When the 2024-25 National Hockey League schedule was announced, a lot of folks around here winced.
The Flyers had to start things off with a four-game Northwest road trip to kick off the season, including stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle?
Challenging, to say the least.
Yet there are benefits to getting things going on the road for more than a week.
It gives the players a chance to get to know one another better, be it dinners together or just hanging out in hotel lobbies.
The Flyers happen to have the third-youngest roster in the league, with an average age of 26.8 years. Only Buffalo and Montreal have a lower number than that. So there’s a certain energy in the air when so many young men are on the road together.
Some players, including natives of Canada, also will tell you it’s nice to get this annual trip out of the way while the weather is still decent. Who wants to be trudging through snow drifts with sub-zero temperatures in the middle of January?
Coach John Tortorella sees the benefits to hitting the road early. For many there’s less pressure than playing the first game or two at home in front of a packed Wells Fargo Center crowd.
“I think it helps them that they’re with the guys after a game,” Tortorella said before Friday night’s 3-2 shootout win over the Canucks. “Did they play well, did they play bad. . .whatever went on in the game. They’re kind of talking to their teammates.
“You know they’re not going home. They’re able to hang out a little bit. Maybe talk about some of the situations that went on in the game.”
The Flyers were 18-16-7 (43 points) on the road last year, which was just about as good as their home mark of 20-17-4 (44 points).
One player who could benefit a lot from this early trip is Matvei Michkov, who led the Flyers with five shots in the victory over Vancouver.
The 19-year-old Russian is trying to pick up English as quickly as he can and spending his time with teammates to communicate with them can only help. Plus, he gets to hang out with countrymen Egor Zamula, a defenseman, and goaltender Ivan Fedotov, to possibly calm any homesickness for the mother country.
“Same thing with ‘Mich.’ It’s good that he’s going to be around his teammates,” Tortorella said.
>Break was helpful
An eight-day gap between the Flyers’ final preseason game and the start of the regular season might have been a concern for some but Tortorella said the team tried to make it a positive.
“It actually gave us a little bit more time to work on some special team stuff,” the coach said.
>Ristolainen finally plays a season opener
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is starting his fourth season with the Flyers but Friday night marked the first time he’s played a season opener since arriving from Buffalo in 2021.
Various injuries had kept him sidelined on the previous three opening nights.
Tortorella liked what he saw from the towering backliner on Friday night.
“He had a really good camp,” Tortorella said of the Finn, who turns 30 later this month. “Out of all the guys I thought his camp was one of the better ones.”
The 6-foot-4, 208-pound Ristolainen makes the Flyers a more physical team the moment he steps on the ice.
“I think he’s a little aggravated with some of the injuries he’s gone through, how little he played last year,” Tortorella said. “I think he’s ready and it’s a big plus for us in having a big right-handed defenseman. He’s been all business during camp.”
