Quick Hits: Nov. 30, 2021
1) After an off-day on Monday, the Flyers return to practice today at the FTC in Voorhees. With the postponement of Tuesday's home game against the New York Islanders, the Flyers will return to game action on Wednesday when they visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Thereafter, the Flyers will complete their three-game season series with two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday.
2) With the Flyers at the quarter mark of the 2021-22 season, Jason Myrtetus and I took stock of what's brought the team to a mediocre 8-8-4 record through 20 games in Tuesday's edition of Flyers Daily on the Flyers Broadcast Network. What issues have been at the root cause of the current six-game winless streak? What can be done to improve significantly and quickly on breakouts, forechecks and re-establishing defensive structure? What of the power play? Should there be concern that a growing number of defensive breakdowns will drag down the generally strong goaltending with it? To listen to the 30-minute podcast,
click here.
3) Due to the COVID-19 related postponements of Sunday's and Wednesday's games against the Hershey Bears, Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-10-5) are off until Friday. Winless in their last seven games (0-4-3), the Phantoms will host the Charlotte Checkers (8-9-2) at the PPL Center on Friday. The teams split two games in Charlotte on Nov. 6 and 7 with the Checkers blowing out the Phantoms, 7-3, in the first game and the Phantoms taking a 5-3 decision the next afternoon.
Friday's game will be the quarter-pole of the 76-game regular season for the Phantoms. They need a win to avoid joining dubious company as one of the few teams in the last decade to have fewer than four wins at the one-quarter mark of the season. The 2010-11 Adirondack Phantoms started out 3-14-2 through 19 games. The 2015-16 Iowa Wild won only three of their first 19 games on the way to a 24-41-11 season.
4) The recent Flyers Alumni Hall of Fame Game was a fundraiser for Flyers Charities and the Flyers Alumni Association's charitable programs. The Alumni's current two signature programs are the
Every Child Deserves a Bike Campaign on a year-round basis and the
12 Days of Christmas Season Giving program during the winter holiday season.
The ninth adaptive bike donation for a special needs child in the Delaware Valley will take place tomorrow. It's the goal of the Flyers Alumni in 2022 to increase the pace to having one fully customized adaptive bike per month built and donated.
Now in its third year, the 12 Days of Christmas program involves Flyers Alumni from every generation of team history, living coast-to-coast in the United States and Canada to suggest worthy charities and/or an individual family or person in need in their local community. Last year's donations were suggested by the likes of Bob Kelly, Kerry Huffman, late 1960s Flyers forward Garry Peters, 1990s forward Shjon Podein, Orest Kindrachuk, Todd Fedoruk and others. The donations will officially begin the second week of December and be made daily until nearly Christmas.
Previous recipient organizations include the like of the Boys & Girls Club, Say It With Clay, Book Smiles, the Maryville Addiction Treatment Center, wounded police officer Andy Chan,Michael's Way, KidSport Saskatoon, The Neighborhood Center, Snider Hockey, Northwest Victim Services, the Montgomery County Childrens' Advocacy Project, Community Food Response (Rochester, Minn), Bucks County Housing Group, the Williams Family Fund, the Yellow Ribbon Fund, United Heroes League, Salvation Army Toy Drive and the Busansky Elementary School (Pemberton, NJ) toy drive, among others.
The 2021 recipients of "12 Days" donations are presently being discussed by the Flyers Alumni Association Board of Directors and will be announced soon.
Flyers Alumni Association president Brad Marsh asked me yesterday to send out a special thank you to everyone who donated to Every Child Deserves a Bike and supported events over the past year such as the Hall of Fame Game. Your support makes possibile the Every Child and 12 Days Programs as well as other donations the Alumni make within the community each year.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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