PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – It took only 32-seconds for Flyers’ leader Claude Giroux to set the tone on the night. The star forward outright demanded the first shift from his coach, and didn’t disappoint from the opening face-off all the way to a 5-1 series clinching victory over their cross-state rival Pittsburgh Penguins.
 
Claude Giroux has been more than a star player for the Flyers, he’s developed into the leader the team needs at this point in the season with its captain veteran defenseman Chris Pronger out for the season.
 
“Not only leadership but his game tonight was monstrous, it really was,” said Flyers’ coach Peter Laviolette. “When the best player in the world comes up to you and tells you, ‘I don’t know who you’re planning on starting tonight, but I want that first shift’, that says everything you need to know about Claude Giroux right there.”
 
The game began with a face-off between Giroux and Pen’s star Sidney Crosby. In the opening moments Giroux laid out Crosby with a bone-crushing check at center-ice, and then went on to open the scoring on the first shot of the night, with a rising wrister from the top of the circle.
 
Giroux finished the night with a goal, 2-assists, 2-blocked shots, and a plus-2 rating. On the playoffs, he now has 6-goals, 8-assists, to lead the NHL playoffs with 14-points. But he hasn’t just been doing it in the playoffs. Giroux led his team with 93-points in the regular season, good enough for third in the league in that department.
 
Giroux set the tone early, and his team followed suit putting together one of the finest 60-minute efforts this team’s played in a good long while, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.
 
“G’s probably the biggest competitor that I have ever played with,” said winger Scott Hartnell who finished with a goal on the night. “He wants to win so bad. I could tell right when I got to the rink this morning that he was fired up and ready to go. When you hit like that on the first shift, that’s our best guy in here and he played a great game tonight.”
 
The Flyers played a strong team game from the net out, and the determination was clear on the ice from everyone. The Flyers blocked an incredible 40-shots in front of netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, led by rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson with 7-blocks, who also tallied his first NHL playoff goal in only his second playoff game.
 
The young blueliner was strong with and without the puck. He had a total of 21:27 of ice-time, earning the coach’s trust, and played a good amount of big minutes. The Pens attempted to keep regular season points leader Evgeni Malkin away from both Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, the Flyers’ shutdown tandem, and Gustafsson routinely drew the short straw having to match-up with the wiley Malkin on several shifts. The 23-year-old did a great job finishing with a plus-3, 2-hits and a takeaway. Malkin finished with 6-shots and one goal, but not while Gustafsson was on the ice.
 
Along with the shot-blocking the Flyers defense was a force around Bryzgalov, taking 32-hits on the night to keep the porch clear and they didn’t give the Pens much of a chance at rebounds. The Pens outshot the Flyers 31-23, but most of the shots came from the perimeter, and Bryzgalov didn’t have much trouble keeping his team in the game.
 
All in all, the Flyers put up a convincing win to move on to the second round, and being the first team to clinch in the Eastern Conference, they’ll have a bit of time to lick their wounds before meeting their next opponent.
 
Veteran centerman Danny Briere said, “Just like I said, it’s all about sacrificing the body, I’m not going to talk about who was injured and who’s gotten through a lot but I can tell you that there’s a lot of guys that have been in huge [inaudible] just for a spot to be in the line up, but the way everybody sacrificed… I’ve been here for 5 years and it was one of the experiences I might be the most proud of. Sometimes you win a game with 5,6,7 guys that really go above and beyond the call of duty but today I can’t even think of one guy that didn’t do that and that makes me proud.”
 
Many of the Flyers have been nursing injuries for some time, and a short break will do them well. Bryzgalov played through a chip fracture in his right foot, Pavel Kubina was held to only 4:31 of ice-time due to a lower-body injury, and Timonen was seen afterwards limping with a big bag of ice wrapped around his right knee. These in addition to key defensive members missing from the line-up, such as Nik Grossman (concussion), Andrej Meszaros (back surgery), and Marc-Andre Bourdon (concussion), have left the Flyers blueline nearly succumbing to attrition. A few extra days of rest will be huge going into the next round.
 
