Some Flyers pay their own airfare to get some rest and get around NHL travel ban during the holidays
Some Flyers veterans traveled to Tampa Bay ahead of time for Thursday night's game against the Lightning. The rest of the team, meanwhile, was on a quick turnaround.
TAMPA – While many of the Flyers veterans paid for their airfare and flew to Tampa on Wednesday, about half of the team had a much tougher time Thursday.
The latter group flew from Philadelphia to Tampa and got off their plane late Thursday morning and headed directly to Amalie Arena for their morning skate. The Flyers faced the best-in-the-NHL Lightning on Thursday night, losing, 6-5, in overtime.
How difficult will it be on the players who traveled to Tampa on Thursday and also went through a practice and game on the same day?
“Can I let you know after [the game]?” interim coach Scott Gordon cracked after the morning skate.
Winger Travis Konecny, one of the players who traveled Thursday, downplayed the busy day.
“I did it plenty of times in junior on a bus, so it’s no big deal,” he said before the game.
League rules mandated the players couldn’t practice or travel with the team on Wednesday, the last day of the NHL’s holiday break. So many of the veterans bought their own plane tickets and traveled to Tampa on Wednesday so they would be fresh for the game.
Captain Claude Giroux, who turns 31 next month, said that he was old and that flying and playing the same day wasn’t for him.
“I like to get a good night’s sleep” before a game, he said.
Milestone game
Thursday was the 4,000th game in Flyers history. Their 1,991 wins are the most of any of the 1967-68 expansion teams, and their 1,387 losses are the fewest of those teams. They entered Thursday with 162 more wins and 207 fewer losses than the No. 2 team, St. Louis.
Breakaways
The Phantoms named Kerry Huffman their interim head coach for the rest of the season and appointed Terry Murray as an assistant for the remainder of the 2018-19 campaign. … Flyers prospect Morgan Frost had a hat trick and two assists in Canada’s 14-0 romp Wednesday past Denmark in its opening game in the World Junior Championships in Vancouver. … … Anthony Stolarz is making progress in his rehab, and there is no timetable on when he or Brian Elliott can return. … Samuel Morin traveled with the team and took part in the morning skate. “Soon, they are expecting him to ramp up his on-ice activity, so that’s obviously encouraging,” Gordon said. Morin, who tore his ACL in last season’s AHL playoffs, is expected to be ready to play in February. … Gordon coached Lightning forward Danick Martel with the Phantoms. Martel has played only four games with Tampa and has one assist. “He’s a high-energy guy and has a real passion of the game,” Gordon said. “He finds a way to get his shots, he finds a way to get in on the forecheck, he finds a way to piss people off. For a guy who is his size, he doesn’t play that way.”