MELTZER'S MUSINGS: JANUARY 30, 2016
1) The NHL All-Star Skills Competition takes place in Nashville on Saturday night. It will be televised live on NBC Sports Network starting at 7 p.m. ET. Flyers captain Claude Giroux will take part in the accuracy shooting, stickhandling and shootout (round three) events, Last year, Giroux took part in the stunt/creativity/humor centered "Breakaway Challenge" event, attempt aerial puck flipping/catching tricks. The stunt almost worked but he wasn't quite able to pull it off,
2) HockeyBuzz's Capt. EO has a silly little pregame "superstition" at the Wells Fargo Center. Flyers players frequently play basketball in the event level hallway near the control center and the main bank of elevators that go up to the pressbox. Giroux is a fixture in these shoot-arounds. The superstition is that if Giroux misses his last jump shot before the elevator doors open, the Flyers will win that night. If he makes it, they'll lose.
We haven't actually kept track of makes and misses and wins and losses, but I will say this: the Flyers have a 34-18-12 home record over the last two seasons, and the Flyers will never have to worry about an NBA team trying to lure Giroux away from hockey.
3) I have my own little pregame ritual. I touch the base of a captioned picture of Gene Hart with my right hand as I walk past the memorial photo gallery display that is promimently displayed as you enter the press box named in Hart's honor.
It has nothing to do with a superstition about the Flyers winning or losing that night. Rather, it's a personal acknowledgement of having grown up listening the broadcasting legend and my first lessons about the game, its strategies and history having come through his Hockey Hall of Fame work on Flyers radio and TV broadcasts.
4)As far as the NHL All-Star Game goes, I have never covered it as media -- I've done the Stanley Cup Final, the NHL Draft, and the IIHF World Junior Championship -- but never applied for the All-Star Game. I usually tune in to the Skills Competition and watch some of the game itself (rarely the entire thing) the next day. Personally, I appreciate the All-Star Break as an opportunity to focus on writing projects and as a way to give some undivided attention to games involving the Flyers farm teams and prospects.
5) The Western Hockey League game on Friday night between the Brandon Wheat Kings and the host Edmonton Oil Kings -- won 4-3 by Edmonton -- was televised live on NHL Network. It was a treat to watch it on TV rather than via streaming internet.
After a quick start in the first period, things fell apart for the Wheaties for the next 30 minutes or so. Flyers 2015 first-round pick Ivan Provorov was not immune. He had a rough game over the first two periods. Provorov got caught on the wrong end of the puck several times on odd-man rushes for the Oil Kings. One was off his own turnover at the blueline. A couple came on pinches without support that led to 2-on-1 counters for Edmonton. Finally, there was a sequence where Provorov's shot attempt drilled a teammate in the offensive zone and then, at other end of the ice, he lost a puck in his skates and recovered too late as an Edmonton player slipped behind him to claim it and score.
Those things can and will happen to any player on any given night. The key is how they respond. Provorov's response was to play an utterly dominant third period in all three zones. On the ice for what at least seemed like it was about 14 of the final 20 minutes, Provorov turned up every aspect of his game a notch.
As the period progressed, he scored a power play goal on a point shot to cut Brandon's deficit to 4-3. Provorov had a little bit of puck luck on this one, as it deflected in off an Edmonton player, but was still a nice play by the goal scorer. Later, he pinched in and had a seeming sure-fire tying goal on his stick when it was accidentally knocked away by a teammate. Finally, he had another golden opportunity to tie the game in the waning seconds but was utterly robbed on a 10-bell save by Edmonton goaltender Patrick Dea.
The Wheat Kings are back in action again on Saturday, visiting the Red Deer Rebels.
6) Flyers 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim extended his point streak to 11 consecutive games with a nice assist on the Calgary Hitmen's third goal in a 4-1 home win over the Price Albert Raiders on Friday night. He also hit the post on alert pinch to skate in untouched from the point and claim a long side-angle rebound. At even strength Sanheim was plus-three in the game. He has at least one point in 14 of his last 15 games; the one game in which he did not get on the score sheet, he was forced to leave in the first period after suffering an upper-body injury,
Sanheim's teammate Radel Fazleev did not record a point on Friday but had two shots on goal. The Hitmen are idle on Saturday night.
