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Quick Hits: May 4, 2020
1) NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been heavily pushing to the Board of Governors the idea of holding the 2020 Entry Draft in early June, according to multiple reports over the weekend. There will be a conference call today, according to Elliotte Friedman, in which Bettman will promote the idea of a June 5-6 Draft as a business necessity for the league. Many teams' hockey operations departments are skeptical about the wisdom of moving up the Draft in a year where playoffs (CHL, NCAA, European), the Under-18 World Championship, and the IIHF World Championship were all canceled and the NHL Draft Combine was postponed.
Bettman, however, believes that the league can draw significant attention -- more so than a typical Draft gets outside of Canada -- by following the National Football League's recent model and holding an online Draft ahead of a return to play.
The proposed Draft lottery would follow the former system this year, in which the teams outside playoff position cannot move up more than four spots and the team with the worst record in the league (Detroit) cannot pick lower than second.
2) In terms of returning to play, there will a discussion on Tuesday of potential empty-arena neutral site arenas in which to hold rescheduled games. Final decisions will not be made yet.
It is believed, per Friedman, that the venue bidders include Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vegas. NHL Players Association members have pushed back on proposals that would involve teams' players being sequestered away from their places of in-season residence for a lengthy period of time. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly has given assurances to players that they will not be asked to be separated from their families for weeks on end.
There is also still a possibility that teams, at some point, can return to playing games at their normal home areas, whether with no fans in the stands or limited admissions.
3) ICYMI: The in-depth player profile for Flyers captain Claude Giroux is online at the Flyers' official website. Next up: Brian Elliott's profile will be published tomorrow.
4) The debut edition of the "Flyers Decades" conference series, hosted by Bill Clement, will be this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. The first discussion panel will talk about the 1986-87 Flyers and their run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The guest panel assembled by Brad Marsh consists of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Mark Howe, Flyers Hall of Fame goaltender Ron Hextall and Flyers Hall of Fame center Dave Poulin, with appearances by J.J. Daigneault and head coach Mike Keenan.
The link to the conference will be posted on Wednesday both here on HockeyBuzz and across all Flyers Alumni social media. Access is free and open to all Flyers fans.
5) On Wednesday, the Flyers will host a live streaming reunion of the 2009-10 team that qualified for the playoffs via a final-day shootout win over the the New York Rangers, recovered from a three games to zero deficit against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and then went on to reach an overtime Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. The event, open to season ticket holders, will be hosted by Tim Saunders and Steve Coates.
Scheduled to appear in the stream will be James van Riemsdyk, who was a rookie in 2009-10. Other confirmed participants are Flyers Alumni members Brian Boucher, Danny Briere, Scott Hartnell, Ian Laperrière, and Kimmo Timonen. Additional details regarding the live stream will be available prior to the event. For those unable to access it, we will have full coverage afterwards on the Flyers' official site.
6) Today in Flyers History: May 4, 2004 (Game 6, Eastern Conference Semifinals)
In both 2003 and 2004, the Philadelphia Flyers waged playoff wars with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first series went the full seven games. The second went six hard-fought matches. Both times, the Flyers prevailed.
On May 4, 2004, the Flyers clinched their Eastern Conference semifinal series as they claimed a 3-2 overtime win in Toronto in Game Six. After the Flyers built a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Radovan Somik and Jeremy Roenick, they were unable to put the Leafs away in the third period. Tallies by Karel Pilar and Mats Sundin knotted the score at 2-2 and sent the match to overtime.
The extra frame saw back-and-forth action played at a breakneck pace. Both teams had several near-miss scoring opportunities, as both Robert Esche (34 saves on 36 shots) and Ed Belfour (22 saves on 25 shots) came up big in goal for their respective teams.
Toronto blitzed the Flyers for 90 nerve-racking seconds Esche turned the puck over to Alexei Ponikarovsky, whose shot hit a skate and deflected into the corner. The Flyers were unable clear the zone. Esche made a brilliant skate save on Karel Pilar and then got defensive help from Simon Gagne to tie up Ponikarovsky's stick. Finally, Esche stoned Joe Nieuwendyk's stuff in attempt near the post.
Play finally went back the other way. Michael Handzus fired a puck that went around the glass. Sami Kapanen went to play the puck about 20 feet inside the right point. Toronto forward Darcy Tucker lined him up and crushed the tiny Finn was a devastating open-ice body check - shoulder-to-side-of-head - and sent him sprawling to the ice.
Woozy, Kapanen had enough presence of mind to realize he needed to get back to the bench, 25 feet away. He turned over from his back to his knees, trying to grab his stick and rise. He fell. Kapanen rose again and tried to skate. He fell yet again. It took four efforts to get close enough to the bench for team captain and good friend Keith Primeau to be able to hook him in close enough for teammate Mattias Timander and trainer John Worley to assist Kapanen onto the bench.
In the meantime, the Leafs were attacking in the Flyers' zone. Esche stopped a Robert Reichel blast and Handzus helped prevent Tie Domi from getting a wide-open chance to win the game. Toronto maintained control until Alexei Zhamnov, just off the bench, disrupted an Aki Berg shot attempt from behind.
The Flyers counterattacked on a 2-on-1, with Mark Recchi picking up the puck and rushing the other way with John LeClair joining him on the left wing. From the right hash marks, Recchi elected to shoot the puck. Belfour make a blocker save. LeClair was unable to reach the rebound.
Now the Leafs were off to the races again. Sundin tried to move laterally near the Flyers blueline but Zhamnov made his second strong defensive play of the shift, neutralizing Sundin's stick and poking the puck free to rookie defenseman Joni Pitkanen. Both teams started line changes.
Pitkanen passed the puck off the right side boards, where Jeremy Roenick (just off the bench a moment earlier) claimed the puck and rushed full speed back into the Toronto end, joined by Tony Amonte on yet another 2-on-1 rush for Philadelphia.
Reaching the hash-marks, Roenick surprised former Chicago teammate Belfour - who expected Roenick to either look to shoot just over his pads or to dish to Amonte - with a high shot into the top portion of the net. Just like that, at 7:39 of overtime, the game and the series were over. Raucous throughout OT, the Air Canada Centre crowd fell dead silent.
7) On the same week as he celebrates his 31st birthday, Flyers left winger James van Riemsdyk and his wife, Lauren, celebrated a new addition to the young family: a healthy baby girl they have named Scarlett Everly van Riemsdyk. Congrats to James and Lauren! JVR turns 31 today.
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