Hockey World Mourns Adam Johnson

The entire hockey world is in shock and mourning today after hearing the horrifying news of the fatal on-ice injuries suffered in an EIHL game yesterday by 29-year-old Nottingham Panthers center Adam Johnson; previously a member of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and, before that, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Johnson's was sliced by an errant skate. With the player in life-threatening distress and rapidly losing blood, the game was stopped and the roughly 5,000 fans in attendance were asked to clear out. Johnson was rushed to the nearest hospital but, tragically, efforts to save his life were unsuccessful.

The unspeakable tragedy that unfolded yesterday is one of scariest dangers inherent to hockey, especially when players do not wear skate cut-resistant neck guards.

On April 1, 1978, Flyers Hall of Fame center Rick MacLeish survived a skate cut to nis neck after he dove to the ice break up a pass in a road game against the LA Kings. Superstar Kings forward Marcel Dionne accidentally clipped MacLeish with his skate. The closest medical professional on hand was the Flyers team dentist/oral surgeon, Dr. Everett Borghesani. The rapid response by Dr. Borghesani saved MacLeish's life.

This was before the ESPN age, much less the internet. With the three-hour time difference between Eastern and Pacific time, many Flyers fans did not learn about what happened to MacLeish until the following day.

In 1989, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk very narrowly escaped death in a horrific skate cut accident. While MacLeish's jugular vein was not sliced, Malarchuk's was. It was a nightmarish scene, and miraculous that the player survived.

In 1997, in an afternoon game between the Flyers and the Ottawa Senators, a non life-threating but nonetheless scary accident happened on the ice as Flyers winger Mikael Renberg backchecked against Ottawa forward Randy Cunneyworth early in the first period. Cunneyworth's skate came up and the blade cut Renberg from his chin to his nostril. It took more than 200 micro-stitches, mostly subcutaneous, to close the wound. All things considered, Renberg was extremely lucky the skate blade got him where it did, rather than his neck. (Side note: Renberg reported for practice 48 hours later to the Coliseum in Voorhees but Flyers team doctors and head coach Terry Murray would not allow him on the ice).

In 2008, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik survived an horrific on-ice accident when teammate Olli Jokinen's skate came up and the blade caught up in the neck. He, too, was lucky to live and resume his hockey career.

This time around with Johnson, the outcome was the ultimate worst-case scenario. It overshadows anything else that happened in the hockey world yesterday. Condolences go out to Adam Johnson's family, current and past teammates and friends across the hockey world.

Wrap: Flyers Defeated by Ducks, 7-4

The Philadelphia Flyers (4-3-1) suffered their first home loss of the 2023-24 season as they fell to the Anaheim Ducks, 7-4, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. Frank Vatrano notched a hat trick for Anaheim on power play, even strength and shorthanded goals. In a losing cause, Flyers winger Travis Konecny scored twice (even strength and power play).

Saturday's game was rather unusual in that the Flyers controlled puck possession and outchanced the Ducks for long stretches of the game yet Philly spent 59 minutes playing from behind. The Flyers trailed 2-0 at the first intermission, yet the game felt manageable because the puck was usually in the Anaheim end of the ice. Philly racked up five credited takeaways in the first 11 minutes of the game and the Ducks were blindly putting pucks in dangerous areas to try to alleviate the puck pressure.

Nonetheless, Anaheim took a 2-0 lead to the locker room on goals by Ryan Strome and Vatrano (power play). That set the tone for the rest of the game, as a combination of bad breakdowns and unfavorable puck luck on broken plays took an ever-mounting toll. In the latter regard, the Flyers had been getting a lot of favorable puck luck lately -- such as the puck that went off referee Chris Rooney's skate and directly to Bobby Brink for his first career NHL goal in Thursday's game -- so it was bound to even out at some point.

In the second period, the Flyers fell behind by a 4-0 score. Vatrano scored on what seemed to be an inconclusive jam-in play at the net at 6:58 of the second period. After a very long replay delay and an original no-goal ruling on the ice, the goal counted based upon a single in-net replay that seemed to show the puck entirely past the goal line. The Anaheim lead then became 4-0 after a coverage breakdown by Philadelphia and a favorable bounce produced an Adam Henrique goal.

