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Bill Meltzer

Sports Editor

Articles by Bill Meltzer (42)

The Flyers deadline decision: buy, sell or stand pat?

Embed from Getty Images   Slated for Leap Day 2016, the NHL trade deadline is just one month away as the game schedule hits its All-Star Break hiatus. While the Philadelphia Flyers are not hopelessly out of the race to earn a playoff spot – five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (with one game in hand) […]

Bill Meltzer  •  28 Jan 2016
Friday Odds and Ends from a Flyers Lens

1) If there was ever a doubt as to how much Sean Couturier means to the Philadelphia Flyers, the second period of Thursday's game in Pittsburgh was a good case in point about how much the player's absence is felt when he is not in the lineup. Even if Couturier had been in the Flyers' […]

Bill Meltzer  •  22 Jan 2016
Stingy 5-on-5 play foundation of Flyers surge

Embed from Getty Images   The Philadelphia Flyers are not in playoff position as they stand at the statistical midpoint of their 2015-16 season. However, the team is well within striking distance. After starting the season with a mediocre 5-8-3 record through the first 16 games, the Flyers have rattled off a 14-7-4 stretch over […]

Bill Meltzer  •  14 Jan 2016
A Factor-by-Factor Breakdown of Flyers trade with Kings

On Wednesday, the Flyers traded impending unrestricted free agent defenseman Luke Schenn and seldom-used veteran forward Vincent Lecavalier to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2016 third-round draft pick and 23-year-old center Jordan Weal. The Flyers agreed to retain 50 percent of both Lecavalier's ($4.5 million cap hit) and Schenn's ($3.6 million) contracts. The arrangement of this […]

Bill Meltzer  •  08 Jan 2016
Deja Vu?: Flyers stumble out of post-Christmas gate

Photo by Don Smith/NHLI via Getty Images One year ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had 34 points and a 14-14-6 record at the Christmas break. Although, the team endured an horrific 0-8-1 spell in the latter part of November to early December, the team took a 6-1-3 run and a three-game winning streak into Christmas. Things […]

Bill Meltzer  •  31 Dec 2015
A Day in the Life: 15 Hours on a Flyers Home Game Night

For many NHL fans, a game day starts when they settle in their seats at the arena or turn on their television set (or computer stream) and ends shortly after the final horn. For a significant contingent of people credentialed to cover the team from the pressbox — those who hold full-time jobs in other […]

Bill Meltzer  •  26 Dec 2015
Is Laughton Skating on Thin Ice?

For most young players in the National Hockey League, earning a roster spot and a place in the starting lineup is only half the battle. The other half is keeping that spot. Ice time can be hard to come by, and the pressure is high to impress in limited opportunities. Flyers center Scott Laughton knows […]

Bill Meltzer  •  17 Dec 2015
Goalie Development Coach Robinson Paying Early Dividends

  View image | gettyimages.com Back in August, the Philadelphia Flyers made an under-the-radar staff hiring when they joined the ever-growing ranks of National Hockey League teams to hire a full-time goaltending development coach. The team hired longtime Victoria Royals (Western Hockey League) goaltending coach and Hockey Canada goaltending consultant Brady Robinson to fill the post. […]

Bill Meltzer  •  10 Dec 2015
Flyers: How Winning Streak Emerged from Losing Streak

Every hockey team experiences adversity over the course of the season. Part of what separates top clubs from the pretenders — almost as much as the collection of talent on the roster — is their ability to pull things together and avoid the snowball effect that results in prolonged losing skids.   The foundation for […]

Bill Meltzer  •  04 Dec 2015
Callups are About NHL Roles, Not AHL Goals

Photo: Nina Weiss/Flyerdelphia During the 1980s to mid-1990s, legendary Flyers broadcaster Gene Hart hosted several different incarnations of a radio call-in show called "Flyers Fone." One especially persistent caller used to phone the show on a weekly basis to ask "When are the Flyers going to call up that Tookey kid?"   Every time, Hart […]

Bill Meltzer  •  25 Nov 2015