HOCKEY IS BACK!!!! Like most of you this writer has not known what to do with himself without a Flyers game to either watch or attend in close to five months now; (seeing that the Flyers last played a game on March 10 th of this year which was a 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins). Now I don’t know about you but I have missed attending a game and going to get my fix of those GIANT slices of Lorenzo and Sons Pizza, a side of Chickie’s and Pete’s famous crab fries and a nice tall cold can Labatt Blue to wash it down. But with this ongoing pandemic we will have to wait a bit longer or adapt (acquire those beloved items elsewhere) to be able indulged in these treats while watching a game from home seeing that the NHL has been forced
to find a new way to provide the players and coaches alike a safe environment in which to play in. Leading the way in this effort has been our “favorite guy” (pure sarcasm) NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman who has come up with the use of two hub cities (or bubbles) to be able to bring the fans their long awaited fix of some playoff hockey.
As the teams start to arrive at what will be their new home for the duration of the playoffs the NHL has seemed to try and bring in as much of home to their accommodations as possible. Placing family photos in the players rooms before they arrived etc. This means a lot to some members of the Flyers seeing that the team is loaded with new dads. With James van Riemsdyk and his wife having a baby girl in May and Center Sean Couturier and his wife having a baby girl as well just a few short days ago. One positive thing from this bubble hockey life is these new dad’s along with the rest of the Flyers will be able to get plenty of sleep and focus solely on
the task at hand winning Lord Stanley’s Cup.
And what better way to start out this never before summer playoff push than to have their first game in this round robin seating exhibition then to face the Flyers biggest rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. When Flyers Head Coach Alain Vigneault (AV) was recently asked about the following he had this to say:
How much of the round robin is getting the team ready and trying to gain in seeding?
“There’s that fine balance in between both. The worst we could be is fourth, but we do have the opportunity to improve. We, as a staff, a team and an organization, have to measure what’s the best thing for us right now. Is it to be higher seed or is it to prepare our team and prepare our players the best way that we can in this situation. I think we are going to find that balance. Obviously right now, first and foremost on my mind, we got some good internal competition within our group right now for different roles, different spots on the team. We’ve got to sort that out. At the same time, guys haven’t played for almost five months here. They’ve got to get their rhythm. They’ve got to get their timing on the ice. We got to get back to hopefully as close as to where we were prior to when we were stopped from playing. We’ll balance that out. We’ll sort out the decisions we have to make. We’re going to do the big picture here moving forward.”
Then Vigneault went on to mention that during the game against Pittsburgh he has decided that,“Both goaltenders are going to split the game. Carter’s going to start and Brian will finish. I think Carter will go the first two periods and Brian will go the last period.”
To go along with that AV said that he looks to have defenseman Mark Friedman, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Egor Zamula in the lineup against the Penguins; since their allowed to dress seven defensemen for the exhibition.
Regardless of the fact that some players might be a little rusty after the long layoff this latest addition of the Keystone State rivalry is sure to be an exciting one, not to mention a way for the hockey world to begin to bring some sense of normalcy back during this most arduous of times.
