Schedule Changes
The National Hockey League announced a series of schedule changes today including a series that involve the Flyers. Also note that the end date of the regular season has been extended from May 8 to May 10.
Flyers vs. NYI, originally April 25, now March 22 at 7 p.m.
Flyers vs. NJ, originally Feb. 11 now April 25 at 6 p.m.
Flyers vs. NJ, originally Feb 13, now May 10 at 7 p.m.
Flyers at NJ, originally April 1, now April 27 at 7 p.m.
Additionally, the Flyers at WSH Feb 9, at NYR Feb 14, and at BOS on Mar 7 will all be rescheduled but the date and start times are currently undetermined.
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Practice Day Recap
The Flyers had 16 players -- 14 skaters and goalies Carter Hart and Brian Elliott -- on the ice for practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Tuesday. The list of Tuesday's skaters was as follows (T= taxi squad): Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hägg, Mark Friedman, Kevin Hayes, Nolan Patrick, Joel Farabee, Michael Raffl, Connor Bunnaman, Carter Hart, Brian Elliott, Andy Andreoff (T), Derrick Pouliot (T), David Kase (T), and Maksim Sushko (T).
An additional eight players, presumably including Sean Couturier, Philippe Myers and Nicolas Aube-Kubel are expected to be available to practice on Wednesday. Head coach Alain Vigneault is planning a full practice for tomorrow and expects to have 18 skaters and two goalies available for the game against the Rangers on Thursday.
Vigneault, who noted that Claude Giroux was among the players to test positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday, said that he does not anticipate having any of the players currently in the NHL's COVID protocol available to play against New York. The list currently consists of Giroux, Justin Braun, Jakub Voracek, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton and the injured Morgan Frost.
For more, click the full
practice update on the Flyers' official website. Transcripts of the post-practice interviews with general manager Chuck Fletcher, head coach Alain Vigneault and veteran center Kevin Hayes follow below, courtesy of the Flyers' Brian Smith.
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Chuck Fletcher transcript
On non-protocol list players Couturier, Aube-Kubel, van Riemsdyk and Myers not practicing on Tuesday.
We’ve been in a league-mandated quarantine for the past seven or eight days. However, not every player has the same quarantine start date, depending upon various factors, contacts, etc. We have a group of players that were eligible to return to the ice today and we have another, I believe, eight that will be allowed to practice tomorrow.
Our entire organization has been in quarantine for the last seven or eight days since we left Washington based upon some of the positive tests we received there. Obviously our facility has been shut down. They’ve postponed games and they’ve cancelled practices. We were advised to stay away from the rink for a while.
The entire team’s been in a league-mandated shutdown or quarantine since the trip to Washington, but not every player has the same quarantine start date depending upon their contacts with other players who may have tested positive. After going through the process of contact-tracing, we’ve identified a group of players, which is the players you saw on the ice today that were eligible to return to practice today. Another group of players, eight of them, will be allowed to return to practice tomorrow.
Why was today, not yesterday, deemed to be the day it was safe to be back on the ice?
That’s a good question. Obviously again coming out of Washington, we had some positive cases. The league shut us down and obviously postponed our games and cancelled our practices. Yesterday was the day that initially we were told that we could return to practice. We actually had all our players and staff do POC testing yesterday morning and nobody was allowed to enter the building until they had returned a negative test.
Initially we felt that was seven negative tests, we could have some of our players turn to practice. We had additional conversations yesterday morning with various medical and health officials. It was determined jointly that the smart thing to do would be to wait until Day 8, which for the players who practiced today was today. Even though we had seven negative tests yesterday, it was probably smart and prudent to wait one additional day to today, so these group of players were able to get out there today. Again, another eight will be able to go tomorrow due to the different quarantine start dates.
How unsettling this whole thing is as a team? It’s got to be concerning to have all those tests.
Well, I think there’s always a high level of anxiety when a virus is potentially spreading through your team. Obviously, everyone’s human. Nobody wants to get sick. You’re worried about your family. You’re worried about your teammates. You’re worried about yourself. I think we’ve all gone through a lot the last week.
We’ve had some players who have tested positive. We have some players that are also in quarantine. The good news is over the last four days we’ve had one player added to the list and we’ve had one player removed from the list. You can never say you’re out of the woods, but certainly in the last four days we’ve seen a positive trend. We’re hopeful that we can continue in that direction and get back to playing here Thursday night.
Just to clarify, you are expecting a full roster for Thursday and Sunday? Any update with the coaches? Alain and Michel Therrien, were they able to come back?
AV’s about 10 feet behind me, just waiting for me to get away from the mic so he can speak to you guys. Every day’s a new day. After what we’ve been through the least week, our hope is that we will have a full roster for Thursday and Sunday. I think Bill Daly’s described the process as day to day, which is accurate from our standpoint. I believe there were [16] players on the ice today. We expect eight more to return tomorrow, which would obviously allow us to have a full roster for Thursday. Then over the next week or so, we get a few more players back. We’ll do the best we can. We’ll put the best roster out we can. We’re just excited to be back practicing and looking forward to hopefully playing a game on Thursday night.
