It’s the final game until October for your Philadelphia Flyers, as they get set to host the Carolina Hurricanes in Game No. 82 of what’s been a disappointing season..
We’ll get some more entertainment today, however. Robert Hagg has been recalled from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for this season finale, and he’ll make his NHL debut and try to leave a good impression lingering for the summer.
It will also be the final game in the career of Hurricanes forward Bryan Bickell, who will retire after the year. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November and made the decision to retire just the other day. In all honesty, I can’t say I’d be too upset if he scored a goal against the Flyers here today. Hopefully the Wells Fargo Center crowd will give him a nice ovation tonight.
According to reports from the morning skate today, the Flyers will end the season with Nick Cousins, Mike Vecchione in the lineup, with Chris VandeVelde and Roman Lyubimov sitting out. It’s likely, then, that we’ve already seen the end of the Flyers career for each of those men.
There’s not much to react to on the ice tonight in terms of the result, other than the desire to enter the offseason with a victory. The Flyers are basically locked in to the 12th-worst record in the league for draft lottery odds purposes, and with a loss could only drop to 11th-worst should Los Angeles win their season finale today. Carolina is two points back of the Flyers but are guaranteed to finish lower in the standings due to tiebreakers. A loss will not do much for draft positioning.
There’s been no announcement on a starting goaltender today. It could be Steve Mason, but the widely-held assumption was that due to the back-to-back situation, yesterday was his last game as a Flyer. Perhaps it would be a fitting passing of the torch if Anthony Stolarz gets the nod in the season finale.
Tonight’s game is on CSN Philly and 97.5 The Fanatic locally. CSNPhilly.com and the NBC Sports app have your live stream. NHL.tv has the stream outside of the area, and FS Carolinas has coverage in NC.
