For the first time since their February 8th win, the Philadelphia Flyers took the ice as a team Wednesday. It was the first team practice before play resumes after the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Injured Flyers took the ice in what was a relatively light practice on Wednesday.
Aside from the 4-Nations Face-Off participants, everyone but goaltender Sam Ersson was accounted for at Wednesday’s practice in Vorhees. Given that he was in Boston playing for Sweden on Monday, it is safe to assume Ersson had the day off. The Flyers have two remaining practices scheduled ahead of Saturday’s game against Edmonton. It is likely the case that Ersson just had the day off.
Injured Flyers Rasmus Ristolainen, Egor Zamula, Owen Tippett, and Ryan Poehling skated on Wednesday. Jakob Pelletier, who has yet to play a game, also skated with the team Wednesday morning. He said his visa issues have officially been cleared up.
Game day status is still up in the air, but if everyone is healthy, the Flyers will sit at 23/23 rostered players. The Flyers gave no official update, but the four guys skating is a good sign for a possible return. Poehling and Zamula have yet to be officially activated off the IR as well. Ristolainen and Tippett still carry a day-to-day designation.
With the 4 Nations Face-Off still going on, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, and head coach John Tortorella are still in Boston. That said, figuring out where the new guys, Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, fit into the lines is hard.
In his one game with the Flyers, Kuzmenko found success with Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny, but that line could be broken up on Saturday if Tippett returns. After practice, Flyers’ assistant coach Brad Shaw spoke about the difficulty of finding the fit in these practices.
“It’s tough because we’ve got guys that’ll be taking TK’s (Konecny) spot and Sanny’s (Sanheim) spot in practice and then won’t be playing there in the game… We’re at sort of the minimum number today (of skaters), so we just wanted to get four lines filled and three sets of D.” Shaw would go on to say, “I know there are lines that we’d love to have together for that game on Saturday, We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Overall, not much came from Wednesday’s practice. Spirits seemed high; the guys looked refreshed and excited to return to the rink. Shaw said today’s practice was more about getting “back up to pace” after the break and letting the goalies “feel some pucks.”
The Flyers will practice Thursday and Friday before their first game back from break on Saturday. They will play the Edmonton Oilers at 1 P.M EST at the Wells Fargo Center.
