Flyers Defeat Capitals, 3-1
Two nights after the Boston Bruins "A" squad beat a Flyers "B" lineup, 4-2, in a game where Philly generated very little offense apart from two power play goals by Joel Farabee, the Flyers "A" lineup defeated a Washington Capitals "B" squad, 3-1, at the Wells Fargo Center. Philadelphia had the better of the play most of the night, as would be expected, but did not go ahead until the third period.
Aliaksei Protas scored an early power play goal for Washington after Cam Atkinson blocked a Trevor van Riemsdyk point shot attempt and the puck went right to the eventual goal-scorer. The Flyers answered right back with a Claude Giroux one-time goal off a feed from Sean Couturier. In the third period, a hustling connection between Oskar Lindblom and goal-scorer Cam Atkinson proved to be the game-winner for the Flyers. Scott Laughton added an insurance goal on a breakaway.
As with Thursday in Boston, the Flyers and Capitals held a "practice shootout" despite the game ending in regulation. In went nine rounds, with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Joe Snively scoring for Washington. Morgan Frost (round five) notched the only successful attempt for the Flyers.
Martin Jones earned the win in goal, stopping 21 of 22 shots. Ilya Samsonov took the loss for Washington, stopping 28 of 31 shots.
Travis Konecny did not get on the scoreboard on this night but was buzzing all game. Frost did not have a point or shot on goal (his shootout goal, of course, did not count) but had a good game defensively, on the forecheck, in several 50-50 puck battles and in two really nice passes he made: one a stretch pass to Joel Farabeee and the other a feed to an open Ryan Ellis with an open shooting lane (but a late-arriving screen in front).
Saturday's game was feisty at times, especially in the first and third periods. Rasmus Ristolainen helped set a physical tone early with four hits in the opening stanza. In the third period, newcomer Derick Brassard rushed to the defense of Ivan Provorov after the Flyers' defenseman took exception to Garnet Hathaway coming in with a high check attempt.
For more on Saturday's game, see
"Grease is the Word" on the Flyers official website.
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Quick Hits
1) The Flyers have a complete off-day on Sunday. On Monday, they will host the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center.
2) Today in Flyers History: Today marks the 31st anniversary of the events that triggered the league’s “Acton-Peeters Rule”, which prohibits NHL teams from immediately reacquiring a traded player. Back in 1989, the NHL still had an annual waiver draft at the end the preseason. Each NHL team could only protect a certain number of veteran players from the draft, and it was not uncommon for other teams to claim a player or two that the original team would have preferred to keep on the roster.
Flyers general manager found himself in this situation. He did not have room to protect either checking center Keith Acton or backup goaltender Pete Peeters from the waiver draft. He wanted to keep both players without exposing them to the draft. So what could he do?
Clarke’s solution: Find another team willing to stash Acton and Peeters on their own protected list and then return the two players to the Flyers immediately after the waiver draft. He found an agreeable accomplice in Winnipeg Jets general manager Mike Smith.
On Sept. 28, 1989, the Flyers traded Acton and Peeters to Winnipeg for future considerations. Three days later, the Jets returned the two players — who never reported to Winnipeg — to Philadelphia. In exchange, the two sides agreed to cancel the future consideration and the Flyers sent the Jets a 1991 5th-round pick that originally belonged to Toronto.
The draft pick was eventually used by Winnipeg to select Finnish forward Juha Ylönen, who later spent four-plus seasons with the team (which by then had become the Phoenix Coyotes). So at least the club did end up getting something out of the arrangement that was essentially one GM doing another one a favor.
The NHL permitted the trade but made clear it was not happy with what the Flyers had done. All of the parties involved denied that what happened was anything other than a coincidence.
Acton and Peeters claimed they had no advanced knowledge that the initial trade was an on-paper transaction, and they’d end up staying with the Flyers. Peeters said he went back to his home in Alberta for a few days and was preparing to report to the Jets when he learned he’d been traded back to the Flyers. Acton cryptically said he’d been “here and there” in the interim (translation: he never left the Philadelphia area) and was “relieved” to find out he’d been re-obtained by the Flyers.
Clarke said the trade was made in good faith and, while the Flyers didn’t want to lose either player to the waiver draft, he had no idea the team would be able to get them back on the roster. Clarke said that Smith called him a few days after the trade and told the Philadelphia GM that the Jets had re-evaluated their opening night roster plans, and there wasn’t room for Acton or Peeters after all.
Smith told NHL president John Ziegler the same story. Winnipeg claimed there had never been discussion of stashing the players in exchange for a draft pick, and that Acton and Peeters would have stayed with the Jets had there been available spaces when the club determined its opening-night roster.
In permitting the trade reversal to go through, Ziegler declared that there were no rules broken by deal. Additionally, he found direct evidence of a prearrangement by the two teams to reverse the trade right after the waiver draft. However, the NHL soon adopted a new rule that specifically prohibited similar transactions from taking place in the future.
3) Oct. 3 Flyers Alumni birthday: Bruno Gervais (1985).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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