Skip to content
Flyers
Link copied to clipboard

Radko Gudas benched for game against Canucks

Defenseman Radko Gudas, who has several nagging injuries but could have played, was replaced in the lineup by Nick Schultz when the Flyers faced Vancouver on Thursday.

Defenseman Radko Gudas, who has several nagging injuries but could have played, was replaced in the lineup by Nick Schultz when the Flyers faced Vancouver on Thursday.

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said Gudas needed to "play a little more consistently."

The Flyers' defensive pairings Thursday: Ivan Provorov and Andrew MacDonald; Michael Del Zotto and Brandon Manning; and Shayne Gostisbehere and Schultz.

Gudas had been paired with Del Zotto and Gostisbehere had been with Manning in the previous two games.

Top rivalries

The Flyers-Penguins rivalry is the fourth-best in NHL history, according to the NHL Network.

It ranked the Canadiens-Bruins at No. 1, followed by the Canadiens-Maple Leafs, and Flames-Oilers.

After the Flyers-Penguins, Chicago-Detroit was No. 5.

In an alumni game, the Flyers and Penguins will meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at Wells Fargo.

Konecny moves over

Rookie Travis Konecny was moved to his natural position, right wing.

Konecny has played left wing this season. In Thursday's game, he was on a line with left winger Michael Raffl and center Claude Giroux.

Perhaps Hakstol wanted to see if the creative Konecny could jump-start Giroux, who had just one goal in his previous 14 games.

Late in the first period, Konecny scored a power-play goal to tie the game, 1-1.

The Flyers entered Thursday with just 19 goals in their last 11 games. During that span, "we haven't had the production we want, we haven't had the results we want," Hakstol said. "So with a little bit of caution from bouncing [the lines] all over the place, we're going to keep working to find combinations that can get us consistently back on the right track."

Matt Read, who was on Giroux's line the previous three games, played on the fourth line, and Nick Cousins played on the second line after being a healthy scratch for five games.

Breakaways

Dale Weise had his first point in 22 games. . . . The Flyers are fourth in the NHL in hits and blocked shots, and they have fired the most missed shots in the NHL. . . . Claude Giroux turned 29 Thursday. . . . The Phantoms will host the AHL All-Star Game in Allentown on Jan. 30. About 1,000 of the 8,400 tickets remain. "This is a marquee event for the AHL, and to get to host it means a lot," said Phantoms co-owner Rob Brooks, whose team will send Jordan Weal, Taylor Leier, and T.J. Brennan (Moorestown) to the game.