VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 The Flyers\u2019 season is only half over. But when April rolls around, Dan Vladar is already the clear odds-on favorite to win the Bobby Clarke Trophy for Flyers\u2019 MVP.<\/p>\n
His performances have been nothing short of astounding. He has a career high for wins (16) and is a big reason why the Flyers are ahead of the schedule for improvement set by both general manager Daniel Briere and coach Rick Tocchet.<\/p>\n
To no one\u2019s surprise, Vladar was named to Team Czechia\u2019s roster for the Winter Olympics in Italy. It wouldn\u2019t be a shocker either if he leads the Flyers to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n
After Wednesday\u2019s optional practice at the Flyers Training Center, the modest Vladar said he owes much of his success to the players in front of him. Yet there have been nights when the team has not played all that well and Vladar has stolen a win here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just me,\u201d he insisted. \u201cThe whole team, since day one, we\u2019re really trying to build something special here. We know there are still a lot of games ahead of us. We are not too high, I\u2019m pretty sure of that. Still trying to be humble.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing everything we can and if we keep doing that, we know we\u2019re going to be in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vladar has played 25 of the first 41 games, so there\u2019s always the caution about burnout, especially when backup Sam Ersson has not played well. (His .868 save percentage is among the lowest in the league.)<\/p>\n
\u201cGet lots of sleep, nutrition,\u201d Vladar said. \u201cWe have a lot of good people around the team who know what they are doing. For me, it\u2019s just keeping my ears open. Take advantage of the facility here.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Olympics, Vladar referenced the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. It was the first time NHL players were allowed to take part in the competition and the Czech Republic, though not the favorite, came away with its first and only gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (making the roster) means a lot,\u201d Vladar said. \u201cEspecially growing up in a hockey country like Czech is. You know, the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, the Czech team won. Lots of memories, saw lots of highlights from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo obviously another dream come true for me. I\u2019m really proud that I\u2019m going to be able to go and be part of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Both Jamie Drysdale and Bobby Brink, injured in the Anaheim game, did not take part in Wednesday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to them a little bit,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThey\u2019re still getting evaluated. I don\u2019t want to say they\u2019re day-to-day because I don\u2019t know yet. They were in a half-decent mood.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Drysdale is unavailable against Toronto Thursday, Noah Juulsen is the likely replacement. Lehigh Valley\u2019s Ty Murchison might be called up to be a spare.<\/p>\n
Matvei Michkov, who sat out Tuesday night after taking a shot off his left foot in Saturday\u2019s game in Edmonton, practiced Wednesday. Tocchet said he should be ready to go for the Toronto game.<\/p>\n
If Michkov is ready and Brink isn\u2019t, there shouldn\u2019t be the need for a call-up from the Phantoms.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
With the NHL schedule compressed because of the Olympics, there\u2019s a chance you\u2019re going to see more of these optional practices as the Games approach next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a bunch of games the next two weeks,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a sprint here before the Olympics so we still have to manage it. Using your bench, rotating some guys in and out. Sometimes there are freak injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s any fatigue on the Flyers\u2019 roster, it hasn\u2019t shown up so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe (Travis) Sanheims, the (Noah) Cates, they\u2019re less likely to get injured,\u201d Tocchet pointed out.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
GM Daniel Briere said Tuesday night the Flyers exceeded expectations in the first half. Tocchet was pretty much in line with that evaluation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I took the job, I know what the task at hand was,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYou want to win hockey games. But it\u2019s more: \u2018What kind of player can Jamie Drysdale be? Or a (Cam) York? Can Trevor Zegras rebirth himself?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was kind of the job. . .you want to win but there are also situations where you want to let people play. I\u2019m a big culture guy and that was big for me at the start. You\u2019re not going to win if you don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 The Flyers\u2019 season is only half over. But when April rolls around, Dan Vladar is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,11211],"class_list":{"0":"post-397284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115858845597778486","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}