Last Tuesday, can you take us through what that day was like in DC? How it transpired and how you guys got home?
Obviously, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were crazy days. You’re testing a lot, waiting for results and just hopeful that the virus isn’t spreading through the team. We were able to again avoid some damage, but certainly we had some players test positive. That’s a difficult thing to do. It’s tough when you’re on the road. It’s a lot easier when you’re at home to maybe control and contain some things.
Certainly, if you look at this facility here, the Skate Zone, we have an awful lot of space to physically distance. We have two dressing rooms we can use. We have two medical rooms, two change rooms, two sets of showers and a massive weight room. Things are a lot easier at home versus being on the road, when you have buses and you’re in smaller dressing rooms. You’re doing the best you can.
We tested twice on that Tuesday. We tested in the morning and everyone who tested negative was allowed to get on three different busses to travel home. I believe we had about twelve people on each bus. We did the best we could to physically distance, but clearly once the virus is in your group, the results aren’t always desirable.
When you say you expect a full roster on Thursday and Sunday, you mean numerically right? You don’t mean the players on the COVID list are coming off, correct?
No. We’ll be able to put 18 and 2 on the ice.
Can you please explain the taxi squad situatlon? Is six still the maximum, or does that increase when you have COVID cases?
The six can temporarily increase. If a player that’s loaned to your taxi squad is required to have a period of isolation or quarantine due to COVID protocols, you can exempt that player temporarily and replace that player. Right now, obviously our entire team has been in quarantine as I mentioned for the last week. We have other players because of COVID or contact-tracing with COVID are either in isolation or quarantine. There’s a lot of moving pieces right now.
Clearly, there’s a lot of work on a day-to-day basis for Barry Hanrahan. He’s in constant contact with Sean MacLeod and the people at Central Registry, making sure we’re roster and cap compliant on a daily basis. Yet we also need to have enough players to practice and play. We will make sure that we’re in compliance basically, but the last couple days have certainly been challenging. The next couple will be challenging but we will find a way to get there.
Did you ever get an indication from the league about the Tahoe game being in danger?
Not to my knowledge. I’ve been in daily contact with Bill Daly. The whole emphasis has been on the health and welfare of our players. Making sure we’re doing what we can to keep the players that have attracted the virus isolated, keep other players in quarantine and keep our facility shut down. I talk to him on a daily basis about what our test results are when we receive them and we’ve just been working together to get to this day that we are now where we are back practicing albeit with a smaller group. The whole focus has been on getting back and getting ready for Thursday. All going well, that’s what we’re hoping to do. We didn’t have any of those conversations, no.
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Alain Vigneault transcript
Do you expect some of the players on the [COVID] list to be available Thursday?
No.
How challenging is it to incorporate the new guys into the lineup?
It’s an opportunity for them to get a chance to play. Some guys have been waiting for that opportunity for quite some time, and now because of our situation, because of players that are under the covid protocol, there’s opportunity. Guys are going to have to jump on the opportunity and make the best of it. We should have a full practice tomorrow with the group that is available to us, and that will be the group that is going to play against the Rangers on Thursday. We might have different possibilities, dress 6 [defensemen] and 12 [forwards], 7 and 11. We’ll see how practice goes tomorrow. We basically haven’t seen anybody for the past week, we’ve been in lockdown. Other than coming in in the morning and some days it’s one test, other days it was two, we’ve just been in and out.
Originally, I thought we would have more than one full day of practice to get ready, but that was changed yesterday. It is what it is, and what it is is a full team practice tomorrow, morning skate on Thursday, play Thursday night. So we’ve got to be ready for that.
Were the coaches in contact with the players over video chat or anything like that?
I’ve stayed in touch especially with the players that got covid or were in close contact and were considered covid possibilities. As an organization, Chuck and I and my assistants, we’ve been keeping in touch to see how the guys are feeling. Fortunately, we’ve had some that have had very minimal symptoms and some that have had no symptoms at all, so we’ve been fortunate that way. The other guys, we’ve been telling everybody to stay ready. We didn’t know how long this would be, was it going to be seven days, eight days, a full two weeks. So whatever you can do from your own home, try and stay safe. We didn’t know how exactly this was going to unfold. But now we’re good to go, we need to put 20 healthy skaters on the ice, which is what we’re going to do, and we’ll go from there.
Was the last week just come in to get tested and then you go home?
Exactly. We came in every morning between 9:30 and 10:30, some days we had one test we had to do, other days we had two. We came in through the front door, there was an area blocked out, we did our testing, got back in our vehicles and went home. That’s what the mandate was from the league. We’ve been following all the protocols, and we’ve been following everything to the letter. I ‘m not exactly sure how this came about, how unfortunately we got a case that led to two that led to obviously more, but somehow it happened.