Since no other Eastern Conference series has been decided there’s no telling who the Flyers will face in the next round, but the way the team’s will to win carried them past the heavily favored Pens, this may just be the favored team to come out of the east.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com
Photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Flyers aren’t a team that takes the easy road, and game four of their Eastern Conference Quarter-Final match-up versus the visiting Penguins was no exception. They could have swept their reeling inter-state rivals, and moved on to the second round, but instead the home-team gave up 10-goals, including four while a man down, and took 16-penalties totaling 64-minutes, on their way to a 10-3 route.
 
Game four marked the first of the series to see the Flyers score the opening goal. Only 0:17 into the opening period, Pens forward Steve Sullivan took a high-sticking minor the Flyers converted into another power play goal on the series. In the first three games, the Flyers had gone a convincing 6-for-10 with the man-advantage.
 
Things continued in the Flyers’ favor, when Art Ross Trophy incumbent Evgeni Malkin took an untimely hooking minor at 1:29 of the first stanza. The Flyers failed to convert on their second early power play opportunity, and upon leaving the box, the star center received the puck in the middle of the ice to score his first goal of the series.
 
After being shutdown brilliantly in the previous three games by rookie centerman Sean Couturier, Malkin seemed to hit his stride on his way to a 3-point night, with 2-goals and a plus-4.
 
The first period saw a total of four lead changes, along with five minors handed out to the Pens and three to the Flyers. The refs made their presence known by cracking down on any infractions. The crackdown was in response to the out of hand play of game three, in which 156 total penalty minutes were handed out along with three Penguin suspensions.
 
After the first period, the Pens were up 4-3, but the Flyers who’d overcome deficits such as this all season, were still within striking distance. After holding a 3-goal lead in game one, the Pens failed to hold on and lost the match 4-3 in overtime. This time, the first period saw the end of the Flyers scoring.
 
Just 3:07 into the second period, with Claude Giroux in the box for high-sticking, Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov gave up his fifth goal of the night on only 18-shots. He’d been looking shaky in net since game three, and the fifth goal was his final shot taken of the night. Flyers’ coach Peter Laviolette saw a need for change, and sent backup Sergei Bobrovsky in for Bryzgalov.
 
“Our team needs to be better,” Laviolette said politically, when asked if he has been satisfied with his goaltending. “That is, everybody’s performance has to be better than what we do. It was an off game for us. We were not as sharp as we need to be and that was obvious.
 
“I said it before about Bryz. The first few games in Pittsburgh, he made spectacular saves. But when you put it cumulative together and tie everything together, it makes it a little more difficult to answer [if I’m satisfied with goaltending] with a yes or a no.”
 
Nothing would change after the goalie switch, and a cold Bobrovsky would allow 5-goals on 18-shots, before the night was over.
 
Even though the goaltending wasn’t great, the troubles couldn’t be lumped onto the netminders alone. The Flyers defense, much like the Pens defense a game ago was in shambles. They let the Pens run all over the offensive zone, and did little with their own transitions. The Pens shut things down with their own defense, and didn’t allow many chances for the Orange and Black.
 
“At that point, Bryz needed to come out,” Laviolette said. “Generally speaking, we all need to be better at what we do. But he needed to come out of that situation. So, I changed it up, tried to shake the tree a little bit.”
 
On top of it all, Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury appeared to be getting his confidence back, and made several astonishing saves in close. After giving up three power play goals on 11-shots in the first, he was perfect stopping all 14-shots he faced in the final two periods.
 
One of the big issues when facing the Pens is their centermen. Most teams can stop one, maybe even two, but the Pens bring three centers–Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal, who can each bring offense when needed. In the first three games of the series, the Pens trifecta at center were held to a combined 4-goals, 9-assists, for 13-points, with Malkin held to only 4-assists.
 
The latest match was completely different. The Pen’s centermen combined for 6-goals, 3-assists, for 9-points. None of them were kept off the board, and 6’4” shutdown specialist Staal led the way with a hat-trick.
 
