Flyers get reinforcements as Ivan Provorov sounds off on NHL COVID policies

With another practice day before the Flyers head to Boston, reinforcements came in bunches. Travis Konecny, Justin Braun, and Ivan Provorov all returned from COVID protocol.

For Braun, he had been placed there on January 10th so the assumption would be that he had a false positive and presumably returned a few negative after that. For Provorov, he had been out since January 4th. Konecny was added the following day. So it had been about a week for both of them.

They’re expected to return to the lineup on Thursday when the Flyers take on the Bruins. For Braun, it was essentially a day off for him as he shouldn’t have much of any rust to knock off. For the other two, it may take a bit to get back into game shape. They’ll only have one practice and potentially a morning skate to get readjusted.

But the amount of time it’ll take each to feel ready may differ.

"“It’s hard to say because everyone’s different. For me, I had a good practice here today, felt pretty good. For me, I don’t think it’s too, too long. Some guys it might be a week before they feel good. Maybe two, three games to get back into it. But I felt pretty good out there today so for me I’m just gonna say I feel good and ready to go.”"

The Flyers forward lines looked as close to normal as they can right now. Sean Couturier, Derick Brassard, and Patrick Brown are out with injury so they aren’t fully healthy up there. But it’s the closest they’ve been in quite some time to being able to ice a solid looking four lines.

Konecny had been playing well before he was forced out. He had nine points in his last 11 games, four in his last six. He has been stuck on 99 career goals since his last one came on November 18th, a stretch of 18 games without a goal. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying, though. It’s not something he worries about and isn’t even something he realized until a few games ago. As long as the Flyers play well, the rest will follow.

Provorov will, of course, be right back on the top pairing and will have a new partner, at least new this season. Mike Yeo has liked what Justin Braun and Cam York have done together so he wanted to keep that pairing together. With Rasmus Ristolainen in protocol, that moves Travis Sanheim to the top with Provorov.

The two have some chemistry with each other as they spent a lot of time together in previous seasons. So it shouldn’t be hard for them to find that chemistry again.

"“My third year, Sanny’s second year, we pretty much spent, I’ll say, 75% of the season together. I think it worked well, I think we moved the puck pretty good. It might take a little bit to get used to and for Sanny to switch from playing the left side for most of the last two, three years to being on the right side. But I think we can find a way to get back to where we were, get the chemistry back, and hopefully play really good and be able to help the team as much as we can.”"

The two will definitely spend a lot of time on the ice together against an extremely tough Bruins squad. The familiarly should certainly help them as the Flyers themselves look to break out of yet another lengthy losing streak.

Provorov sounds off on NHL COVID policies

While there was no doubt some excitement to be back on the ice, there was a clear frustration with having to sit out in the first place. Provorov recently played the 400th consecutive game to begin his career and was up to 403 games before his positive test ended his iron man streak.

Having to sit because of a broken bone or a similar type of injury makes sense. It’s pretty impossible to be able to be out there and is something a player can deal with. But as other players have begun to say, it’s frustrating when they are forced to sit out despite having minor or no symptoms at all.

That was the case for Provorov, who didn’t mince his words when asked about how frustrating it was for him to not be playing.

"“If it’s a broken bone or a broken leg or something like that, at least you can say ‘okay yeah, I can’t play through that, I can live with that’ But if it’s just the flu that has 99.9% survival rate, everyone should play. Because when other teams play against us with the stomach flu, for some reason they’re not cancelling games. So why are they not letting us play or cancelling games now? Something’s gotta change, hopefully it’s gonna change soon.”"

Provorov went on to say that they need to get back to where they were a few years ago and get back to a normal life. He hasn’t been the only Flyers’ player to show a similar level of frustration. After Carter Hart returned from his stint in protocol, he expressed similar words, calling it a joke that teams will either continue to play shorthanded or games will keep getting postponed.