Quick Hits: August 10, 2022
1) WJC Day 1: The first day of preliminary round action at the rescheduled 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship is in the books. There were no upsets on the first day but a scare was thrown into one favored team. The results:
CZECHIA 5 - SLOVAKIA 4 (Group A)
Team Czechia (Czech Republic) squandered a 4-2 lead in the third period but rallied late to pull out a 5-4 regulation win over rival Slovakia. Gabriel Szturc put the Czechs ahead to stay with 1:50 left on the clock. In a losing cause, Slovakian goaltender Simon Latkoczy stopped 47 shots and was named player of the game. The Slovaks' comeback in the third period was spurred by a pair of power play goals.
USA 5 - GERMANY 1 (Group B)
Defending 2021 gold medalist Team USA had little trouble dispatching Germany, 5-1, in their preliminary round opener. The Americans outshot the Germans by a whopping 50-11 margin. Luke Hughes and Logan Coolley (power play) opened a 2-0 lead in the first period. A misplay by German goalie Nikita Quapp produced a Landon Slaggert goal and a 3-0 score in the second. Red Savage potted a Riley Duran rebound to make it 4-0. A would-be 5-0 goal by Matt Coronato was overturned on a goalie interference challenge. However, late in the second period, Duran scored one that counted to open a five-goal cushion. In the middle stages of the third period, Joshua Samanski scored an end-to-end goal to avoid a shutout.
FINLAND 6 - LATVIA 1 (Group A)
There wasn't much suspense in this game as the favored Finns forged a quick lead and pulled away to cruise to a five-goal margin of victory. Sniping winger Joakim Kemell scored a pair of goals in the first period and later added two helpers in the third period for a four-point evening. Linemates Aatu Räty (1g, 3a) and Roni Hirvonen (1g, 2a) also had multi-point outbursts to do the heaviest lifting in the opener. Hirvonen serves as the Lions' captain. Brad Lambert and Kasper Puutio tallied once apiece for Finland, which also had a near miss on a puck that went off the crossbar but stayed out of the net.
2) Day 2 will see all four of the participating Flyers prospects in action: Team captain Emil Andrae and the rest of the Junior Crowns will be in action when Sweden plays Brian Zanetti and Team Switzerland in the day's earliest game. Later, Latvia has the unenviable task of playing Team Canada (Tyson Foerster and Elliot Desnoyers) with the Canadians rested and the Latvian in the second half of a back-to-back. In the final game, Germany will play Austria.
3) On PhiladelphiaFlyers.com, I wrote a Flyers-focused
2022 World Junior Championship preview. We take a look at projected roles, linemates and, if applicable, what each player did at the original 2021-22 WJC tourney before its COVID-related postponement. There's also a schedule-at-glance for which teams are in action on which days.
4) Flyers 2020 first-round pick, who is playing on Team Canada at the rescheduled WJC after missing the original tourney due to shoulder surgery last November, is Jason Myrtetus' guest for Wednesday's edition of Flyers Daily. Foerster discussed his development path, especially in terms of working to improve his skating. He also talked about the shoulder injury from last season and his rehab process. Foerster had to play catch-up once he finally returned to play last season and still was not quite at 100 percent effectiveness. He feels fine now after an intensive summer workout program. To listen to the 11-minute conversation,
click here.
5) August 10 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Jesse Boulerice (1978), Sam Gagner (1989), Greg Hawgood (1968).
6) Today in Flyers History: Aug. 10, 1977
Recently retired after a 14-year pro playing career as a rugged defenseman (including 606 games in the NHL for Toronto, Vancouver and the Atlanta Flames), Pat Quinn is hired by the Flyers as a defense-focused assistant coach under Fred Shero. The tragic leukemia-related passing of Barry Ashbee back in May had left a vacancy in the small staff.
7) Today in Flyers History: Aug. 10, 2006
Flyers Hall of Fame defenseman Eric Desjardins announced his retirement as an active player. During the Philadelphia portion of his career, Desjardins won the Barry Ashbee Trophy a record seven times. He played in a pair of NHL All-Star Games (1995-96 and 1999-2000) after previously playing in the 1991-92 game at the Spectrum representing the Montreal Canadiens. As a Hab, Desjardins won a Canada Cup championship in 1992 and the Stanley Cup in 1992-93 including a hat trick game in the Cup Final against LA. As a Flyer, Desjardins played in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
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