NHL ANNOUNCES ALL-TIME 100 GREATEST PLAYERS LIST
Big congratulations go out to the Flyers Alumni who earned spots on the NHL's All-Time 100 Greatest Players list announced yesterday. Three honorees spent all or the best years of their careers with the Flyers: Bob Clarke, Bernie Parent and Eric Lindros.
Other Flyers Alumni to earn selections: Chris Pronger, Darryl Sittler, Peter Forsberg, Paul Coffey, Jaromir Jagr, and Adam Oates. Another honoree, the late Jacques Plante, was the Flyers' first goaltending coach after his illustrious playing career.
With any list of this nature, there is plenty of subjectivity involved and worthy candidates are inevitably left off. Sparking debate is part of its very purpose, plus the eras were spread out to incorporate some still-active players.
Mark Howe and Bill Barber, both Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, would have been very worthy inclusions. Dale Hawerchuk is another who was left off. Likewise, Hall of Fame defenseman Allan Stanley, who finished his career as a Flyer, was not selected.
In Howe's case, the player's stature as a star left winger (unless his WHA career was entirely excluded from consideration, as was the case with the pre-NHL careers players such as Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov) who changed position to become a three-time Norris Trophy finalist defenseman should have put into the Top 100. With all due respect to Coffey, Howe was also a lot more complete player who sacrificed some of his point-producing capabilities to play a two-way game. If Howe had chosen to be one-dimensional he, too, the former high-scoring winger have put up the eye-popping offensive numbers that Coffey did from the back end.
With Barber, the fact that he was only able to play until he was 32 and missed a lot of games from age 30 onward due to his bad knees held down his career numbers (420 goals and 883 points) relative to forwards who got the nod over him. He was more of a complete player than some who put up bigger points-per-game totals.
During Hawerchuk's years with the Winnipeg Jets and his first few years with the Buffalo Sabres, he was a bonafide superstar who played on generally non-contending teams. As his body started breaking down in his 30s, Hawerchuk was still very good but no longer in the same category he once had been.
Stanley, a stalwart on four Toronto Maple Leafs teams that won the Stanley Cup -- so, in other words, pre-expansion -- played in the NHL from 1948 (when he was 22) until finishing his career with the 1968-69 Flyers (when he 42, still the oldest player in Flyers' history). He retired a year before I was born but, by all accounts, he and Tim Horton (who made the Top 100 list) formed one of the most dominant blueline pairings in NHL history when placed together. Stanley, who also starred for the New York Rangers, was not a great skater even by old-time hockey standards but was a very smart and efficient defenseman with and without the puck.
Side note: when the Flyers presented the sublime video tribute they did to honor those in team history who have passed away, there wasn't even the slightest murmur of fan recognition when Stanley's picture was shown. His role in Flyers history was minor, except for the fact that he was the first Hall of Fame player -- and one of just four future Hall of Fame defensemen, along with Howe, Pronger and Coffey -- to have ever suited up for the team.
If Stanley had been selected, it would have been among the group of 33 honorees named on Jan. 1, as this was the group whose NHL careers were predominantly played prior to 1967. The remaining 67 -- a not-so-coincidentally chosen cut-off for those who primarily played in the post-expansion era -- were announced in Los Angeles yesterday.
Parent's reaction was classic Bernie.
"When I received the phone call from (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman at first I wondered why he would be calling me. Then, when he gave me the news, it was just unbelievable. When you look back at my career, what a beautiful ride it has been. Having spent most of my career in Philly and being on the team that won two Stanley Cups and then to get honored like this, it is just very difficult to find the proper words to describe my emotions," Parent said. “It’s funny, I have a quick little story about when I got drafted by the Flyers from Boston in the expansion draft. It was in the spring and I was up in Montreal hitting some golf balls getting ready for the summer and a friend of mine comes up to me and told me I got drafted. I asked who drafted me and he said Philadelphia. I had to ask him where the heck is Philadelphia. So the Flyers wanted to introduce the new team to the city and put all the players who got drafted on a float and drove down Broad Street. We had more people on the float than there were people watching us. Having said that, the miracle is, seven years later we won the Stanley Cup and we had two million people come out and watch us. How about that?"
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PHANTOMS DOWN BINGHAMTON
Goaltender Alex Lyon backstopped the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to a 2-1 regulation road win on Friday night against the Binghamton Senators. He turned back 41 of 42 shots, yielding only a late second period power play goal to former Phantoms and Flyers forward Jason Akeson.
Trailing 1-0 in the third period, the Phantoms rallied for goals by Jordan Weal (15th) and Nicolas Aube-Kubel (sixth) to skate off with the win.
On the first goal, Danick Martel (coming off a hat trick game) sprung Weal on a breakaway. Moving the puck from forehand to backhand, Weal outmaneuvered goalie Chris Dreidger (30 saves on 32 shots) and tucked home the puck at 4:51. Reece Willcox earned the secondary assist.
The score remained tied until 5:05 remained on the third period clock. Speedy rookie Aube-Kubel intercepted the puck at the red line and turned on the jets skating down the right wing one-on-one with a defenseman, whom he turned inside out. Aube-Kubel's low shot to the short side was stoppable but found the net.
Aube-Kubel, who has had some fully expected ups and downs in his first full season of transition from adapting from QMJHL-style hockey to the pro game, has scored goals in back-to-back games for the first time this season. He has primarily played a bottom six role to work on his overall game. It's still a work in progress but he's coming along.
