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Quick Hits: May 25, 2022
1) IIHF World Championships: Team Canada will take on Tre Kronor in the medal round quarterfinals at the 2022 IIHF World Championship in Finland on Wednesday. The winner will advance to the semifinals to take on the winner of the Team Czech Republic vs. Germany game.
In the other quarterfinal bracket, Team USA will play undefeated Switzerland while tourney host Team Finland plays Slovakia.
On Tuesday, Team Canada bounced back from an upset loss at the hands of Team Denmark to easily dispatch Team France, 7-1. Canada opened the scoring with mid first period goal in which Dylan Cozens deflected home a Travis Sanheim point shot. Late in the opening stanza, Sanheim assisted on a Max Comtois goal with 2:29 left in the period. Canada led 2-0 at the first intermission and 4-0 after two periods.
Sanheim finished the game at plus-four across 20 shifts (13:54 of ice time). He registered three shots on goal. With the game being a blowout and the single-elimination playoff round looming the next day, Team Canada spread around the ice time fairly evenly in the final game of the preliminary round. For the tourney to date, Sanheim has four points (1g, 3a) and is plus-seven with an average 16:28 of ice time per game across the seven games Canada has played.
2) PhiladelphiaFlyers.com: On the Flyers official website, I wrote a season-in-review article on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' disappointing and injury-riddled 2021-22 season. The article also includes individual sections on the likes of Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Isaac Ratcliffe, Maksim Sushko, Egor Zamula, Felix Sandström, Samuel Ersson, Hayden Hodgson and more. To read the article, click here.
3) Flyers Daily: On the Wednesday edition of Flyers Daily on the Flyers Broadcast Network, host Jason Myrtetus talks about candidates to the become the next team captain including Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson and Scott Laughton. In the second segment, Laughton is Jason's special guest to discuss the highly disappointing 2021-22 season and what the team and player himself can learn from what wrong. To listen, click here.
4) WHL Playoffs: Connor McClennon and the Winnipeg Ice will be on the road to take on the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Final Series. Having lost both Game 1 and Game 3 in overtime, Winnipeg trails the series two games to one. McClennon, who needs to be signed to an ELC by the Flyers by June 1 before the team loses his NHL rights, has posted 18 points (7g, 11a) in 13 playoff games to date. He posted 81 points (43g, 38a) and 59 penalty minutes in 62 regular season matches for the talent-stacked Ice club.
The 5-foot-8 right winger is a clever, competitive and shifty little player who has always been an above-average offensive player at every level. The question mark going back to his Draft year (sixth round, 2020 Entry Draft) is whether his ceiling tops out as an AHL-level scoring threat and potential NHL fill-in or whether he can take that to the next level and become an NHL regular at some point in the future.
During Flyers' Rookie Camp, McClennon earned praise from Ian Laperriere for being an outstanding teammate who was just as happy when a fellow prospect scored as when McClennon himself stood out by making a nice play. Laperriere also noted McClennon's finishing touch and willingness to compete even though he was one of the smallest players on the ice.
The Flyers already have quite a few small-frame forwards in the system from veteran Atkinson and young vet Travis Konecny in the NHL to third-year pro Morgan Frost and prospect Bobby Brink. Whether that has anything at all to do with why McClennon's signing window is down to its final week of a two-season evaluation period is unclear. My own feeling is that the Flyers can use an offensive boost at every level in the system, including the American Hockey League. As such, I'm all in favor of McClennon being signed.
The Philadelphia Flyers tore through the 1997 Eastern Conference playoffs. The team needed just five games apiece to dispatch the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and star-laden but aging New York Rangers to win the Prince of Wales Trophy and advance to the seventh Stanley Cup Final berth in franchise history.
In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers, the scene shifted back to Philadelphia's brand new Wells Fargo Center (then called CoreStates Center) after the Flyers prevailed in hard-fought matches in Games Three and Four at Madison Square Garden.
Flyers captain Eric Lindros brought the home crowd to its feet as he opened the scoring with an early power play goal. The Philly fans were briefly silenced by back-to-back Rangers power play goals (Alexander Karpovtsev and Esa Tikkanen) on both sides of a 5-on-3 New York power play. However, the atmosphere was electric again as John LeClair knotted the game on a power play goal and Rod Brind'Amour tallied at even strength to put the Flyers ahead before the first intermission.
Philadelphia dominated a scoreless second period, holding the Rangers to just two shots on goal but the Flyers could not extend their lead against Mike Richter (who finished with 25 saves). Finally, at 6:43 of the third period, Brind'Amour notched his second tally of the game as he provided some insurance with a 4-2 lead.
That was all Ron Hextall needed. He turned away all eight shots he saw in the final period. Ten years after a rookie Hextall brought the Flyers within a narrow Game 7 defeat of winning the Stanley Cup, the Flyers were headed back to the Final.
6) May 25 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Nick Fotiu (1952), Jon Kalinski (1987), Ric Nattress (1962).
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