Although the wheels came off the bus early for the Flyers, and it seemed nothing went right, the problems came on special teams. All three of the Flyers goals were scored while on the red-hot man-advantage, which went 3-for-5 on the night. But the Flyers gave up 9-power plays, and the Pens capitalized on four. Previously, the Flyers penalty kill was outstanding, killing 9-of-12, and scoring 3-short-handed goals. The kill was at times dominant, and the short-handed goals were deflating to the Pens.
 
Wednesday’s affair was the complete opposite, seeing the Flyers running around without discipline, giving up juicy rebounds, and time and space to their opposition. They looked like a team that didn’t come ready to complete a sweep.
 
Now they’ll have to go back to Pittsburgh for game-5, and fourth-line middle-weight Zac Rinaldo will likely be a casualty of a Brendan Shanahan suspension due to a late head-shot he threw at a kneeling Zbynek Michalek in the second period. The Flyers do have options though. Power winger James van Riemsdyk, after recovering from a broken foot, has been skating with the team, along with tough-guy Tom Sestito.
 
The Flyers are still in the driver’s seat, and can finish things off at the Consol Energy Center this Friday, where they have a record of 7-1 this season, but they’ll need to sure up their defense, and get better goaltending from Bryzgalov.
 
“We’re going to find out what kind of team we are, how we are built,” Flyers’ forward Jaromir Jagr said. “If we are the team like we think we are, we’re going to have to respond the next game.”
 
It is a scary thought that Malkin, Crosby, Staal and Fleury seemed to have gotten their games together, and no one should rule the Pens out. Many predicted them to win this series, and shouldn’t be counted out. The Flyers will need to shake off this miserable loss, and move on.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com
Photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
 

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers, who needed one-point to clinch the conference, skated into South Philly, and easily beat the Flyers 5-3. This isn’t news. The Flyers are 0-6 versus the Rangers this season, including a 2-1 loss across the street at Citizens Bank Park in this season’s Winter Classic.
 
But the Rangers weren’t the story. The Flyers seemed to still be reeling from this past Sunday’s emotion filled affair with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who they’ll see one more time during the regular season, and definitely see at least four more times in the first round of the playoffs. It’s just a matter of whose building they’ll start in.
 
Tuesday night, the Pens beat the second place Boston Bruins, 5-3, to take a three-point lead in the standings over the Flyers. Now it comes down to the Pens losing to the Rangers on Thursday, the Flyers winning against the desperate Sabres the same night, and then the Flyers taking the final win versus the Pens at the Consol Energy Center this Saturday, where they’ve had a great deal of luck this season, going 2-0 there.
 
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Rangers did beat the Pens on Thursday, as the Rangers have been tough lately, winning three of their last four, and seven of their last ten. However, the Pens hold a 3-2 record versus the Broadway Blueshirts, including a 1-1 record at The Garden, where Thursday’s game will be played.
 
The Pens, on the other hand, since ending their 11-game winning streak from February 21 to March 17, have gone 4-4-1 in their last 9-games. They’ve stumbled a bit down the stretch of the season dealing with a few keys changes, such as an injury to Kris Letang, and the re-insertion of Sidney Crosby into the lineup, since recovering from post-concussion syndrome.
 
The Flyers need the Pens to drop Thursday’s game to the Rangers to make their final regular season meeting on Saturday mean more than just a message sending match-up for the playoffs, which will begin on April 11.
 
The Flyers are dealing with their own list of injuries that just continues to mount. They’re already missing their captain Chris Pronger for the season and James van Riemsdyk with a broken foot, until at least the beginning of the first round of the playoffs. But their netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, who was named the NHL’s first star for the month of March, is dealing with a chip fracture in his right foot. He missed a total of three-games, and returned a bit rusty versus the Rangers, allowing 5-goals on 24-shots. He was hesitant in the post-game interview to reveal anything concerning his foot, but the word rusty could be a synonym for the word painful in this case, as he’s dealing with an injury that should keep him out of the lineup for at least a couple weeks.
 
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette wouldn’t fault his goaltender on giving up 5-talleys in his return to the net, stating he thought his team’s defense was a little loose in the first period. That could be attributed to the loss of two other main-stay defenseman, Andrej Meszaros for lower-back surgery and Nik Grossmann, also from a lower-body injury he sustained in Sunday’s match against the Pens. There’s no word when Meszaros could return, but Grossmann should only be out 7-10 days, returning him to the lineup just in time for the first round of the playoffs.
 
