After last night's debacle against the Penguins and all-around inconsistent play over the first five games of the regular season, the Flyers have four days to start cleaning up the various areas on their game that are out in synch in the early going of the 2010-11 season.
In tomorrow's blog, I will look at the key areas the club needs to shore up as they begin preparations for a stretch of four games in six nights.
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Throughout the season, I will be writing a series of articles for the Flyers' official Web site on the hockey history of the Wells Fargo (F/K/A Wachovia, First Union and CoreStates) Center. The 2010-11 campaign marks the start of the 15th anniversary season for the arena.
The first article in the series, published today, looks back at the
1996 World Cup of Hockey. The tournament marked the official inauguration of the arena, and proved to be the second greatest accomplishment for USA Hockey after the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
Originally, the article looked at all three tournament games played in Philadelphia -- a Team USA-Team Canada game in the preliminary round, Team Canada vs. Team Sweden in the semifinals and Game one of the best-of-three finals between USA and Canada. The middle game was cut from the article due to space constraints, but was a real thriller in its right.
It is also interesting in retrospect to look back at just how many then-current and future Flyers were involved in the tournament.
The victorious American team featured Flyers all-star left winger John LeClair and checking line center Joel Otto. Team Canada boasted superstar center Eric Lindros, two-way center Rod Brind’Amour and top Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins. In particular, LeClair played brilliantly in the tourney. Proving that his success with the Flyers wasn’t merely the product of riding shotgun to Lindros, LeClair racked up 6 goals and 10 points in 7 games playing mostly on a line with Bryan Smolinski and Tony Amonte.
In the European bracket of the tourney,“Legion of Doom” right wing Mikael Renberg was selected for Team Sweden, but had to withdraw after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia he had played through for much of the previous season. He was replaced on the Swedish roster by Flyers’ teammate, Patrik Juhlin, a star for Sweden’s 1994 Olympic gold medal winning team who failed to live up to expectations in the NHL. Flyers rookie defenseman Janne Niinimaa, the youngest member of Team Finland’s gold medal squad from the 1995 IIHF World Championships, earned a spot on the Finnish squad.
Veteran defenseman Petr Svoboda, who had defected years earlier from the former Czechoslovakia but would later play a key role in the 1998 Olympic gold for the Czech Republic, declined to play in the 1996 World Cup for both personal and injury reasons.
In addition, current Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren (then the club’s director of pro scouting) served as an assistant coach on Team USA. Aging star defenseman Paul Coffey, who would join the Flyers via trade from Hartford later in the 1996-97 season, played for Team Canada.
Other future Flyers included Team Canada’s Keith Primeau, Team Sweden star Peter Forsberg and Team USA’s Derian Hatcher and Tony Amonte, as well as recent Flyer tryout forward Bill Guerin. Future Flyers Valeri Zelepukin and Andrei Kovalenko (who spent a brief stint with the club in 1998-99) represented Team Russia.
Future Flyer Jeremy Roenick, who was dealing with an ankle injury and had been locked in a contract dispute with the Chicago Blackhawks that led to his trade to Phoenix, declined his selection to Team USA.
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Last night in Glens Falls, the Phantoms got off to a great start but were unable to hold an early 3-0 lead and went down to a 4-3 overtime defeat at the hands of the Albany Devils. Adirondack raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 4:29 of the game on tallies by Eric Wellwood, Andrew Rowe and Joonas Lehtivuori. The lead held for the remainder of the first period.
Thereafter, it was all Devils. Mattias Tedenby cored a power play goal 40 seconds in the second period to get on the board on a Mattias Tedenby tally. At the 13:04 mark, Harry Young's slapshot from the center point deflected off a Phantoms player past Johan Backlund. Albany tied the game just 17 seconds into the third on a Nathan Perkovich goal. In the OT, Brad Mills completed the comeback victory.
Backlund stopped 42 of 46 shots in a losing cause.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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