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Crucial Day as Flyers Plan Return to Practice |
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Today at 11 a.m., the Flyers are once again slated to hold practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. It is a crucial day both on the preparation front and in terms of seeing who, if anyone, exits the COVID-19 protocol.
One week ago today, the Flyers' scheduled game in DC against the Capitals was postponed. The Flyers' COVID protocol list, on that day, expanded from one to three players as Justin Braun and Claude Giroux were added by the NHL. The list has since grown to seven players, although Travis Sanheim, who was a late scratch in Washington on Feb. 7 and was placed in the protocol several hours later, has since completed the protocol and is cleared to return.
The Flyers last four games have been postponed; two because of their own COVID situation, two because of the New Jersey Devils' situation. The team has not been back on the ice in exactly one week.
Yesterday, the Flyers were originally slated to practice at 11:30 a.m. ET. Roughly half an hour before practice was to start and two hours after the attending media was asked which players we wanted to speak with after practice for remote access, the Flyers issued this following announcement: "Please be aware that the Flyers have been advised by the National Hockey League to resume practice on Tuesday, Feb. 16. There will be no practice for the team today, Monday, Feb. 15."
The announcement led to confusion as to whether it was the Flyers' call to cancel practice or whether the NHL made the decision. A league source told Inquirer beat writer Sam Carchidi that it was the Flyers' decision. Carchidi also reported that no additional Flyers players who tested yesterday had tested positive for COVID.
At 5 p.m. yesterday, the NHL released its daily COVID protocol list. The Flyers list remained at seven players: Giroux and Braun (placed in protocol on Feb. 9), Jakub Voracek and the injured Morgan Frost (Feb. 11), Oskar Lindblom and Scott Laughton (Feb. 12) and Travis Konecny (added Feb. 14, the same day Sanheim's name was removed).
Although the Flyers did not put out an official release to announce it, the American Hockey League's daily transactions list yesterday had Lehigh Valley Phantoms' forwards David Kase and Maksim Sushko being recalled by the Flyers to join the Taxi Squad. Last week, on Feb. 6, the Flyers recalled Samuel Morin, Derrick Pouliot and goalie Felix Sandström from the Phantoms to the Taxi Squad per the AHL transactions list. With Connor Bunnaman, Carsen Twarynski, Andy Andreoff, Nate Prosser and Alex Lyon already on the Taxi Squad, the Flyers would be over the allotted limit of six players.
However, there are ways to work around the numbers if all of these players have, indeed, been brought up from Allentown in order to be available for the Taxi Squad. Primarily, this would involve temporarily removing NHL roster players who are unavailable and back-dating an injured reserve list designation -- for reasons of illness -- to the start of their absence.
From a hockey standpoint, it is vital that the Flyers practice today if they are to realistically be able to play on Thursday against the Rangers. After a week off the ice, the team will likely need two on-ice days, especially given the prospects of missing multiple regulars from the lineup.
If neither Giroux nor Braun ever tested positive and they were placed in the protocol for reasons of precautionary quarantine due to potential exposure -- which appears to have been the case with Sanheim, because he spent exactly one week in the protocol -- it's theoretically possible that one or both could exit the protocol and be on the ice today.
Given the sheer number of Flyers in the protocol and the staccato nature of their additions -- plus the NHL/NHLPA's new protocol that requires players to essentially shelter in place except to go to the practice rink or arena -- the odds are that at least a few of the Flyers' cases involve positive tests. That is strictly my own speculation, as NHL teams do not release information (even internally beyond those on a strict need-to-know basis) as to the specific criterion/criteria met by each individual case on the protocol list.
I will live tweet from practice today and am planning a post-practice report for the Flyers' official website.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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