Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
You really need to rely on your own eyes (or the Flyers Nitty Gritty) to get a good idea of what is going on with the Philadelphia Flyers this season. It seems you are not going to get much information out of the organization about almost everything until they can no longer avoid addressing a situation. If you’re part of the faithful you probably started to get the feeling months ago that there was maybe more to Cam Atkinson’s recovery than we were being told. People have been asking for a while now if Atkinson’s injury was turning into another Ryan Ellis situation. We were told that it was wrong to “jump to conclusions”. When you do not give people enough information what they usually will do is fill in the blanks and jump to conclusions. This weekend was full of rumors and speculation and today we learn that he is going under the knife on Wednesday for neck surgery and will be out for the rest of the season. …ok.
Towards the end of last season when we were still wondering about Ryan Ellis and his chances of returning in 2022 the organization was not saying much publicly about his progress. So nothing definitive was being offered as far as a timeline but the arena, without any fanfare, started giving away Ryan Ellis Chia Heads on the way out after games. (This sounds like one of my jokes but it is not). A neighbor gave me one of the Chia Heads because they know I love hockey and they were allowed to take as many as they could carry. That is what I mean about believing your own eyes over what is publicly being said, or not said, by the organization. Fans: Is Ryan Ellis coming back? Organization: Probably, but we gotta dump these Chia Heads in a hurry while we still can.
Here are some take-aways from practice today: Kevin Hayes was on the ice and practicing in most of his regular situations after being benched then scratched last week. Hayes said “I don’t think I should have been benched”. Head Coach John Tortorella said that there is no disconnect between him and Hayes. A discerning eye may perceive a bit of a disconnect there. Practice was high energy and longer than usual, Tortorella was very animated and kept the pace moving fast throughout the session. Today was not about skating laps or conditioning it was all about drills, drills, and more drills.
Wade Allison practiced without any restrictions and will possibly play tomorrow night when the Flyers host the Columbus Blue Jackets. Wade looked like himself out there, keeping up and not wearing out for the duration. In fact he was part of a small group of players who were among the last to leave the ice this morning. It’s interesting to see who sticks around to work on their game after the coach and his staff are gone. Today it was Allison along with Morgan Frost, Travis Sanheim, and Owen Tippett.
Felix Sandstrom was the very last Flyer on the ice, practicing his lateral movements and skating laps long after the rest of the team had headed off to the locker room. There are back-to-back games at the end of this week so Sandstrom will most likely get one of those starts.
