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Post-Practice Report: Shorthanded Flyers Prepare for Rangers |
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The Philadelphia Flyers had 24 players at practice -- between NHL roster players and Taxi Squad members -- on Wednesday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. None of the players in COVID protocol were available for practice and none will play on Thursday night when the team hosts the New York Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center. The line combinations were as follows:
JvR-Couturier-Farabee
Raffl-Hayes-NAK
Bunnaman-Patrick-Kase
Morin-Andreoff-Sushko
Provorov-Myers
Sanheim-Gostisbehere
Hägg-Gustafsson
Hart
Elliott
PP1: JVR, Couturier, Farabee, Patrick, Gustafsson.
PP2: Raffl, Hayes, Kase, Provorov, Ghost (NAK also took reps in 4F/1D set)
After practice, Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said that it's still possible that he will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen on Thursday. The available extra defensemen are Mark Friedman and Derrick Pouliot. Taxi squad defenseman Nate Prosser practiced on Wednesday but Vigneault said the veteran is in his first day out of his COVID protocol (Taxi Squad players are not listed in the leaguewide list each day) and will not likely be available quite yet.
Among Taxi Squad players, neither Carsen Twarynski nor Alex Lyon practiced either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Claude Giroux, Justin Braun, Jakub Voracek, Morgan Frost (IR), Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny remain in protocol.
Kase, who is coming off a big game (1g, 2a including the OT game winner) in the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' most recent game and also scored a shorthanded goal in the previous match, had been playing all season in his native Czech Republic, except during a Covid-related pause in his team's schedule. Ditto second year pro Sushko, who will make his NHL debut on Thursday. Sushko was playing in the KHL during the extended NHL offseason into Flyers training camp.
Forward call-up options from the Phantoms are limited right now. They are riddled with injuries up front (Isaac Ratcliffe, Tanner Laczynski, Linus Sandin, Wade Allison and Tyson Foerster). Eighteen year old Zayde Wisdom has played all of three professional games, although he did score his first two pro hockey goals and assist on Kase's OT winner in the team's last game.
Due to the severe player shortages between callups to the Flyers' taxi squad/ NHL rosters and the Phantoms' own injury issues, the team's road game in Newark against the Binghamton Devils scheduled for Friday night has been postponed until next Wednesday (Feb. 24) at 6 p.m. ET.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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