April 11, 2016 will always be remembered as a sad day in Philadelphia sports history; the day that the Flyers, the city, the NHL and the entire hockey world lost Ed Snider to cancer at age 83. He was more than just an owner. He was an icon of self-made success, toughness balanced by compassion and of a willingness to take calculated risks to follow one's dreams. Continue reading

While it is unusual for a rookie to be nominated for the league's award for perseverance, dedication to the game and sportsmanship, there is more to Shayne Gostisbehere's nomination for the Bill Masterton Trophy than "just" the fact he overcame the ACL tear that short-circuited his first professional season in 2014-15. Continue reading

More and more, it seems that the fate of the 2015-16 Philadelphia Flyers will come right down to the final weekend of the season. While most of the focus is on whether the Flyers can beat out the Detroit Red Wings for the lower wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference, there is actually a host of different scenarios that could see the Flyers earn a wildcard spot -- possibly even the higher wildcard position -- or miss the playoffs. At least the Flyers control their own destiny if they win their own games. Continue reading

Through the games of March 23, the Flyers ranked in a tie for worst in the NHL -- seven goals against -- when the opposition has six skaters to their five. On multiple occasions, the Flyers have either lost a point as a result (losing via shootout or in overtime) or else they've allowed an opponent to leave with at least one point when they could have blanked them in the standings. Continue reading

Whether he wins the Calder Trophy or not, Shayne Gostisbehere has undeniably had a spectacular rookie season. If he doesn't win the Calder, at least he'll be in good company among past Flyers candidates. Continue reading

As a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, Bill Meltzer votes in several of the Flyers' team awards. Here's who he thinks are the frontrunners to win each of the main categories. Continue reading

Bill Meltzer takes us inside the process of selecting the three stars at a Flyers game and explains how the process is really harder than it looks. Continue reading

By the time the 2015-16 season is over, Shayne Gostisbehere has a good chance at posting the best individual rookie season by a Flyers defenseman in franchise history, although the team itself is not as good as the ones for whom his predecessors played. Continue reading

In the 80s, it was Mark Howe. In the 90s, it was Eric Lindros. The 2015-16 Flyers can relate, although they are reluctant to admit just how much of difference one player can make. That player is two-way stalwart center Sean Couturier. Continue reading

The Philadelphia Flyers called up Anthony Stolarz to back up Steve Mason at a crucial stretch in their season, giving the goalie prospect a huge vote of confidence as his potential NHL debut nears. Continue reading

Embed from Getty Images Slated for Leap Day 2016, the NHL trade deadline is just one month away as the game schedule hits its All-Star Break hiatus. While the Philadelphia Flyers are not hopelessly out of the race to earn a playoff spot -- five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (with one game in hand) for the lower wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference and six behind the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division -- they still face a steep climb with little margin for error and a tiebreaker disadvantage (i.e., fewer combined regulation and overtime... Continue reading

1) If there was ever a doubt as to how much Sean Couturier means to the Philadelphia Flyers, the second period of Thursday's game in Pittsburgh was a good case in point about how much the player's absence is felt when he is not in the lineup. Even if Couturier had been in the Flyers' lineup, it is certainly possible that the Penguins may still have come back to erase an early 2-0 deficit and beaten the Flyers. No one player is a miracle-worker. However, Couturier is a stabilizing force who can restore order to a game not only with... Continue reading

Embed from Getty Images The Philadelphia Flyers are not in playoff position as they stand at the statistical midpoint of their 2015-16 season. However, the team is well within striking distance. After starting the season with a mediocre 5-8-3 record through the first 16 games, the Flyers have rattled off a 14-7-4 stretch over their last 25 games. How have they done it? After all, the team still ranks 28th in the NHL in scoring at 2.27 goals per game (up one ranking spot and 0.46 goals per game from where they were after 16 games). Special teams remains a... Continue reading

