The late, great broadcaster Dan Kelly used to say, Welcome to St. Louis Blues Hockey.
Once a powerhouse in the West decades ago, the less formidable modern-day Blues visit Wells Fargo Center Saturday to face the Flyers.
For Flyer forward James van Riemsdyk, its a chance to catch up with a couple of buddies from the U.S. National Team programT.J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk.
JVR says he tries to follow the Blues to see how his friends are doing.
I know what to expect from them, JVR said. I try to keep up with them. They have a lot of talent, and speed and skill. Its going to be a tough game.
The Blues have been awful on the road thus far, going 1-3 on their most recent trip, with a 3-4-0 overall record. The season is not even a month old and theyre buried in the Western Conference overall standings.
For the Blues, this is the first of five road games over the next six overall to be played. St. Louis hosted Carolina on Friday night, then flew to Philly immediately after the game.
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Flyers coach Peter Laviolette figures to unveil some new lines, based on what we saw at Fridays practice.
The sting of a dreadful 5-2 loss to Washington on Thursday is still fresh in everyones mind.
We can be a lot better as a team and get that chemistry, Wayne Simmonds said. Thats the beauty of the sport. You have one off night and two nights later get to go again and prove ourselves.
We did a lot of things well against Washington. Just some little thingsFor us to be successful we have to clean up some things in the neutral zone.
Among them, Laviolette said, was taking less penalties. The Flyers have been shorthanded 36 times through six games.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.