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 one team after the first two games.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4
1:00 P.M.: Team USA White vs. Sweden (Robert Hägg)
4:00 P.M.: Team USA Blue (Anthony Stolarz) vs. Finland
MONDAY, AUGUST 5
1:00 P.M.: Team USA Blue vs. Sweden
4:00 P.M.: Team USA White vs. Finland
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 -- No games
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7
1:00 P.M.: Canada (Scott Laughton) vs. Finland
4:15 P.M.: Team USA vs. Sweden
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8
1:00 P.M.: Team USA vs. Finland
4:15 P.M.: Canada vs. Sweden
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9 - No Games
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10
1:00 P.M.: Team USA vs. Canada
4:15 P.M.: Sweden vs. Finland
In addition to the listed players, there two other participants with Flyers-related ties. Team Finland member Kasperi Kapanen -- a projected 2014 first-round draft candidate -- is the son of former Flyers' fan favorite Sami Kapanen and Team USA White's Henrik Samuelsson is the son of former Flyers defenseman Ulf Samuelsson.
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Saturday Quick Hits
* Eight years ago today, on August 3, 2005, the Flyers signed unrestricted free agent center Peter Forsberg to a two-year, $11.5 million contract. The deal shocked many in the hockey world, but it was Forsberg himself in conjunction with his agent, the late Don Baizley, who initiated contact with Philly. According to Foppa, it had nothing to do with the fact that the Flyers were the team that originally drafted him. Rather, he thought it was time for a fresh start after the lockout, he preferred not to go to any of the Western Conference rivals of the Colorado Avalanche and he always liked the Flyers' style of play.
As witnessed in yesterday's Flyers of 2000s poll, in which Forsberg placed a distant fourth behind Claude Giroux, Mike Richards and Keith Primeau, people forget just how dominant Forsberg still was at that time -- at least when semi-healthy enough to be in the Flyers lineup. Even with just 100 regular season games and six playoff games as a Flyer before a trade to Nashville, I would personally have chosen Forsberg as one of my three centers over Primeau.
With no disrespect whatsoever meant to Primeau, I think Forsberg's frequent brilliance even in a short stint in Philly trumped anything Primeau did in Philly with the major exception of the aforementioned playoff run. I understand, however, why many would pick Primeau over Foppa. Primeau had a much longer stint in Philly and everyone remembers his magnificent 2004 playoff run (which permanently erased his previous reputation as a player who annually came up small in the postseason).
For his part, Forsberg single-handedly willed the Flyers to two wins against Buffalo in the opening round of the 2006 playoffs -- and was one of the only reasons apart from Robert Esche playing arguably the best game of his NHL career that Game 1 even got to overtime before the Flyers lost in double OT. I guess since the Flyers ultimately lost that first-round series, Forsberg's heroics didn't resonate as much.
What made Forsberg's great series against Buffalo even more incredible is the fact that, about a week after the series ended, the Flyers announced that Forsberg needed reconstructive surgery on both of his feet and would be out for the first half of the 2006-07 season. That plan ultimately changed, as Forsberg elected only to undergo surgery on the worse of his two feet so that he could he could return in time for the start of the next season.
Given what happened thereafter, perhaps he should have stuck with the original plan. Forsberg's foot never got better; thereafter, he spent more time out of the lineup than playing, and it ultimately ended his career after dozens of options (including additional surgeries) were tried. The 2006-07 season turned out to be the worst in Flyers' franchise history and, in retrospect, concurrently appointing Forsberg as the new team captain at a time when he was dealing with major physical problems and had an expiring contract after the season was also probably a mistake.
You know what? The more I think about it, the more the selection of Primeau over Foppa makes some sense apart from Philly career span and the 2004 playoffs. Primeau's own NHL career came to abrupt end in 2005-06 due to post-concussion syndrome. As such, he wasn't around to have his name connected to any of the turmoil and misery that consumed the next season. There are a lot of bad memories tied up in the 2006-07 season, and Forsberg's frequent unavailability and contract uncertainty was unwittingly part of the problem before things turned around the season following his departure.
That's a matter of circumstance, not of personal fault. Even so, people would rather look back on better times (which Primeau was part of) than choose to reflect on the disaster that was 2006-07.
* Fourteen years ago today, the Flyers signed an undrafted USHL player named Ruslan Fedotenko to a rookie free agent contract. The signing, which came as the result of Chris Pryor (now the Flyers' Director of Scouting) recommending the Ukrainian forward to the organization, proved to be one of the better such signings in franchise history. Anytime an undrafted players goes on to have a lengthy NHL career, it's a coup.
* The annual Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament unofficially gets underway today with two exhibition games (Team USA vs. Czech Republic, Team Canada vs. Slovakia). The official start of the Under-18 tourney, which also includes teams from Sweden, Finland, Russia and Switzerland, will be on Monday. The Hlinka is the first yearly international tournament on the calendar. Although it is not an IIHF-sanctioned event, it's become one widely attended by NHL scouts. It is the first step to the Under-18 World Championships and also marks one of the first stops in the "active scouting season" that culminates in the next NHL Draft. Team USA is coached by former Flyers center Bob Corkum.
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Flyers Team of the 2000s: Winger
Yesterday, more than 2,200 HockeyBuzz readers participated in a poll to select the top three centers on the Flyers' team of the 2000s. The roster is comprised of players who were with the team at any point from the 2000-01 season until the current day. Today, we will select the top six wingers. Those who fail to place in the top six will get a second chance in a run-off vote next week for the final two spots. Tomorrow, we will pick five starting defensemen.
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Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. Apart from competing in the triatholon, Lappy is raising funds for a variety of charitable causes: the IRONMAN Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and Go4theGoal Foundation- Tunes4Teens. Laperriere has set a $10,000 fundraising goal. For more information or to make a donation,
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