By Jordan Long
The Philadelphia Flyers are the surprise team in the NHL. They are 39-20-7 for a total of 85 points, 1 point behind the Washington Capitals for 1st place in the Metropolitan Division. Philadelphia looks for their 8th win in a row tonight when they face the Carolina Hurricanes. They will have to do it without James van Riemsdyk.
Van Riemsdyk plays on the 3rd line for Philadelphia. On that line, he has helped Philadelphia with their secondary scoring. On full strength, van Riemsdyk uses his speed to be in a position for scoring chances. When his teammates shoot the puck and it bounces off the goaltender, van Riemsdyk is there to put the puck in the back of the net. If he doesn’t score, he passes to his teammates to light the lamp. Van Riemsdyk totaled 19 goals and 21 assists so far this season.
Van Riemsdyk spends time on the power play. He sets up down low on the side of the goaltender. When the puck is passed to him, he skates in front for an opportunity to score. If not, van Riemsdyk forces the goaltender to be out of position. When this occurs, van Riemsdyk passes to his teammates who have a wide-open net to bury the puck in the back of the net. Van Riemsdyk has 4 power play goals and 5 power play assists.
Van Riemsdyk was injured during the Flyers’ 5-2 victory over Washington last night. With 10 minutes and 41 seconds gone in the 1st period, the puck was deflected off of a Jonas Siegenthaler shot. It hit van Riemsdyk in the hand. He didn’t return. Van Riemsdyk suffered a broken hand and who knows how long he will be out.
According to ESPN, Philadelphia Flyers’ forward Travis Konecny said, “It’s tough to see JvR go out of the game like that, but that just gives us an opportunity to step up for him and reward him for a big block there for us. It’s one of those things it hits him the wrong way, but you never know if it got through. It’s something you’ve got to do and it maybe helped us win the game.”
The Flyers recalled Joel Farabee up from the American Hockey League. Farabee has NHL experience playing in 49 games for Philadelphia this season scoring 7 goals and adding 13 assists. He doesn’t have the same speed to carry the puck into the zone as van Riemsdyk, nor will he play special teams. Farabee adds depth and should help the Flyers for however long van Riemsdyk is out of the lineup. Hopefully, this injury won’t derail the Flyers’ chances of winning the division.
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