Today’s open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes…
- Team Lidstrom won the All-Star Game: [Broad Street Hockey] [Frequent Flyers] [Philly Sports Daily] [CSNPhilly] [Inquirer]
- Travis was in Carolina for the weekend’s festivities, so he had plenty to write about. Rather than link to everything, we’ll just give you a link to his archive, which includes videos and articles: [SBNation.com]
- The always busy Stephen Whyno was also there, and he was nice enough to compile all of his stories in a single post. They’re all worth checking out: [Philly Sports Daily]
- Carolina welcomed Peter Laviolette back nicely, probably thanks to that Stanley Cup he delivered: [NHL.com]
- Probably the biggest news from the weekend will be largely overlooked, but Gary Bettman gave his State of the League Address, which talked a lot about concussions: [SBNation.com] [Frequent Flyers]
- The Phantoms had a busy weekend, first losing to Charlotte 2-1. Recap: [PostStar.com] Postgame: [PostStar.com] Live Blog: [PostStar.com]
- They then beat Syracuse on Saturday, 6-4. Michael Ryan added a hat trick. Recap: [PostStar.com] Notes: [PostStar.com]
- Erik Gustafsson spent Sunday at the AHL All-Star Game, and had himself quite an impressive Skills Competition: [PostStar.com]
- Speaking of Gustafsson, both Eric Wellwood and Matt Carle compared him to… Kimmo Timonen. Funny, I said that in July: [Philly Sports Daily]
- Despite being relegated to the fourth line, Andrew Rowe is making a case to stay in the Phantoms’ lineup: [PostStar.com]
- Now that Matt Walker is on the Phantoms, they have a problem with too many veterans. Tim McManus explains: [PostStar.com]
- Jakub Kovar stopped 25 of 26 shots on Friday: [euroflyers]
- He then stopped 29 of 30 in a 4-1 win on Sunday, earning player of the game honors. [euroflyers] He was 51 seconds away from his fifth shutout until Lukas Krajicek scored on the power play: [euroflyers]
- Denis Bodrov added an assist in a team-high 21 minutes: [euroflyers]
- The Verizon commercial where the Flyers grow playoff beards en route to going 82-0? Yeah, it’s here: [The700Level.com]
- Despite a great start, Gabe thinks the Bruins are ready for a fall due to Tim Thomas‘ unreal save percentage. Fair point: [Behind The Net]
- Some interesting results in an NHL player poll, including a question about the instigator rule: [Puck Daddy]
- Lastly (yeah, I gave myself the “lastly” spot. Get over it.), the Flyers may be the best team in the NHL, and the LBH line has a lot to do with that. But the biggest reasons may be luck, depth, and health: [SB Nation Philly]
