Over the next several days, this blog will feature news and profiles from the Phantoms camp in Voorhees. For today, here are some quick hits for your Friday morning.
FLYERS IN EUROPE
* Russia's Sport Express is
reporting today that Claude Giroux is in negotiations with Avangard Omsk. That is Jaromir Jagr's former KHL team, and the future Hall of Famer recommended the club to Giroux, who has reportedly been rather reluctant to go to the KHL. No signing is official at this point.
* Ilya Bryzgalov had a rough first game for CSKA Moscow yesterday, yielding four goals on 30 shots in a 4-3 loss to Traktor Chelyabinsk. Two of the goals were plays were he had no chance, the other two were somewhat misplayed or overplayed. In fairness to the Flyers' oft-criticized netminder, this was his first live game since Game 5 of the Eastern Conference
Final while most of the other players on the ice have been playing for over a month, including several weeks of regular season play. CSKA is idle today.
* Jakub Voracek also had a tough day yesterday. He was a non-factor in HC Lev's humiliating 6-1 loss at the hands of Evgeni Malkin's Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period but three closely spaced goals by Metallurg blew the game open early in the middle frame. With his team hopelessly trailing, Voracek tried to force the play when he had the puck. He finished without a point or a shot on goal in 16:34 of ice time. This was the first of his four games to date in which Voracek failed to register a point. HC Lev is idle today.
* Ruslan Fedotenko is receiving more ice time for HC Donbass Donetsk than he has since he was a teenage player for Sioux City in the USHL. He's averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per game, including 23:56 played in yesterday's 4-3 shootout victory over Torpedo. A winger in the NHL, Fedotenko is centering Donbass's top line. He had a strong game yesterday, despite failing to get on the score sheet (he also missed his attempt in the shootout). Fedotenko won 16 of 28 faceoffs, including all three he took in overtime. Fedotenko does not have an "official" point in four games played, but does have a shootout game-winner to his credit from his first game. HC Donbass is idle today.
* Today, Wayne Simmonds and Chris Stewart will make their debut for Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Crimmitschau Ice Pirates) in a home game against Lausitzer Füchse (Lausitzer Foxes). The
game stats will be posted on the Eispiraten web site by tomorrow, but I'm sure all the important info -- game result, how the NHL players fared -- will go up right after the game. The Bundesliga team has been having daily stories about Simmonds and Stewart.
PLAYERS TOUR
* The Players Tour organized by Bruno Gervais and Max Talbot got underway last night in n Chateauguay. On Twitter, there's a (blurry)
photo of the ceremonial faceoff and of
all the players. Team Montreal, featuring both Talbot and Gervais, won the game. The tour will stop at L.P.Gaucher in St-Hyacinthe next Thursday (October 4) and at Le Palais des Sports in Sherbrooke the next night.
PHANTOMS
New Phantoms head coach Terry Murray has divided his roster players and non-roster invitees into two practice groups for the team's training camp, which officially gets underway tomorrow morning in Voorhees. The groups are as follows:
GROUP ONE
Forwards: Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn, Tye McGinn, Matt Ford, Andrew Johnston, Jason Akeson, Shane Harper, Garrett Roe, Tyler Brown, Luke Pither, Sergei Sentyurin (tryout player), Pierre-Olivier Morin (tryout).
Defensemen: Erik Gustafsson, Marc-Andre Bourdon, Oliver Lauridsen, Cullen Eddy, Jeff Dimmen (tryout), Michael Banwell (tryout), Connor Goggin (tryout), Johan Ryd (tryout).
Goaltender: Scott Munroe
GROUP TWO
Forwards: Eric Wellwood, Zac Rinaldo, Harry Zolnierczyk, Marcel Noebels, Ben Holmstrom, Matt Mangene, Mike Testwuide, Rob Bordson, Ian Slater.
Defensemen: Brandon Manning, Blake Kessel, Danny Syvret, Matt Konan, Tyler Hostetter, Mitch Versteeg (tryout), Zack Fitzgerald (tryout).
Goaltenders: Niko Hovinen, Cal Heeter.
OTHER FLYERS PROSPECTS
* The Peterborough Petes were on the receiving end of a 5-1 whipping by the Erie Otters last night. Flyers enforcer prospect Derek Mathers had a real rough night, as he was on the ice for three Erie goals. However, he did take off an Erie player (Nick Betz) for an extra minor penalty when the two scrummed -- not a full-fledged fight -- in the first period. Peterborough visits Oshawa tonight.
* Scott Laughton and Colin Suellentrop's Oshawa Generals had the night off yesterday. They will host Peterborough tonight. Game time is 7:35 PM eastern U.S./Canada time. A
streaming radio feed from Peterborough is available for free or you can
purchase a webcast for $6.99.
* Valeri Vasiliev was not in the lineup yesterday for MHK Spartak in the team's 3-2 win over the Amur Tigers. There is a report that he has left his Russian team to come play for the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks; however, it is not been officially confirmed or denied as of this writing. Spartak defeated Amur, 5-1, in today's rematch but there is no other game information available yet.
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Today is the final day of voting for the Flyers' All-Time Roster. Yesterday, there was a huge upset in the selection of one of the final two defense roster spots. Jimmy Watson (31 percent of the vote) took the 6th and final defense starting spot, while Braydon Coburn (19 percent) shockingly beat out the likes of Barry Ashbee (17 percent), Joe Watson (16 percent), Brad Marsh (12 percent) and Bob Dailey (9 percent). There were 1,049 votes cast.
Above all, the result shows how many younger readers have voted in the polls. Three of the seven defense spots on the roster go to players -- Kimmo Timonen, Chris Pronger, Coburn -- who played on the team that reached the 2010 Finals and are at least technically current members of the team. Claude Giroux also easily earned one of the starting forward spots.
Today, we will pick the final two available roster spots: the 12th and 13th (reserve) forward spots. The forwards selected to date are Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Eric Lindros, Giroux, Rod Brind'Amour, John LeClair, Reggie Leach, Tim Kerr, Brian Propp, Mark Recchi and Simon Gagne. The remaining two spots are open to players who did not get chosen in the first round of either the center or winger polls. I also added many new candidates to bring the final voting pool to 35 players -- in symbolic honor of the Flyers' record 35-game streak.
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