No stopping marathon men Provorov, Giroux
Alain Vigneault has never missed a game in a coaching career spanning 18 seasons, four franchises and 1,338 games.
Vigneault, 59, also knows what it takes to stay on the ice in skates, a mostly AHL defenseman who played small parts of two seasons with the St. Louis Blues in the early
1980s. That’s why the Flyers’ coach has immense respect for captain Claude Giroux,
33, and 24-year-old defenseman Ivan Provorov.
Each played in his 319th straight game Tuesday when the Flyers rebounded from awful performance the night before and defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-0 at Wells Fargo Center.
“Provvie and G playing that number of games, obviously that means that they’ve played through pain and they’ve pushed themselves very hard to be able to play that consecutive number of games,” Vigneault said before the game. “In hockey, as a player, if you expect to play at 100 percent you’re not going to play in the NHL. An NHL player is never 100 percent. You always have something that’s nagging you and you have to play through.”
Provorov stopped a shot with the palm of his hand early on Tuesday, exiting the ice in obvious pain. But he returned to action almost before the end of that shift.
Only Rod Brind’Amour, the sculpted centerman, has played in more consecutive games for the Flyers. Brind’Amour hit the ice for a franchise-record 484 straight games from 1993-99.
Provorov’s streak is the longest by a Flyer from the start of a career. Among active players, Provorov and Giroux are tied for ninth in the league below defenseman Keith Yandle of the Florida Panthers, who has played in 867 consecutive games, and several others.
The 34-year-old Yandle is within range of the NHL career record for consecutive games played a whopping 964 in a row by Doug Jarvis from Oct. 8, 1975 to Oct. 10, 1987.
Among other ironmen in professional sports, no NFL player has started more games than quarterback Brett Favre, who retired with a streak of 297 straight starts. No one has played in more NFL games than punter Jeff Feagles, with 352.
Forward A.C. Green holds the NBA record with 1,192 straight starts, the numbers coming with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.
And of course, Cal Ripken Jr. set the Major League Baseball record playing in 2,632 straight games with the Baltimore Orioles.
Giroux and Provorov couldn’t dream of such numbers. But they have the respect of their coach and their teammates.
“Give those two guys a lot of credit,” Vigneault said. “They’ve played through a lot of things and I expect them to continue. They’re two of our top players, very good players, and we need them to play well.”
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The NHL is unhappy with the pucks.
They’ll be testing a new batch Tuesday that hopefully will glide across the ice better than the standard issue used the first week of the season.
“I thought a couple of times it didn’t slide as well on the ice,” Vigneault said. “We didn’t know if that was the puck or the ice surface. So, I’m not quite sure exactly what they’re using tonight. I’m sure they’ll figure it out here. It’s early in the season and they’ll do the right thing.”
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The NHL fined Nicolas
Aube-Kubel the maximum $4,632 for roughing Rasmus Dahlin of the Sabres Monday night. It looked more like Aube-Kubel punched his opponent.
The Flyer was assessed a double-minor penalty for a high stick.
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NOTES » Vigneault has a 769534-35 record including the
playoffs entering the Tuesday night game with the Sabres, who defeated his Flyers 6-1 Monday … Brian Elliott started in net for the Flyers, as scheduled … Vigneault started the fourth line with Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl and Nic Aube-Kubel against the Sabres’ No. 1 line of Taylor Hall, Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel Tuesday.