The Flyers defensive pairing of Philippe Myers and Travis Sanheim was superb throughout the course of the 2019-20 season and playoffs. This young pairing isn’t super new to Flyers fans, as they were seen shutting teams down on the blue line before the pause. Fortunately, they picked up where they left off in the playoffs, and played some good playoff hockey for the Flyers at times.
For Myers, he made his playoff debut and tallied a beautiful snipe in his first playoff game against the Boston Bruins in the Round-Robin Tournament. He skates like the wind, and when he gets caught in his own deep he can catch up to any player. Simply put, his skating a superb, as well as, his overall hockey sense.
Myers was trusted by Head Coach Alain Vigneault as he continued to play top lines, and was trusted in late game situations. This could be one reason for him being enthused with so much confidence. His gap control is impeccable, as he continues to take away space from his opponents. This puts more pressure on his opponents, thus forcing them into making uncharacteristic mistakes, “He’s big,” Myers said of Sanheim following a playoff game, “He can skate. I have full confidence when I’m out there with him.”
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The young 23-ywar-old in Myers and Sanheim have played together previously in the AHL, so they are very familiar with one another. It should come as no shock that this pairing has rocked in the early going of the playoffs. At the end of the day we are lucky that Myers is a Philadelphia Flyer, as he was invited to the Calgary Flames Developmental Camp in 2015 following the 2015 NHL Draft.
The Flyers Blue line appear to have stability on the blue line, and a huge thank you goes out to the Calgary Flames for this. Losing Matt Niskanen early to retirement hurts, but having a young Dman that is hungry to showcase his skills as a top pairing defender helps in a big way. The sky is the limit for Myers.
Thank Ron Hextall for Phillippe Myers. And Yagur Zamula too. Hextall put this pieces together to create this great young team, just as he said he would when he arrived to replace Paul Holmgren. Isn’t it ironic that Holmgren fired Hextall just as Hextall’s team was about to blossom into a winner? Gregg Lorenz, Bucks County