On Reese, Bryzgalov and Granqvist

The relationship between a goaltender and his goalie coach is one of the most unique ones in professional sports. As the most specialized of the assistant coach roles on a team, goaltending coaches provide the most individualized attention to the players they work with during the season. The job is partially one of diagnosing and correcting mechanical flaws and

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Unrestricted free agent enforcer Jody Shelley has retired at age 37 to accept an off-ice position in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Shelley will be doing some broadcasting work for the Blue Jackets in addition to serving as a community ambassador.

When the Flyers signed Shelley in the 2010 offseason, the club indisputably overpaid to lure the vetera

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Friday Quick Hits

* In Thursday’s action at the World Junior Championship Evaluation camp in Lake Placid, NY, Canada hammered Sweden, 7-3, while Team USA bounced back from a listless shutout loss to the Swedes the previous day to defeat Finland via shootout, 4-3.

Anthony Stolarz went the distance in goal for the Americans, stopping 34 of 37 shots in regulation and overtime. In the shootout,

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Thursday Quick Hits

* Yesterday morning, I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the first episode of “Flight Plan”. The program gave a glimpse into the last stages of the process involved in coming up with final internal rankings before the NHL Draft. The program specifically focused on a discussion amongst Flyers scouts around where eventual first-round pick Samuel Morin should be ranked

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Laviolette vs. Hitchcock

Yesterday’s Flyers Team of the 2000s poll to select a head coach figured to be a two-horse race between current coach Peter Laviolette and former bench boss Ken Hitchcock. Indeed it was, but Laviolette ended up winning by a substantial margin, collecting roughly 50 percent of the votes to Hitchcock’s 40 percent among 1,900-plus voters. John Stevens finished a distant t

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‘Flight Plan’ Debuts Tonight

Starting this season, the Flyers’ official site will launch a behind-the-scenes program called “Flight Plan,” which promises to provide a level of access to the team’s hockey operations — players, coaches, and even the front office — that were traditionally off-limits. Similar themes have been been explored recently in comparable Webisode shows and in television s

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WJC Evaluation Camp Update

Flyers prospects Anthony Stolarz and Robert Hägg were in action yesterday at the World Junior Championship evaluation camp tournament opening games in Lake Placid, NY. Today, Stolarz’s Team USA Blue squad faces off against Hägg and the rest of Team Sweden.

In yesterday’s opener, Sweden downed Team USA White by a 4-2 count. Hägg did not figure in any of the scori

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LeClair vs. Kerr

The enduring popularity among Flyers fans of Legion of Doom left winger John LeClair was evident yesterday in readers’ voting tallies in selecting the top six wingers for the Flyers Team of the 2000s series on HockeyBuzz. LeClair finished second in the voting to Simon Gagne, garnering a vote among 87 percent of the 1,600-plus voters.

I expected LeClair to get one of the top

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2013 World Junior Championship Evaluation Tournament Schedule

The following is the setup for the 2013 World Junior Championship tournament in Lake Placid, NY. All times are listed in EDT, and participating Flyers prospects are noted in parenthesis in their respective teams’ first games. For Team USA, the roster is divided into two different squads, White and Blue, which will be condensed into

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Friday Quick Hits

* Nearly every year at training camp and during the preseason, there is at least one player who makes a surprise push for an opening night roster spot. For instance, two years ago, Harry Zolnierczyk ended up being one of the final cuts before the start of the season and wound up dressing in 37 regular season games for the Flyers. No one would have predicted that in August.

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