Flyers Player of the Week: James van Riemsdyk continues hot start

James van Riemsdyk has been named the Flyers Player of the Week for a second straight week.

We might as well rename this series the JVR fan club if he continues to play at this level. He is currently sitting at fourth in the NHL scoring race with 18 points. And he’s also riding a seven-game point streak in which he’s tallied 12 points (3 goals and 9 assists).

However, despite JVR’s success, the Flyers didn’t play all that well this week, going 1-1-1. It was his efforts that prevented the team from a potential losing streak and possibly a worse record.

In the first game against the Boston Bruins, van Riemsdyk tallied two assists. The first one gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead. JVR worked hard on the forecheck to get the puck to Travis Sanheim who then made a nice pass across the slot to find Jakub Voracek, who just tapped it in. Later in the period, van Riemsdyk got the puck to Scott Laughton out of the box, who set up a Joel Farabee one-timer. The Flyers would blow the lead late and lose in overtime by a final score of 4-3.

In the following game against Boston, JVR netted the Flyers’ lone goal. Early in the third period with the team on the power play, Erik Gustafsson fired a shot that JVR tipped past the Bruins netminder to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. The orange and the black wouldn’t be able to hold the lead though, as they dropped this one by a final score of 2-1.

Finally, on Sunday, the Flyers didn’t play a team that they seemed cursed against. JVR and the Flyers traveled to Washington D.C. to take on Trevor van Riemsdyk and the Washington Capitals. The van Riemsdyk wearing white and orange got two points in a game that featured seven goals for the Flyers.

JVR’s first point came when he helped Scott Laughton tie the game at two apiece early in the second period. After both teams scored to make it 3 to 3, Alexander Ovechkin fired a slap-shot that hit high off the glass and bounced towards the neutral zone. JVR picked up the puck and flew towards the net. He launched a wicked wrist shot that whizzed by the shoulder of the goalie, giving the Flyers a 4-3 lead. It was also JVR’s 100th goal as a member of the Flyers. Scott Laughton’s hat trick would help lead them to a 7-4 victory.

This week the team will take on the Capitals one more time before heading home to face the Devils. After that, they’ll head to Madison Square Garden for their first matchup with the New York Rangers. The player to watch this week will be Sean Couturier, who returned to the Flyers after missing 10 games on Sunday. Couturier had two goals and one assist in the game against the Capitals and will be a force to be reckoned with for opposing teams the rest of the season.