The Flyers have been battling, and trying to overcome adversity with injuries for the past month and a half or so. Each time a player comes back from IR (Injured Reserve), another one seems to hit the shelf. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, as the young phenom Carter Hart returns from his abdominal strain injury.
It’s a tall task for the orange and black to overcome this type of adversity, in a positive manner night in and night out. They are overcoming long-term injuries/diagnosis sustained to Nolan Patrick, Samuel Morin, and Oskar Lindblom. One can only imagine how tough it is to overcome these injuries throughout the course of the season.
However, the show still goes on. The Flyers were extra cautious with Hart for good reason, as it’s better to be safe, rather than sorry with an abdominal injury (Let’s not forget Brian Elliott’s core injury two years ago).
In Hart’s place, an all familiar face in Alex Lyon got the call. Lyon knew what was ahead of him for this upcoming season. He knew that there was a log jam at the Goaltending position. Even with the log jam, Lyon still remained positive that he would be a force to be reckoned with, of course, with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The 27-year-old netminder in Lyon has produced solid numbers this season for the Phantoms, as he has compiled a 2.56 GAA, and a .916 Save Percentage in 23 games played. Is he flashy? No, but Lyon gets the job done, and that’s one main reason he stays positive. Lyon told me at training camp:
“I’m trying to keep the same mindset as always, which is trying to work as hard as you can, stop as many pucks as you can. When you keep it simple like that good things happen.“
Lyon filled in nicely in the 6-3 victory against the Colorado Avalanche, as he made 28 saves with a valiant effort, “If they want me to start I’ll start,” Lyon told at practice a last week, “If they want me to sit on the bench, I’ll sit on the bench.”
With Hart’s return, Lyon heads back to Lehigh. Both of these young men are class acts, and do whatever the coaching staff asks of them. Hart is too important to this club, and let’s hope he is able to propels this young Flyers club into the playoffs.
Lines and D pairings are the same as Saturday night at morning skate today. Great to see Farabee skating with Patrick again, as well.
G-Coots-Voracek
Laughton-Hayes-Konecny
JVR-Frost-Pitlick
Raffl-Bunnaman-NAK
Provorov-Niskanen
Sanheim-Myers
Hagg-Braun
Hart gets the start tonight. He’s in the starters net at morning skate.