In our group one of the guys that I thought put the most emphasis on the mask and washing his hands and doing all the right things, social distancing, we have no idea how he got covid but he still got covid. Let’s hope that the ones that do get it stay healthy, which is what has happened so far, and let’s hope that this is it and we get back to playing some hockey. We’ve got four games that we’ve got to make up in a very condensed schedule already.
We’ve got basically very limited practice time to get ourselves ready for Thursday and then we’ve got to fly five hours to Lake Tahoe to go play a noon game. So not a lot of time but it is what it is like I mentioned a few minutes ago. We’ve got to deal with it and we’ve got to deal with it head-on.
Aside from hockey and logistics, what has it been like as human beings to know there’s a virus spreading through your team?
Without a doubt it’s been concerning to everyone. My players have wives, girlfriends, kids, parents. Obviously this is concerning. We all have coaches and management, have our own families, and when they hear it from so far away, obviously everyone is concerned and they want to know that everyone is doing all right. It is something that I don’t understand how it came about but it did come about. We’re following the rules, we’re very strict on all the protocols, but it came in and now we have to deal with it and hopefully stay safe and get back to playing hockey, and get back to playing winning hockey.
What was last Tuesday like in Washington and how did it all transpire before you guys came home?
We had practice the day before, we tested, all the tests came back negative. We had two tests that we had to do prior to that game, rapid test and our normal test. I think it was [Giroux] that came back positive, and they didn’t want to take any other chances so the game was cancelled. We set up transportation the best way we could to keep everybody safe knowing we had the results of those tests and bussed back to Philly. Since that time, we’ve been shut down. We’ve been testing and going home and staying home. We’ve been doing exactly what the NHL wants us to do, and hopefully we got it in time and now this virus is going to stay away from our team.
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Kevin Hayes transcript
What has the last week been like for you guys?
It’s been tough for everyone. Everyone in this organization wants to play hockey, it’s what we get paid to do. Obviously safety comes first and we had some positive cases. The way the organization handled it was unreal. Even though we missed games, you’ve got to follow the rules and you’ve got to make sure everyone’s safe. It’s been a bit of a weird week, we haven’t really been allowed here. Today we were allowed on the ice and it feels good to be back out there.
How difficult will it be to be competitive in that game Thursday with so many missing players?
It shouldn’t be difficult to be competitive. It’s just the next-man-up mentality. We’re obviously down some important players, but I think everyone’s going to compete whether you’re a regular in this lineup or you just got called up and you’re playing your first game. There’s no questions asked whether you’re supposed to compete or not. Everyone in this locker room’s going to compete their hardest and give it their all. I think we’ll be fine.
You’re so used to being together all the time during a season. What has it been like to basically be alone for seven or eight days?
Yeah, especially myself. I love being around the guys, I love hanging out with the guys away from the rink, going to dinner. This year we haven’t been allowed to do that, we’ve got a lot of rules we have to follow, we’ve got to make sure everyone’s taking the right safety protocols and doing the right thing for the season to keep going. It’s definitely different. The only time you see your teammates is at the rink and on the ice. It makes it that much more fun at the rink, but yeah, it’s definitely been different this year. I don’t want to say not as fun, it’s been a fun season, we’ve been playing well and everyone’s been having fun, but it’s been different this year for sure.
Have you been trying to keep guys’ spirits up like you usually do?
It’s definitely scary, but I try to make them laugh about it a little bit. There’s nothing funny about COVID obviously, but I just tried to Facetime [Claude Giroux] and [Justin Braun] when they were stuck in Washington, try to make them laugh a little bit. Everyone that has COVID right now is handling it that way and symptoms aren’t too bad, so hopefully that keeps up. It’s tough to keep the mood light when guys aren’t allowed to come to the rink and do their job they’ve been doing for years now. But the group chat’s still firing away, we’re still chatting and stuff. But it’s definitely different. It’s a different season, but every team’s going through it, we’re all battling through it, we’re all taking the right protocols. Ultimately we have to do everything in our power to get back on the ice and provide entertainment for our fans and the people watching, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
Have the differences in this season changed your perspective at all?
When it comes down to it, even with no COVID, hockey’s our life for sure. It’s what we get paid to do, it’s how we make a living. But now that you actually can’t do anything else, it makes you appreciate it more. We’re still having fun doing it, we wish the fans could come to the games and stuff but we’re not allowed to yet. Hopefully that changes soon. Ultimately we’re paid to play hockey and to win, and that’s our main goal. Whether there’s fans in the building or no fans in the building, that’s what we have to do.
On welcoming the new players to the team under these protocols...
You’ve got to try to make them feel as comfortable as possible when they’re here. David [Kase] was here last year, so he knows the guys. [Maksim] Sushko, I just met him. It’s tough when you have so many restrictions, you’re not allowed to take them to dinner or whatever. But everyone’s so welcoming. I’ve never been on a team, whether it’s Philly, New York or Winnipeg, where new guys show up and you don’t welcome them. Hockey’s a very welcoming sport and we do everything in our power to make sure everyone feels safe and happy and in their best spirits so they can provide their best efforts.
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