The Flyers made a mini-run with closely spaced goals at 11:49 and 12:35 of the second period. On the first, Cam Atkinson drove to the net, took a pass from Owen Tippett, and beat goaltender Lukas Dostal (27 saves on 31 shots). On the latter, Flyers defenseman Sean Walker made a cross-ice pass to Konecny, who wristed a rising shot into the net from the right circle.

At 13:10 of the second period. just 35 seconds of game play after the Konecny tally, the Flyers went on the power play. Had the Flyers scored here, the deficit would have been sliced to a single goal with massive momentum on Philly's side. Instead, the Flyers were unable to generate any significant pressure, and the threat subsided.

In the third period, the Flyers fell back into a four-goal hole. With the Flyers on a penalty kill, Konecny tried to break out on a potential shorthanded counterattack. Instead, the Flyers forward turned over the puck. Moments later, the dangerous Trevor Zegras wired home a shot from the deep slot at 2:42 for Anaheim's second power play goal of the game.

At the 3:14 mark, after Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler ran into goalie Samuel Ersson and a Brett Leason shot bounced into the net off Ersson's backside, Anaheim led by a 6-2 count.

By this point, the game was out of reach. Konecny collected his second score of the game, and eighth of the young season, on a tic-tac-toe power play connection with Sean Couturier and Bobby Brink at 9:51 of the third period. At 11:12, on just their 23rd shot of the game, Anaheim's Vatrano beat Ersson on a shorthanded counterattack to push the Anaheim lead back to four goals (7-3). Finally, with three minutes left, Joel Farabee scored from the left wing on a sequence set up by Brink. Noah Cates picked up a secondary assist.

Ersson, who struggled for two periods in Dallas last Saturday before settling in during the third period, had another rough outing against Anaheim. It wasn't so much that any of the goals were outright soft but there were a few that also were not unstoppable. A goalie needs to make some saves. Ersson didn't come up with a single "momentum save" against the Ducks and coming up with just 18 saves on 25 shots after allowing five goals on 25 shots last time out against Dallas is a very disappointing start to the season for him. That's especially true because Carter Hart has been tremendous so far.

Phantoms Blanked in Hershey, 4-0

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms sustained a 4-0 road loss on Saturday at the hands of the arch-rival Hershey Bears. Clay Stevenson notched a 32-save shutout for Hershey, while Pierrick Dube scored twice for the Bears. Hershey also got single tallies from former Flyers/Phantoms forward Mike Vecchione and former Phantoms defenseman Logan Day (empty net).

In a losing cause, Cal Petersen stopped 25 of 28 shots. He did not play poorly. The Bears were just far more opportunistic than Ian Laperriere's Phantoms.

Early in the first period, Hershey was plagued by turnovers. However, the Phantoms had trouble putting pucks on net. Between shots that missed the net, got blocked or plays that fizzled out before developing into scoring chances, the Phantoms mustered just three shot on goal. Hershey took a 1-0 lead to intermission on a Dube power play goal with 1:35 remaining in the period. Arguably, Lehigh Valley's best scoring chance of the first period came on a look from the slot for rookie Alexis Gendron after a dangerous turnover by Hershey. However, Gendron was unable to get the puck on net.

The biggest disappointment from the game for Lehigh Valley was the Phantoms' power play. It was a frustrating night that saw the Phantoms go 0-for-8 on the man advantage. The futility included quickly canceling out a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity with a needless offensive zone penalty, failing during the ensuing 4-on-3, and doing nothing with four minutes worth of PP time on a high-sticking double minor taken by former Flyers/Phantoms winger Nic Aube-Kubel.

On two Phantoms power plays, Samu Tuomaals was well set up for one-timer opportunities. Unfortunately, he was unable to time either one quite right. One dribbled on net and the other was weakly sent wide. On another chance, Tuomaala wad denied on a good save by Stevenson.

Hershey gradually extended their lead over the course of the game. The Bears led 2-0 after two periods, and 3-0 in the third before Day's empty net goal with Petersen pulled early (15:46 of the final stanza) for an extra attacker. The Phantoms had a would-be goal from Garrett Wilson disallowed on replay as inconclusive on a somewhat similar play to the one in Philadelphia where Frank Vatrano scored his second goal of the game.

