Eight of the nine Philadelphia Flyers players participating in the IIHF World Championships have made it to the quarterfinal round.
With preliminary play officially coming to an end on Tuesday, the quarterfinals of the 2019 IIHF World Championships are set to begin Thursday morning and the Philadelphia Flyers will have plenty of talent battling for gold, silver, and bronze medals. Eight of the nine Flyer participants have reached this stage, with Michael Raffl and Team Austria getting relegated despite a valiant effort on the six-year NHL veterans part.
Sean Couturier, Carter Hart, and Philippe Myers helped Team Canada top Group A with 18 points and a 6-1-0 record. Couturier potted three points (1 Goal, 2 Assists) in seven games with the Canadian squad. While those offensive statistics aren’t overly impressive, Coots has done an excellent job defensively as we’ve been accustomed to throughout the years as Flyers fans.
Myers netted his first senior team point with Canada in their game against Denmark, having his point-blast get deflected by Buffalo Sabres forward Sam Reinhart for a primary assist. The undrafted blue-liner has just as many points in four games, but it remains to be seen how much ice time he’ll get in quarterfinal competition. Hart has been the most impressive Canadian Flyer so far, with a 0.70 Goals Against Average and a .964 save percentage. He has two shutouts in those three games and ranks second in the entire tourney in both of the previous categories with at least one more game played than the goalies sitting above him.
Team Sweden finished third in Group B, posting a 5-2-0 record and a total of 15 points. Forward Oskar Lindblom has stayed at the same amount of points he had in our previous update, with four through seven contests. He didn’t receive a lot of ice time in Sweden’s final preliminary game, even though he’s been one of their better forwards, so we’ll have to keep on eye on that. Robert Hagg, on the other hand, is now the only Swedish player to not have a single point while playing in at least one game. He also hasn’t received a lot of time on ice, but given Sweden’s plethora of talent on the blue-line, I can’t blame them.
Jakub Voracek has still been on a tear with Team Czech Republic, leading them to a second place position with a 6-1-0 record. Voracek’s scored 15 points (3 Goals, 12 Assists) through every game at the Worlds, placing second in the whole tourney in points. He’s been nothing short of dominant and seemingly creates a dangerous scoring chance every time he touches the puck. Fellow Czech Radko Gudas has a respectable four points (1 Goal, 3 Assists) in seven games and played solid in both zones of the ice with just six Penalties in Minutes.
Finally, Team USA is the lowest ranked club on this list, with a 4-2-1-0 record for 14 points. James van Riemsdyk wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet in their final prelim matchup against Canada but is tied fifth in scoring with five points (2 Goals, 3 Assists) through seven.
Canada will face-off against Team Switzerland, the USA will take on Team Russia, Sweden will match-up with Team Finland, and the Czech Republic will draw Team Germany. You can catch the USA, and Canadians games take place at 10 am EST while the Swedish and Czech contests follow up at 2 pm.