PHILADELPHIA -- One of the most memorable international teams ever iced by Canada held a bit of a reunion Saturday.
News and notes
News and notes from the Flyers and Ducks after Saturday morning's practices:
* Flyers rookie forward
James van Riemsdyk will miss his second straight game following a hard fall into the boards Tuesday against Washington.
*
Claude Giroux will start at right wing tonight on a line with
Mike Richards and
Simon Gagne.
Mika Pyorala will shift from that spot to center the third line, with
Darroll Powe and
Arron Asham. Other Flyers lines will see
Jeff Carter centering
Scott Hartnell and
Danny Briere, and
Ian Laperriere between
Daniel Carcillo and
Riley Cote.
* Flyers defenseman
Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will play for the second straight game. He and
Danny Syvret have been splitting the final defense spot.
*
Petteri Nokelainen, who hasn't played this season due a preseason groin injury, skated with the team on a line with
Joffrey Lupul and
Evgeny Artyukhin. Ducks coach
Randy Carlyle did not say if that line is one he would use in the game tonight.
* Drew Carter skated on the right side on a line with
Saku Koivu and
Teemu Selanne. Other lines saw
Ryan Getzlaf centering
Corey Perry and
Bobby Ryan, and
Erik Christensen between
George Parros and
Mike Brown.
Todd Marchant skipped the morning skate.
* Two of the three Princeton University alums in the NHL will be on the ice tonight -- Anaheim's
George Parros (Class of 2003) and Philadelphia's
Darroll Powe (Class of 2007). The only other Princeton player in the League is Tampa Bay's
Jeff Halpern.
*
Jonas Hiller will start in goal tonight for Anaheim, while
Ray Emery will make his fifth straight start for the Flyers.
--
Adam Kimelman
Six members of the 2005 World Junior Championship team that won the gold medal in Grand Forks, N.D., had a chance to catch up when the
Anaheim Ducks visited the
Philadelphia Flyers.
Ducks forwards
Ryan Getzlaf and
Corey Perry, and Flyers forwards
Mike Richards and
Jeff Carter, along with Philadelphia defensemen
Braydon Coburn and
Danny Syvret were on the team that cruised to the title by outscoring its opponents by a combined 41-7 in the six games.
"Before the beginning of the tournament, we knew we had a great team," Coburn told NHL.com. "We were on a mission. Especially with it being in North Dakota, which is so close to Canada, we had a lot of family there. I think just the way we did it, the way we, right from the start, right from the first game, we played as a team really well. As that tournament progressed, we just got tighter as a team and it showed in what we did to teams and how well we did play in that tournament."
What they did was win five of the six games by at least three goals; the only close game they played was a 3-1 victory against the Czech Republic in the semifinals. They then cruised past a Russia team that had
Alex Ovechkin and
Evgeni Malkin 6-1 in the final.
It was the first WJC gold for Canada in seven years, and it followed three straight gold medal-game losses. Canada also hasn't lost a tournament since that '05 WJC.
Richards, the captain of that team, told NHL.com what he remembers most from that tournament is how close the team got.
"A lot of us went through the Under-18s together, lost the (WJC) the year before in Finland together, so it's really our third year as a group," he said. "We were close."
While that team has gone on to incredible NHL success -- 16 of the 22 players currently are in the NHL, and seven have played in at least one NHL All-Star Game -- the players from that team try to stay in touch despite being dispersed all around the continent.
"We're always talking," Perry told NHL.com. "We were talking this morning, just for a couple seconds on the bench. There'll always be that special bond that people will never forget."
Reminiscing is fun, but it stops when the puck drops.
"Anytime you play guys like that, it's neat to see because you've known them for so long," said Coburn. "But in the same sense you want to win. It's a (friendly) rivalry, like bragging rights. You always want to have those."
Contact Adam Kimelman at akimelman@nhl.com.