The Flyers have set a trend for giving away the lead in the first period. After Tuesday’s loss, they’ve given up a total of 32 2-goal first period leads this season. That’s a remarkable statistic, and one that doesn’t typically lead to a winning season, but the Flyers seem like coming from behind is the only way they like to play.
 
“I don’t know what we’ve got to do,” Flyers forward Claude Giroux said “Drink one more cup of coffee? I don’t know. We’ve got to find a way to get a better start.”
 
They put 40 shots on Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist trying to come back from being down 4-0 and 5-1, scoring twice in the second period and once in the third. In the final 40-minutes the Flyers looked like the better of the two teams, but the Rangers stingy defense, who rank sixth in the league in average shots allowed per game, at 27.9 kept the Flyers from any sustained pressure. The Rangers are also ranked third in the league in least goals allowed at 173 and goals-allowed-per-game at 2.16.
 
The Ranger have proven to be a tough defensive team this season, and lead the league in hits with 2,378 and they’re sixth in the league in blocked-shots with 656. The Rangers defense took away time and space from the Flyers forwards, and capitalized on their chances, but the Flyers never stopped coming. When the Ranger’s defense failed this season’s Vezina Trophy favorite Lundqvist had all the answers. Lundqvist now has a 1.93 goals against average, a .931 save percentage, and 8-shutouts in 61-games this season that includes 39-wins.
 
If the Flyers want to take the fourth seed for the playoffs and have a better chance to move into the second round, they’ll need to tighten things up earlier than the second period, as well as get some healthy bodies back into the lineup.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com
Photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – In a game versus a desperate Capitals team clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Flyers showed grit by overcoming an early deficit and walking away with a 2-1 shootout win at the Wells Fargo Center, Thursday night. Netminder Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 30-of-31 shots, to give his team a chance to win, and their late game pressure bodes well for the playoff push.
 
Flyers have now allowed the first goal in 15 of their last 20 games. The first goal of this one, came just 26-seconds into the game, and off the first shot of the game.
 
Shutdown defenseman Braydon Coburn, who’s been dominant lately, failed to get a stick on the puck to clear, and it wound up on the stick of number-8 Alex Ovechkin. The former “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner has been having a tough time scoring in the past two seasons, but he didn’t miss on this shot from the slot to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
When asked about his team’s slow stars of late, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, said, “They got a goal on the first shift. I thought our guys play really hard in the first period.”
 
Laviolette went on to deny any issues there may be with the tough starts lately. However, star winger Jaromir Jagr, for the second game in a few weeks joked that the team should start backup Sergei Bobrovsky in net for the opening shot, before bringing in Bryzgalov.
Laviolette offered no comment to Jagr’s remarks.
 
One thing the Flyers do have going right now, even though he’s given up some early goals, has been their goaltender Bryzgalov. He’s put up some strong numbers recently, and was named the NHL’s first star of the week two weeks in a row, for his shutout streak of 249:43, which set a Flyers record, including three consecutive games with a shutout. His mark eclipsed that set by former Flyer goaltender, John Vanbiesbrouck set in 1999.
 
Laviolette said, “Ya, I mean, I think [Bryzgalov] has done a tremendous job for us. And I think shootouts is part of that. It goes back to that Calgary game. I don’t know how long ago it was. Maybe forty days ago. Ya, he came up. we got big points out of there. He started to catch fire.”
 
The Calgary game occurred on February 25, and was a huge shootout win for Bryzgalov, who stopped 4-of-5 shots. They Flyers followed that game up with a loss to San Jose, but they from March 1, the team went on a 5-game winning streak, including the three shutouts and a shootout win.
 
A big part of Bryzgalov’s success has to be attributed to the play of his defense, most importantly, the late season pickup of Nik Grossmann, who finished the game with 6-hits and 1-blocked shot in 20:10 of ice time. He and his partner Coburn were a force on defense, smothering the Caps top line in all but the first shift of the game.
 
