted to see a Flyers team pushed around and victimized. That started the wheels in motion for assembling what became known as the Broad Street Bullies.
5) NHL Network ranked the Flyers' current farm system as the 9th best in the 32-team NHL. Their top five Flyers' prospects, in order, were Matvei Michkov, Cutter Gauthier, Tyson Foerster, Oliver Bonk and Samuel Ersson. I personally would have ranked Emil Andrae above Bonk and would seriously consider ranking Alexei Kolosov above Ersson (although Ersson is arguably NHL ready right now while Kolosov is a couple years away).
6) NHL Network is airing the Hlinka Gretzky tourney in Czechia and Slovakia. Yesterday, Canada and USA respectively were on the wrong end of blowout losses to Finland and Czechia. Keep an eye on the Team Canada blueline, however, because there are several first-round candidates for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft including Berkly Catton, Henry Mews, Sam Dickinson and Zayne Parekh. Catton stood out positively in yesterday's loss to the Finns. Finland's Tuomas Suoniemi collected a hat trick and an assist.