The Phantoms (29-11-2) are on the road to play the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Saturday before the AHL All-Star Break. The PPL Center in Allentown is the host venue for this year's All-Star festivities, starting with the Skills Competition on Monday. Phantoms players Weal, Taylor Leier and T.J. Brennan were all selected as All-Stars. As with the NHL, the AHL All-Star Game is now conducted as a three-on-three manpower format.
Lehigh Valley, with 60 points, holds the second-best record in the American Hockey League. Unfortunately, the lone team with a superior record is another Atlantic Division club. Even after a loss to the Phantoms last Friday, the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins (32-9-3, .761 points percentage) currently have a seven-point cushion atop the division. The Phantoms (.714) hold three games in hand. The third-place Providence Bruins are two points behind the Phantoms but have played two more games to date.
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TOP PROSPECT UPDATES
* While Flyers forward prospect Oskar Lindblom has been one of the most consistently strong players (with and without the puck) in the Swedish Hockey League this season, he has not had a lot of multi-point games. Rather, he's established himself among the leading scorers by more or less posting a picket fence in his production. On Thursday, however, he broke loose for a three-point game, scoring his 12th and 13th goals of the season and picking up an assist in Brynà¤s IF Gà¤vle's 4-2 road win over Frölunda HC Gothenburg. The latter tally was an empty netter. Lindblom now sits third in the league in scoring with 34 points in 37 games, and is tied for the league's best plus-minus rating at plus-16 (+33, -17).
* Lindblom's teammate, goaltender Felix Sandström, served as the backup goalie in Thursday's game. Brynà¤s returns to action today, hosting the Malmö Redhawks (12:30 p.m. ET).
* Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov continues to flourish after his recent transfer from the KHL to the QMJHL's Chicoutimi Saguenéens. The player's advanced two-way game relative to most teenage players is more easily evident in the Q than it was in getting minimal ice time in the KHL and in being assigned exclusively to checking duties in limited ice at the World Junior Championships. Last Saturday night, Rubtsov collected a power play goal and both even-strength and empty-net assists while making an outstanding backchecking play in Chicoutimi's 6-4 win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titans. On Friday, he added an assist in a 3-2 shootout loss. Overall, Rubtsov has six points in his first games in the Q. His team hosts the Gatineau Olympiques on Sunday.
* Goalie prospect Carter Hart stopped 26 of 29 shots before being pulled late for an extra atttacker in the Everett Silvertips' 4-1 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Friday night. For the season, Hart's record fell to 19-5-6, with a 1.94 GAA, .926 save percentage and six shutouts. Everett visits the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday night (10:05 p.m. ET).
* Philippe Myers remains sidelined with the concussion he sustained at the World Junior Championships. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies defenseman is said to be doing OK but the team is proceeding with a lot of caution because he has sustained two separate concussions this season. The Huskies, the reigning Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions, enjoy the top record in the league this season and it would be hard to fathom the deep club as anything but a lock for the postseason. As such, Myers can be brought along cautiously.
* Flyers 2016 second-round pick Pascal Laberge, who has also had two concussions this season, has played every game for his Victoriaville Tigers since returning to the lineup in the latter part of December. He is not having a great offensive season but at least is getting back on track. He has six points (one goal, five assists) in nine January games. Laberge did not record a point in Victoriaville's 2-0 shutout win over the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Friday. The Tigers host the Shawinigan Cataractes tonight (7:30 p.m. ET).
* World Junior Championship standout Mikhail Vorobyov has gone right back to receiving scant ice time now that he is back with his KHL team, Salavat Yulaev Ufa. He skated just 5:46 over 11 shifts in his team's 5-3 loss to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on Friday. At least it was a little more ice time than he got in his previous game (4:59 TOI, seven shifts). He has not had double-digit ice time in any of his KHL games since late November.
* Bowling Green University junior defenseman Mark Friedman scored in overtime to lift his team to a 3-2 win over Ferris State on Friday night. The teams rematch tonight (7:07 p.m. ET).
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FLYERS ALUMNI TO REMATCH WITH PENGUINS ALUMNI
Due to the huge popularity of the Flyers Alumni's Golden Anniversary weekend earlier this month and last year's Orange vs. White Game in Reading, there will be another Flyers Alumni vs. Penguins Alumni Game. The rematch will be at Santander Arena in Reading on Sat, March 18 at 3 PM.
Rosters are still being arranged for the game but will differ from the 50th Anniversary Game at the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 14. Proceeds will go toward making good on the Alumni's $2 million pledge to assist the Snider Youth Hockey Foundation's rink-building project.
The announcement of the second game was quite a well-kept secret. I am contracted by the Flyers this season as the 50th Anniversary Season content writer and have been the Flyers Alumni Association's content manager since Nov. 2015 and I only learned of the Reading game when it was announced by the Flyers on Friday!
"I'm always full of surprises," joked Brad Marsh, the president of the Flyers Alumni Association and the Flyers' director of community development, adding that there are other significant announcements forthcoming.
For ticket information, click here.
From Feb. 13 to Feb. 21, the Alumni Team will be taking a hockey-playing tour of Russia that will include an outdoor game in Moscow's Red Square as well as matches in St. Petersburg and Kazan.
A few weeks ago, the Alumni asked me to accompany the team on the Russia trip to document it. To say the least, I was honored and humbled to accept this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.