*It was a reasonably quiet weekend for the Flyers as far as games on the schedule goes, but it was still an exciting one. They returned to home ice on Saturday and picked up a huge win over the Bruins in their matinee. [BSH]
*Charlie has his own takeaways from that win herein. [PHLY]
*Dan Vladar came up with a huge performance for the Flyers in that win. [NBCSP]
*And there’s been a lot to like about what he’s been doing for his team, both on and off the ice, this season. [BSH]
*It’s also starting to beg the question: could he be carving out a case for himself as a longer term solution for this Flyers squad? [The Athletic]
*They put up a good performance in front of him last night, which was nice to see, because it’s been kind of a shame to see how poorly things have been going for the Flyers while he’s largely been playing really well. [BSH]
*Sean Couturier scored the empty netter for the Flyers last night, and here’s hoping that this goal (in whatever form it came) can help springboard him into a stronger finish to the season. [BSH]
*Anyway, let’s talk trade deadline. Could this finally be the year we see Rasmus Ristolainen moved? [Inquirer]
*Some insiders are suggesting that it might be a difficult task, considering the market and the surplus of defenders available. [BSH]
*But it certainly doesn’t mean teams aren’t kicking the tires! [BSH]
*Ristolainen’s name also isn’t the only one coming up in trade rumors. [BSH]
*At the end of the day, though, the Flyers are kind of in the murky middle heading into the deadline, and this will make it particularly interesting to see how they approach it. [BSH]
*We’re going to step away from the Flyers for a hot second and take a little Phantoms detour. They had a tough showing on Wednesday but had a pretty clear blueprint of what they needed to work on heading into the weekend. [BSH]
*And even in a tough shootout loss on Saturday, they made some progress in those areas (and, spoiler, positioned themselves well to take the next step forward on Sunday). [BSH]
*Okay, back to the Flyers. Is there more that they could be getting out of their scoring game? [BSH]
*The word on the street is that Rick Tocchet and Elias Pettersson spent some time chatting at the Olympics, and we’re not going to put words in anybody’s mouths or jump to too many conclusions, but all we’ll say is this — a coach mending a relationship with a very good player who is known to be on his way out with his current team is… interesting! [BSH]
*And finally, news! Or, almost news, for starters: the report is that the Flyers are making a very interesting addition to the team on the staff side. [BSH]
*Also, Adam Ginning is back with the Flyers for this very quick road trip. Which could mean nothing. [BSH]
*Finally, we have our very first trade of deadline week! It’s an AHL trade, in fairness, but it’s still a trade! [BSH]
