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Evgeny Medvedev struggles, is a healthy scratch for Flyers

VANCOUVER - Evgeny Medvedev, the Russian defenseman playing in his first NHL season, wasn't surprised when Flyers coach Dave Hakstol told him he would be a healthy scratch Monday for the first time.

Evgeny Medvedev.
Evgeny Medvedev.Read more(Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)

VANCOUVER - Evgeny Medvedev, the Russian defenseman playing in his first NHL season, wasn't surprised when Flyers coach Dave Hakstol told him he would be a healthy scratch Monday for the first time.

"Last game, no good. The last game I was minus-1," Medvedev, who is still learning English, said before Monday's game in Vancouver. "I am working. Maybe next time I'll play. I don't know. The coach maybe he'll let me play."

Medvedev, 33, looked like the Flyers' best defenseman in the preseason but struggled at times in the first 10 regular-season games. A four-time all-star in Russia, he was asked if the smaller NHL rinks had affected his play.

"No, no, no. Only here," said the good-natured Medvedev, pointing to his head.

For the season, Medvedev has one assist and is minus-1.

"He's been a little bit up and down, with and without the puck," coach Dave Hakstol said. "For him coming out, in a lot of respects, it might be good for him to actually watch a game" and learn from what he sees.

Hakstol says it's a "different game" in the NHL than Medvedev is used to playing.

"There's smaller spaces. Things happen quicker in smaller spaces and that is an adjustment from the bigger rink that he has played on," he said. ". . .. Again, without the puck there is a lot of things that happen quick and he is working and improving at it."

The Flyers' pairings Monday: Michael Del Zotto and Mark Streit; Nick Schultz and Luke Schenn; and Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning.

Manning grew up in British Columbia and had numerous friends and relatives at the game, including his parents and both sets of grandparents.

Couturier update

Sean Couturier, who missed his fifth straight game with a concussion, will join the team in Edmonton on Tuesday, but GM Ron Hextall would not say whether he will play against the Oilers that night.

Couturier is one of the team's best penalty killers, and the Flyers allowed five power-play goals in the first four games he missed.

Honorees

Rick MacLeish, a former star center who scored the decisive goal when the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup in 1974, and longtime public-address announcer Lou Nolan will be among 15 individuals inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 12 at the Sheraton Society Hill.

- Sam Carchidi