Another player who had a big game was super-star Claude Giroux, who went 9-for-13 in the face-off circle, had 5-hits, 3-blocked shots, and the game tying goal off of a spectacular feed from linemate Jagr, who fed him up the middle of the ice to beat a staggering Caps defenseman, and slide the puck onto an open net as Caps goaltender, Braden Holtby came out to challenge.
 
Right now, the Flyers have a strong team churning towards the post-season. The Penguins and Rangers continue to win, so it’s unlikely they’ll make up any ground in the Eastern Conference race. They could surpass the Penguins to take home-ice advantage in the first round if all goes well, but either way, the first round will be a battle of Pennsylvania unless the wheels fall off the bus for either team.
 
The Penguins will have a decided advantage over the Flyers, with a healthy Sydney Crosby, a strong roster that’s been winning, and a team that’s been together much longer. The Flyers will have a roster of 10-12 new faces from last season, depending on player health, that includes three rookies.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com
Photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Flyers spent the first half of the season winning despite mediocre play from their recently signed netminder, Ilya Bryzgalov. That, in addition to the injury bug, caught up to them by mid-January, and for about a month and a half, the Flyers were unable to win back-to-back games, due to not being able to put together the entire package of offense, defense and goaltending for sixty minutes. However, as of March 1, everything changed, as Bryzgalov got his game back, and the team won five-straight including three shutouts.
 
Bryzgalov’s statement about being lost in the woods looked likely to be the epitaph on his career with the Flyers. His repeated failure in the shootout, and being susceptible to at least one soft goal a game had earned him the ire of the Philadelphia faithful. There were disputes with the media, and the front office gave Bryzgalov strict orders on how much he could speak, limiting his unusual and blunt comments, and as the trade deadline approached, there were more than a few whispers that Flyers GM should be looking for a goaltender to fill the gap.
 
But Holmgren’s been doing this a long time, and it wasn’t a goaltender he was after. After all, he’d spent $51 million over the summer securing the best netminder on the free agent market. With the loss of Chris Pronger, and his team’s weak play in front of the net, he set his priorities on defense.
 
On February 16, Holmgren acquired defenseman Nik Grossmann from Dallas, in exchange from draft picks. On February 19, he went on a acquired Pavel Kubina from Tampa bay in exchange for two draft picks, and Adirondack Phantoms centerman Jon Kalinski.
 
Stay at home defender, Grossmann, stands 6’4” and weighs in at 230-pounds. He’s a defensive defenseman, who’s among the top 30 NHL players in shots blocked. He’s not strong with the puck, but he is without it. With Dallas he averaged just over 18-minutes a game, and was a main-stay on the penalty kill.
 
Kubina offers a bit more of an offensive edge. He’s been a smooth skating puck carrier, with a cannon for a shot, and he’s scored 40-plus points twice as an NHLer. He’s also 6’4” and weighs 258-pounds, and he has a Stanley Cup with Tampa in the 2003-2004 season.
 
With the two additions, the Flyers had acquired two sizable defenders to block shots and clear the front around Bryzgalov. And finally, on March 1, the team began a five game winning streak that included three shutouts, and a spectacular shootout win. There was one hiccup in an uninspired match against the Devils in New Jersey, in which the Flyers lost 4-1 with Sergei Bobrovsky trying desperately to keep his team in it.
 
Luckily, with Bryzgalov back in the net, in a home-and-home versus the Devils at the Wells Fargo Center, they got themselves back on the winning track with another shutout, 3-0. They limited the Devils to only 17 shots all game, including allowing only three in the final period, as the Devils tried to press.
 
Bryzgalov was getting his swagger back, and he’s made a number of big saves, but he’s had a great amount of help in front, by his new shutdown pair of Grossmann and Braydon Coburn. Since coming over from Dallas, where Grossmann averaged just over 18-minutes, he’s averaged just over 22-minutes since coming to Philadelphia.
 
The Flyers have been bitten by the injury bug on defense more so than any other team, as along with Pronger, ironman Kimmo Timonen missed a total of five games due to a back injury, and Andrej Meszaros has been out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury that still has him out-indefinitely.
 
