WJC Evaluation Camp Update
Flyers prospects Anthony Stolarz and Robert Hägg were in action yesterday at the World Junior Championship evaluation camp tournament opening games in Lake Placid, NY. Today, Stolarz's Team USA Blue squad faces off against Hägg and the rest of Team Sweden.
In yesterday's opener, Sweden downed Team USA White by a 4-2 count. Hägg did not figure in any of the scoring and, reportedly, played an uneven game that started slowly for him but got better as the game went along. It would be nice if Hägg would dominate on the blueline in these games, but is far more important for him to improve his consistency as the 2013-14 season goes along (including the WJC, for which he nearly is a shoo-in for the Swedes) than for him to peak in a camp in early August.
Yesterday's second game saw Finland outgun Team USA Blue by a 6-5 score. Stolarz started in goal for the Americans, playing the first 30:31 before giving way to Thatcher Demko. Stolarz fared well in his half of the game, turning back 15 of 16 shots. Demko got strafed for five goals on 19 shots. Artturi Lehkonen (Montreal's second-round pick in the 2013 Draft) knotted the game at 1-1 for the Finns after USA Blue took an early lead, and later scored a pair of goals against Demko to complete a hat trick. Chicago 2012 first-round pick Teuvo Teräväinen also racked up a four-point game (one goal, three assists).
Team USA Blue will play Sweden today at 1 P.M. EDT. Team USA White will try to tame the Finns at 4:00 P.M. For a fee, both games can be watched live online at
Fasthockey.com. It costs $7.99 to watch one game or $15.48 to purchase both.
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Flyers Team of the 2000s: Goaltenders
There were no surprises in yesterday's selection of the top four starting defensemen in HockeyBuzz's Flyers Team of 2000s fan poll. As expected, Kimmo Timonen (93 percent of 1,800-plus votes), Eric Desjardins (89%) and Chris Pronger (83%) and Kim Johnsson (42%) grabbed the top four spots. Derian Hatcher (38%) narrowly edged out Braydon Coburn (36%) for the fifth and final automatic spot. Coburn and the other non-placers will get a second chance in a run-off poll for the sixth and reserve defense spots.
Today we will pick the starting and backup goaltender for the roster. The winner gets the starting spot, the runner-up gets the backup role.
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Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. Apart from competing in the triatholon, Lappy is raising funds for a variety of charitable causes: the IRONMAN Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and Go4theGoal Foundation- Tunes4Teens. Laperriere has set a $10,000 fundraising goal. For more information or to make a donation,
click here.
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