Tanner Laczynski, who has consistently been the Phantoms' best all-around forward in the four previous games leading into Saturday's tilt, was forced to miss the Hershey game due to illness. After Olle Lycksell racked up five goals in three games last weekend, the Swedish forward was held fairly quiet by Hershey.

Ronnie Attard was minus-three on the evening. So was Emil Andrae, playing his first AHL game of the 2023-24 season after being sent down by the Flyers on Wednesday.

There were some bright spots. Struggling power winger Wade Allison, starting on the fourth line for the second straight game, remained pointless on the young season. However, Allison was much more assertive and involved in the play all three zones than in previous games. He started a play in transition and had a couple of scoring chances (one where the puck was poked away at the last moment, the other stopped by goaltender Stevenson). It was at least a small step forward for Allison in trying to get back on his game, although the box score doesn't show it.

The Phantoms (3-3-0) return to action on Sunday. They will host the Hartford Wolf Pack (4-2-0) at the PPL Center in a 5:05 p.m. ET game. The game will be streamed on AHLTV (subscription required).

There may be a couple of lineup changes on Sunday for the Phantoms depending on how Laczynski is feeling. Below are the Phantoms starting lines from the game in Hershey.

29 Alexis Gendron- 22 Rhett Gardner - 20 Cooper Marody
28 Olle Lycksell - 91 Ellliot Desnoyers - 27 Samu Tuomaala
17 Garrett Wilson - 46 Matt Brown - 14 Zayde Wisdom
16 J.R. Avon - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 19 Wade Allison

6 Emil Andrae - 12 Ronnie Attard
37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
3 Adam Karashik - 2 Helge Grans

40 Cal Petersen
[31 Parker Gahagen]

Flyers Honor Zack Hill Before, After Saturday's Game

Despite the gorgeous weather outside, Saturday turned out to be a downer of day for just about everything associated with the Flyers' organization. The tragic accident in a UK game that cost former Phantoms forward Adam Johnson his life rendered things such as on-ice wins or losses meaningless in perspective. Even so, the Flyers' 7-4 defeat by Anaheim and the Phantoms' 4-0 shutout loss in Hershey were disappointing outcomes.

It wasn't all bad, though. Prior to the game, the Flyers dedicated the brand new media room adjacent to the home locker room in honor of longtime media relations manager and communications director Zack Hill. There is not a single person who has worked or interacted with Zack who holds him in anything less than the highest esteem. I am proud to count myself among Zack's scores of friends.

Zack's family (including his mom and brother), his longtime girlfriend, current management figures, a slew of Flyers Alumni, current and former media members and former Flyers staffers alike were on hand for the "Zack Hill Media Center" dedication. There were a lot of happy faces as we celebrated Zack. Speaking personally, I could never hope to adequately thank or pay back all that Zack has done for me professionally over the years. He's ALWAYS had my back and done whatever he can to lend assistance or an endorsement of my work. Even more importantly, he's always been a good friend. Yesterday showed once again that I'm far from alone in those experiences.

After the game, the Flyers threw a small party for Zack with drinks and food at the Shift 4 Club at event level. Current Flyers players Scott Laughton, Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny came out to celebrate Zack and thank him for all he did on their individual behalf and on behalf of Flyers players in general over the last 30 years. It was a tremendous gesture by the Flyers players who knew Zack the best and was clearly touching and greatly appreciated by the honoree.

Last but certainly not least, I want to acknowledge something the Flyers Alumni did at yesterday afternoon's game. The Alumni hosted disabled U.S. military veteran Paul Magargal as their special guest in the Alumni's game suite. A host of Flyers Alumni stopped by to greet Paul and present him with an autographed Alumni jersey. Among those who came out to spend time with Paul were Alumni president Brad Marsh (who arranged the special afternoon), Bob Kelly, Orest Kindrachuk, Joe Watson, Bob Clarke, Bill Barber and Paul Holmgren. Mr. Magargal, who is dealing with an array of serious health issues and can no longer play hockey, was also greeted by and spent time with various members of the Flyers Warriors hockey program.

On the Flyers Alumni's website, we will be profiling Mr. Margargal in the next week or so. The Alumni and Flyers Warriors treated him the right way -- as a celebrity and hero -- and he was deeply moved by the gesture. I was only able to stop by briefly but it was another happening on Saturday that was far more important than whether the Flyers won or lost the hockey game.

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