Even with the injuries, the Flyers have gotten it done. The added size and strength on defense has given their goaltender the time and space to get his game back, and it’s given the Flyers the ability to compete on any given night. Going down the stretch, they’ll be a tough team to beat.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Flyers won their third straight versus the visiting Red Wings on a historic night for the Orange and Black. Despite a number of penalties and more additions to the injuries list, they received outstanding goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov and a solid team effort in the 3-2 win. But with the additional injuries, was it all worth it?
 
The night started with the ice covered in the number-2, and the name Howe, as the Philadelphia Flyer’s organization added another number to the rafters. Mark Howe, the smooth skating defenseman – and arguably the best defenseman in Flyers history – had his number-2 retired in front of the Wells Fargo fans, as well as his own family which included another hockey great, Gordie Howe. Howe, a former Flyer and Red Wing gave a brief speech in front of the fans, and was received warmly before the banner was raised, and the game quickly began just as he had wanted.
 
The Flyers entered the game having won two in a row for the first time since December 15, 2011, and just 4:00 minutes into the first period, on the Red Wings first shot of the game, center Henrik Zetterberg made it 1-0. In the last 11-games, the Flyers have given up the first goal 10-times, the only game they didn’t was the shutout versus the Capitals on Sunday.
 
A big part of the Flyers recent swing has been the improved play of Mr. Universe, Bryzgalov. After his 9-year, free-agent signing in the off season to fill the Flyers void in net, the Russian netminder seems to finally have found his groove. Against the Red Wings, he was clearly in the zone stopping a total of 37-of-39 shots, including some tense moments in the closing seconds of the game.
 
The Flyers already without captain Chris Pronger on defense, Kimmo Timonen and Andrej Meszaros are still out of the lineup, so the Flyers have a bottom pairing of light-weight rookie puck-mover Erik Gustafsson and the aging stay-at-home defender Andreas Lilja. While the two were paired together in limited usage, the Red Wings tried to slip their top forwards onto the ice to take advantage of the Flyers bottom pairing. There were a few break downs for the duo, but Bryzgalov stayed strong throughout.
 
In such a positive showing for the Flyers coming off of a skid, there were a few hiccups. With 12:23 left in the second period, Niklas Kronwall caught Jake Voracek with a shoulder to the head, and took the Czech winger down hard. Voracek couldn’t regain his feet after the hit, and needed to leave the game. Although the head was the principle point of contact, no penalty was assessed to Kronwall.
 
After the hit, the Flyers were noticeably agitated. Immediately, Zac Rinaldo had a few words for a Red Wing player, and received a minor penalty for misconduct. Scott Hartnell, recent All Star and NHL super pest, also received a roughing call in the second and a goalie interference call in the third. The moment he stepped out of the box, the Red Wings scored to make it a one-goal game.
 
Even though they gave up the goal just after the penalty ended, they Flyers twenty-first ranked penalty kill did a great job, even scoring the game winning goal in the second while short-handed.
 
The shortie came as Red Wings coughed up the puck to the NHL’s third ranked points leader Claude Giroux, who skated in on Red Wing’s goalie Joey MacDonald, fired a shot off his pads that gave Max Talbot a rebound for his 18-goal of the season. The assist was Giroux’s second point of the night.
 
With more than half the third period remaining the Flyers needed to repel a strong Detroit attack, and Bryzgalov was the best player on the ice. He turned away a number of shots late in the game. The first period belonged to the Flyers, as they out-shot their opponent 12-2 afterwards. But by the end of the game, the shot totals would completely switch, as the Flyers were out shot by the visitors 39-23.
 
With an injury list that already includes Pronger, James van Riemsdyk, Timonen and Meszaros, the Flyers also lost Jaromir Jagr at some point in the second. It’s likely Voracek will be lost for at least a short time, due to the head collision with Kronwall, and Giroux was also nursing wrist injuries that prevented him from taking many faceoffs. The Flyers are banged up, and need to get healthy for the final push this season.
 
Contact Chuck.Tay@prohockeynews.com
Photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com