Over the course of the next week to 10 days, we will start to see more Flyers players who are caught in limbo by the lockout start to decide what to do if there is no new CBA -- and, sadly, it's not looking like there will be one -- by early October. Those informal workouts on rented ice time in Voorhees aren't really cutting it, especially with the AHL's Phantoms beginning a bonafide training camp (with four Flyers players on the roster) come Friday.
People have asked me if I'm concerned that Flyers players will get injured if they play overseas or in other non-NHL settings during the lockout.
My answer to that: There is always an element of injury risk in the sport, but hockey players need to play hockey in some way, shape or form. In addition, players can and do also get hurt off the ice. We saw that this summer when Andrej Meszaros tore his achilles tendon in an off-ice workout.
Lastly, if you were to roll up everyone in bubble wrap during the lockout to avoid injuries, chances are there would be MORE groin pull type of injuries as players scramble to get back into game shape. Even if you escape those sorts of mishaps, there will be some injuries immediately after the NHL season gets underway.
Of course, there are exceptions. In the case of Kimmo Timonen, who is coming off back surgery, I am relieved that he has decided not to play for KalPa in the short-term. That makes total sense, especially at his age.
For most players, though, it's not the injury risk that I worry about. What I worry about is the possibility that a large portion of the season will be lost to this senseless lockout.
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Ilya Bryzgalov and Pavel Datsyuk will be in the CSKA Moscow lineup today when the team takes on Avangard Omsk. A webcast link may be available
here. The game starts at 11:30 a.m. eastern U.S./Canada time.
Jakub Voracek is back in action today for HC Lev when the club plays HC Yugra. Game time is 1 PM. There's a webcast link
here. Voracek has two two points (1G, 1A) in his first two KHL games.
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Yesterday, Ruslan Fedotenko scored the overtime winning goal and former Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis tallied the game-tying goal in the third period of HC Donbass Donetsk's comeback 3-2 road victory over Atlant Mytishchi. Ex-Flyer Nikolay Zherdev scored for Atlant, assisted by Janne Niskala (whose rights belonged to the Flyers for six days in the 2008 off-season until the team learned he would not sign a two-way contract and traded him to Tampa Bay).
Flyers prospect Fredric Larsson was in action for the third straight day yesterday as his Brynäs J20 team dropped a 5-3 decision to the Skellefteå AIK J20 team. Brynäs made a late-game comeback bid but fell short. Larsson finished the game with a minus-two with the latter minus being charged on SAIK's empty net goal. For the season to date, the defensive defenseman has 0 points, 8 penalty minutes and an even plus-minus (plus-four, minus-four).
The Flyers various CHL prospects were idle yesterday. With the exception of the injured Taylor Leier, all will be back in action in the latter part of this week.
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The first round of voting in the Flyers' All-Time Roster selection at HockeyBuzz produced no major surprises. By wide margins, Mark Howe, Eric Desjardins, Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and Brad McCrimmon were the top five vote getters (in that order), and will get automatic spots on the final roster. The rest of the defensemen in the poll will go back into a later poll for two spots (sixth defenseman, reserve defenseman) in the final roster.
Personally, I would have given more serious consideration to a couple of players who did not get anywhere near the top five in the vote: Jimmy Watson and Bob Dailey.
Today, we will choose four starting centers for the All-Time team. The top two are no-brainers but the third and fourth selections will require some tough choices. Personally, I use a criterion of considering ONLY the player's Flyers career and not his career on the whole. That is why, for example, I did not include Paul Coffey as a choice among the defensemen. However, the center competition does include Peter Forsberg, Darryl Sittler and Dale Hawerchuk (but not Adam Oates).
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