Keith Yandle set to break NHL’s Iron Man streak

In hockey, there are many different ways a streak can be defined. For a team, there’s a winning streak, a losing streak, and even a point streak. For the players themselves, there’s a goal streak, a point streak and then one of the most important streaks that you can achieve: a consecutive games played streak. Being able to be on the ice with your team game after game is something players take pride in. And for Keith Yandle, he is on the verge of making history as a part of the Flyers.

Doug Jarvis was drafted by the Maple Leafs in 1975. From that season until his last game in 1987, he was able to step on the ice. 12 years and 964 consecutive NHL games. He reached that feat as a part of three different franchises. Over 34 years later, that streak is about to be broken.

Yandle entered the season at 922 consecutive games. His streak didn’t start on the day of his NHL debut in 2006 like Jarvis did in 1975. Instead since March of 2009, Yandle has played in every single regular season game that was available to him. That’s over 13 seasons worth of games. For some people, that’s an entire career in it of itself. To put things into perspective for a moment, the Flyers youngest player, Cam York, was nine years old when the streak began. He’s now 21 years old and has 13 NHL games under his belt.

Being able to appear in that many games isn’t easy. There is a grinding, physical toll taken by the players. And as a defenseman, that’s heightened even more when you take things like blocked shots into account. And Yandle certainly knows a thing or two about that.

“It was brutal,” Broken jaw can’t stop Yandle

Injuries are bound to happen when you play a physical, contact sport such as hockey. Sometimes you just can’t get out of the way. Yandle learned that the hard way in 2019. During the first period of a November game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Brett Pesce went to dump the puck into the offensive zone. Instead, the puck ended up in Yandle’s face. He immediately left the ice and could be seen spitting out numerous teeth in the process, nine to be exact.

If you thought he was going to let that end his streak, think again. After getting some quick dental repairs and missing the entire second period, Yandle returned to finish out the final frame. He was back on the ice the following day and, as you can imagine, played that night.

“It was brutal. I’ve never really liked the dentist, always kind of been a fear of mine, going to the dentist. Marty Robins’ the guy who did all my work was unreal, took really good care of me. It was tough, the broken jaw, playing with the full cage and everything. That was kind of brutal.”

This wasn’t even the moment Yandle spoke of at the beginning of this season as the closest he’s come to losing the streak. In a game against Boston, he took a puck off his heel and the pain was unbearable. He had trainers in his hotel room, working on it until almost two or three in the morning.

Once he got it into the skate the next day and got it moving, he continued on. While he didn’t specify the season, an easy look into the schedule says this was during the 2016-17 season, a few years before the jaw incident. Yandle played just 4:51 against Boston and returned the next night to play shy of 24 minutes against the Flyers. Safe to say the heel must’ve held up well that night.

There was another night where Yandle almost saw the streak come to an end. Last season, then Panthers coach Joel Quenneville was set to healthy scratch the veteran defenseman. A report had surfaced a little less than a week before the game and was later confirmed by Quenneville. Yandle was set to miss his first game since 2009. Two days later, he was indeed in the lineup and scored his 100th career NHL goal. Talk about a special moment.

“She’s definitely the backbone to our family,”

It takes a lot to go out and play in the NHL every night. Sometimes there are sacrifices that are made in order to make it happen. Yandle has been grateful for all the help he’s gotten along the way.

He credited former teammates Shane Doan and Derrick Morris for helping mold him into a professional in regards to how he saw the game. He’s also credited the trainers for helping keep him on the ice. But someone who has been the biggest help to him has been his wife.

”The wives, they don’t get the credit that they deserve. Mine’s been amazing the last 15, 16 years. She’s held it down at home, taking care of the kids every day…The reason why I’ve been able to play is her holding down the home front and definitely grateful to have her.”

With his daughters in school, the tough decision was made to have his family stay back in Florida while he made the trip to Philadelphia. With that came the decision to stay with Kevin Hayes for the season. The two have been friends for a long time and this has allowed each of them to provide much needed company for the other.

For Yandle, this season starting out promising as he grabbed five points in his first three games with Philadelphia. But much like the rest of the team, it things have been inconsistent. Yandle has been able to hang on through it all, though. Even through a COVID outbreak that ended Ivan Provorov’s 403-game streak.

Could Yandle set the record on Tuesday and then sit for the first time since 2009? It’s possible, but not something Mike Yeo wanted to put much thought into when asked on Sunday. He was more inclined to talk about the achievement itself.

”It’s an incredible streak. Any time you’re part of something historic or breaking any kind of record when you’re doing it at the highest level is an incredible accomplishment. What it says about a guy is a guy who wants to play.”

So when Yandle step on the ice for Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, he will set the record for most consecutive games played. He got an ovation when he tied the record on Monday night and, while the team will be on the road, could get a similar reaction in Belmont as well.

Beyond that game, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.