7) Speaking of point streaks, Flyers 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel was right in the thick of the Val-d'Or Foreurs' 11-2 shellacking of the Baie Comeau Drakkar on Friday night. Aube-Kubel finished with five points (two goals, three assists, plus-five, five shots) and ran his point streak to 10 straight games. The forward now has at least one point in 25 of his last 26 games. In that 26-game span, he has racked up 21 goals, 28 assists and 49 points. Over his last four games, Aube-Kubel has five goals, seven assists and 12 points.
While junior hockey offensive dominance is no guarantee of similar pro level results and there are some contextual factors to consider (Aube-Kubel plays on a deep team and is in his fourth full season in the QMJHL), it is nevertheless an encouraging sign to see such consistency from a player for whom streakiness of play with and without the puck was the most frequent knock by critics. For the season, Aube-Kubel is a plus-41 in 42 games and has 65 points (30 goals, 35 assists). He's rocketed up to the league's top-10 in scoring after being about 45th in mid-November.
8) Flyers 2015 first-round pick Travis Konecny collected two assists in the Sarnia Sting's 4-3 win over the Flint Firebirds on Friday night. In his 10 games with the Sting since being traded by Ottawa, Konecny has racked up 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists). Overall, Konecny has collected 14 goals, 48 assists and 62 points in 39 games this OHL season.
9) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms staged a comeback victory on Friday night, downing the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-3 in overtime, at the PPL Center. The Phantoms (21-21-2-1), trailed 2-0 before pushng back on the Pens. Lehigh Valley has now won four games in a row and are currently four points behind the Providence Bruins for the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. The Phantoms' power play has started to come around. The club is 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) over the last four games.
Cole Bardreau, who has been on fire offensively over the past week, led the way with two goals including the OT winner. Over the last three games, he has five goals and six points after posting two goals and nine points in the first 20 games he played this season. Veterans Chris Conner (one goal, one assist, sx-game point streak), Colin McDonald (one assist, eight points in his last three games) and Davis Drewiske (goal) also chipped in. Winning goalie Jason LaBarbera stopped 27 of 30 shots.
Struggling second year defenseman Robert Hà¤gg sat out as a healthy scratch. Young forwards Danick Martel, Taylor Leier and Nick Cousins (whose rebound Bardreau potted on the OT winner) all had an assist apiece, as did veteran defenseman Andrew MacDonald .
The Phantoms have one game left before the AHL All-Star break, heading to Wilkes Barre on Saturday for the back end of the home-and-home set with the Penguins. Third-year pro Cousins and second-season goaltender Anthony Stolarz will both represent the Phantoms at the All-Star Game.
10) According to Ticketmaster, there are only 85 single-seat tickets left for the Flyers Alumni Game in Reading, PA (see below). No pairs are available although, according to Alumni Association president Brad Marsh, efforts are ongoing to release some additional tickets and find accomodations to meet the high demand. The rosters for Team Orange and Team White are set for the game and will be announced jointly on Tuesday both on the Flyers official website and the Flyers Alumni site with mini-profiles of every player, coach and special guest. As promised at the time the game was announced, every decade of Flyers hockey history -- from the 1960s early expansion era through the mid-2010s -- is represented.
In celebration of nearly a half-century of Flyers hockey, the Flyers Alumni Association is bringing together players representing every decade of franchise history for a special Orange vs. Black intrasquad Alumni game on Feb. 5, 2016 at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be held at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA, home of the Philadelphia Flyers' ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals.
Confirmed playing participants include Hockey Hall of Famers Bob Clarke and Mark Howe, recent Flyers stars Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen, Flyers Hall of Fame inducteee Joe Watson, longtime fan favorite Bob "the Hound" Kelly as well as the likes of Paul Holmgren, mid-1980s captain Dave Poulin and defenseman Brad Marsh.
Full playing rosters will be announced on Feb. 2.
The six coaches of the two sides will be Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Bill Barber, Flyers Hall of Famers Brian Propp, Rick MacLeish and Dave "the Hammer" Schultz as well as Bill Clement and Don "Big Bird" Saleski. Clement will also be answering questions fans submit on social media.
Tickets for the Alumni game start at $12. All premium packages are complete sell-outs. A post-game VIP meet-and-greet with all of the Alumni was an almost instant sell-out. A youth hockey skills clinic run by the Alumni and a pre-game dinner buffet have also sold out.
For more ticket information on the game itself, click here.