Couturier and Pickard lead Flyers past the Rangers
PHILADELPHIA >> James van Riemsdyk might be playing NHL hockey only a short ride from where he grew up and with the team that drafted him as a teen. But his return to Toronto Saturday is being greeted with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for native sons of the city.
Van Riemsdyk, a native of Middletown, N.J. and more than 11 years removed from when the Flyers made him the No. 2 overall selection in the draft, returns to Toronto for the first time since he signed July 1 as a Flyers free agent, ending a six-year stay with the Maple Leafs.
“It will be emotional,” van Riemsdyk said Friday after the Flyers’ 4-0 win over a sleepy New York Rangers team at Wells Fargo Center. “When you spend a lot of time in one place, you become pretty invested there. ... You feel a part of something that’s much bigger than yourself.”
After three formative years in Philadelphia, van Riemsdyk was sent to Toronto in a lousy trade for Luke Schenn. While Schenn struggled in Philadelphia, van Riemsdyk became a big part of Toronto’s revival, with the Leafs making the playoffs in 2017 following a mind-numbing run of nine playoff misses in 10 seasons.
The young but talented Leafs lost first-round matches to Washington and Boston, respectively, while continuing to add pricey talent.
Van Riemsdyk, 29, would score 154 goals and 294 points in 413 regular season Leafs games and went to the playoffs three times. All were first-round losses.
When it became obvious that the Leafs were prominent suitors last summer for Islanders free agent John Tavares, van Riemsdyk rightly assumed the time was right to look around. The search led him back home, though it wasn’t an easy one.
“I really enjoyed my time there,” he said of Toronto. “All of it, it meant to me what the Maple Leafs mean to a lot of different people. ... It was a special thing to be a part of that.”
•••
Dale Weise, suddenly a daily starter, was elevated to the second line for this game, playing the left side next to Nolan Patrick and Jake Voracek. He called it a “must win” because of what happened in Buffalo Wednesday night.
What did happen then? Well, Yalie goalie Alex Lyon allowed four goals on 12 shots in the first period and the Sabres went on to an easy 5-2 victory. But there was more to it than that, Weise said.
“We left our goalie out to dry,” he said. “A young kid like that, that shouldn’t happen.”
Now Lyon’s status is again uncertain, as Phantoms goalie Anthony Stolarz was called up to join the Flyers for the road trip. No other announcement was made regarding a possible corresponding move, though it is possible Lyon will be heading back to Lehigh Valley.
NOTES >> Another returnee for Toronto is unlikely Flyers starting goalie Calvin Pickard, who was with the Maple Leafs last season. But he only played one game with the Leafs, allowing four goals in an overtime loss. He played
33 games with the Toronto Marlies, who went on to win the Calder Cup. ... Claude Giroux’s assist on Travis Konecny’s first-period goal was Giroux’s 481st as a Flyer. He passed Brian Propp for second place on the alltime franchise assists list. Giroux had two more Friday, so he stands at 483, still with a little ways to go to catch franchise leader Bob Clarke — who had 852.