Photo Credit: Ricky Brown
Both the Flyers and Keith Yandle made history on the same night, ironically enough. The Flyers made history for the wrong reasons, while Yandle tied Doug Jarvis’s record of consecutive games played with 964. It’s an iron Man streak that is really impressive, especially with the challenges that players throughout the league have had to endure with Covid Protocol’s and what not.
The Flyers, unfortunately, lost their 12th straight game last night, which ties the record for the franchise’s longest losing streak in history. It’s absolutely embarrassing that this team also endured a 10 game losing streak earlier in the season, which eventually led to the dismissal of former Head Coach Alain Vigneault, “We did not lack energy in this game,” Mike Yeo said. “That’s one thing we didn’t lack. Maybe some execution at times, but to keep Benn, Seguin, all those guys for 57 minutes to one goal, that’s one thing we didn’t lack. Guys were blocking shots. We were hitting. We were physical. I think that the last thing that I want to do is sit here and say that it’s okay that we lost a hockey game. That’s for sure. None of us can accept this. But there is a certain reality to it and we’ve got eight guys out of the lineup.”
“Obviously we’re feeling the effects of that,” Yeo continued. “Guys like G are forced to take on heavier matchups. We’re asking young kids to come in and play in hard matchups and normally young kids would come in and play with vets. Right now they don’t have that opportunity, so we’re asking an awful lot of everybody. But one thing we didn’t lack tonight was energy. The work ethic was there. Again, maybe we didn’t create enough offense, but guys battled hard.”
Here is another stat for Flyers fans. Last night the Dallas Stars scored first goal of the game, unfortunately the Flyers are 2-19-3 now when they allow the first goal. However, the early deficit did not derail the Flyers, and that has been a common theme for the past few games. Unfortunately, the Flyers are having trouble scoring goals or pulling even in the third period with teams that they’re actually playing better than (Asides from the Buffalo Sabres).
“I thought we played a pretty solid game, and, like previous games, we’re just not able to find ways to score more than two goals,” Ivan Provorov said. “I think we just have to come out with the same mentality tomorrow. Try to put some more pucks on net, maybe a little more traffic. We’ll get out of this eventually. Hopefully, it’s going to be tomorrow.”
Keith Yandle
“I remember Ray Whitney said to me when I was young, as long as there’s an NHL symbol on your jersey, that means you’re having a good day,” Yandle said following practice yesterday. “I haven’t taken that for granted.”
Yandle is from Milton, MA, and is good friends with Kevin Hayes. He has also played under former Head Coach Alain Vigneault. The writing was on the wall for Yandle to not only fit in right away, but break the iron man record held by Doug Jarvis with 964 consecutive games played, a record that has stood since 1987.
Yandle will have lots of family in attendance tonight as he becomes the new Iron Man in the NHL, as Yandle said post-game that his dad was in attendance last night. He also said his wife, kids, mom, dad, brother and sister will be in attendance tonight as they face the New York Islanders.
“To be honest, it wasn’t something that I expected. Never really thought about it, and then I saw the guys cheering for me, standing up with all the fans. It meant a lot for me. It’s one of those things that your teammates, the guys you play with, the guys you play against… When they congratulate you, tell you that they’re proud of you and stuff like that, it hits home. It means a lot. It’s definitely a nice thing.” – Keith Yandle on the ovation
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Flyers Notes:
Carter Hart stopped 33 shots on 35 shots faced last night, which was good enough for a .943 Save Percentage.
Flyers prospect Ivan Fedotov was named as a goalie for the Russian hockey team at the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. Fedotov becomes the fourth player throughout the Flyers organization to be selected for the upcoming Olympics (Fedotov, Noah Cates, Pat Nagle, Matej Tomek).
