The Olympic break is officially here. A break from hockey for most players, it is definitely welcomed relief for the Flyers. The Flyers sit fifth in the conference, 7 points behind Carolina and 3 points behind division leading Rangers. Really not a bad place for a team with 287 man games missed to injuries. This wouldn’t bug me much except the Flyers have just been awful as of late. With the talent they are missing the Flyers need to play a high energy, hard hitting, desperate style of game. For the most part they have only done this in the second half of games when already down by multiple goals.
As a review the Flyers going to the Olympics are…
Playing for the United States are Mike Knuble, Derian Hatcher and Robert Esche.
Playing for Canada is Simon Gagne.
Playing for Finland is Antero Niittymaki.
Playing for Slovakia is Michal Handzus.
Players that were selected but decided to not go include…
For Finland Sami Kapanen and Joni Pitkanen.
For Sweden Kim Johnsson.
Kapanen has been playing with a shoulder and knee that isn’t %100 he has decided to rest them. Pitkanen hasn’t fully recovered from his sports hernia surgery he is figured to rest and continue rehab. Johnsson initially withdrew because his wife will soon be expecting. Johnsson has been out for over two weeks with post concussion symptoms.
Branko Radivojevic was selected for the Slovakia Taxi Squad, but wouldn’t be available anyway with an ankle sprain.
And then there is Peter Forsberg. Forsberg was selected for Team Sweden and he is yet to announce whether he will play or not.
He has missed 16 games so far this year with continuing groin injuries. Looking at his injuries, how much time he has missed and how many games he was back before reinjurying his groin again, it is apparent that he will not be healthy for the Olympics. Even he is healthy enough to play a game or two he will just end up injuring it again. All last week Forsberg continued to put off his decision. He was going to see how it felt Thursday, then again on Friday, then see after a MRI he was suppose to have over the weekend. Now it’s Monday and still no news on his decision. It was reported over the weekend that a Swedish website stated Forsberg would travel to the Olympics and play in the medal rounds if he was healthy, which is opposite of what he has been saying over here. The games start this Wednesday the 15, so some sort of announcement should be forthcoming.
The Flyers have reassigned Ryan Ready, Pat Kavanagh and Alexandre Picard to the Phantoms. Unlike the NHL the AHL does not break for the Olympics. The AHL schedule continues as normal.