On Wednesday, the Flyers traded impending unrestricted free agent defenseman Luke Schenn and seldom-used veteran forward Vincent Lecavalier to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2016 third-round draft pick and 23-year-old center Jordan Weal. The Flyers agreed to retain 50 percent of both Lecavalier's ($4.5 million cap hit) and Schenn's ($3.6 million) contracts. The arrangement of this trade is of potential short-term help for the Cup-contending Kings and a longer-term masterpiece for the Flyers. It took several weeks of three-way conversations between Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, LA Kings general manager Dean Lombardi and the Lecavalier camp of agent Kent... Continue reading

Photo by Don Smith/NHLI via Getty Images One year ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had 34 points and a 14-14-6 record at the Christmas break. Although, the team endured an horrific 0-8-1 spell in the latter part of November to early December, the team took a 6-1-3 run and a three-game winning streak into Christmas. Things seemed to be headed in the right direction as the team reconvened in Nashville on Dec. 27 for the fourth game of a seven-game road trip. Unfortunately, the Flyers staggered to four straight losses, 0-3-1, over the rest of the road trip. Even as the... Continue reading

For many NHL fans, a game day starts when they settle in their seats at the arena or turn on their television set (or computer stream) and ends shortly after the final horn. For a significant contingent of people credentialed to cover the team from the pressbox -- those who hold full-time jobs in other fields -- a gameday spans about five hours, starting with their arrival at the arena an hour or so before pregame warmups and ending when they leave the building as they pack up after the postgame media scrums in the locker rooms and the coaches'... Continue reading

After a strong training camp and preseason enabled a noticeably more confident and aggressive Laughton to earn a spot in the Flyers' starting lineup, his ice time has been reduced steadily as his effectiveness waned in recent weeks. Although Laughton has dressed in all 31 games the team has played to date, his hold on a lineup spot does not appear to be secure. Continue reading

Back in August, the Philadelphia Flyers made an under-the-radar staff hiring when they joined the ever-growing ranks of National Hockey League teams to hire a full-time goaltending development coach. Continue reading

The foundation for winning streaks is often painstakingly built from gradual and subtle areas of improvement shown in the latter games of stretches in which wins are scarce. The reverse is also true. Continue reading

One of the most commonly asked questions by hockey fans: Why does a team recalls Player A (quite often a checking forward or defensive defenseman) rather than Player B (almost inevitably a player with gaudier scoring stats or, alternatively an enforcer). Continue reading

Over the last season-plus, one of the challenges faced by the Flyers' leadership group has been to establish a similar ability to battle through adversity and find ways to come away with a win -- or at least one point in the standings -- at the end of the night. That is why the club found encouragement in its last two games. Continue reading

After getting off to a solid start through their first seven games (4-2-1), the Philadelphia Flyers have played a miserable stretch of hockey that has seen the club drop seven of their last eight games (1-5-2). Taking the good with the bad, here are five early-season trends to keep an eye on in the weeks to come. First 15-Game Comparisons (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16) In each of the last two seasons, the Flyers' met a fork in the road immediately after their 15th game of the season. Two years ago, the club was mired in an even worse scoring drought than... Continue reading

Only time will tell as to whether Philadelphia Flyers rookie head coach Dave Hakstol is the right man for the job of leading the personnel with which he's been to work to greater heights than his predecessor, Craig Berube. Continue reading

Voracek has never been a big-time goal scorer. Rather, he is a top-notch playmaker who has also shown himself capable of scoring between 20 to 25 goals a season while ranking among the NHL's assist leaders. Continue reading

Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of talking before the game to Flyerdelphia's Bill Minchin, who was covering his first game from the Wells Fargo Center press box this season. It got me to thinking about my own first few games with credentials, and what a thrill it was. It is not usually my style to write articles or blogs that put the focus on the media in general or myself in particular. I do not believe that "we" should be the story, nor do I think that our access to the teams engenders any sort of special entitlements or... Continue reading