By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The 2019 IIHF World Championships begin on Friday and for eight Flyers, the season continues.
The following Flyers are playing in the tournament representing the following countries.
- Sean Couturier and Carter Hart – Canada
- James van Riemsdyk – USA
- Jake Voracek and Radko Gudas – Czech Republic
- Oskar Lindblom and Robert Hagg – Sweden
- Michael Raffl – Austria
Couturier was named an alternate captain for Team Canada as one of their most veteran members on the roster. Hart is expected to be the backup goalie to Matt Murray. Team Canada is also being coached by new Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault. Former Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol is an assistant coach and former Flyers GM Ron Hextall is part of the management team.
Ivan Provorov had accepted an invitation to play for Team Russia, but his participation was conditional to him finalizing a new contract with the Flyers. Provorov is not on Russia’s roster while he works on contract negotiations.
Canada and USA are part of Group A. Sweden, Czech Republic and Austria are part of Group B. Group play runs from May 10 through May 21 before the tournament begins. The quarterfinals will be on Thursday, May 23, the semi-finals will be on Saturday, May 25 and the Gold Medal Game will be on Sunday, May 26.
The tournament opens on Friday with games for all seven participants. Canada faces Finland at 10:15 a.m. USA takes on Slovakia at 2:15 p.m. Sweden and Czech Republic also face off at 2:15 p.m. Austria’s first game of the tournament is on Saturday morning at 10:15 a.m.
