Kevin Durso

After Finland erased a 3-1 USA lead in the final 10 minutes of the third, Arthur Kaliyev scored with 1:16 remaining to give the US a 4-3 win in the Semi-final Round, advancing to the Gold Medal Game on Tuesday where they will face Canada.

On the first day of Flyers training camp, it didn’t take long to notice the two players whose presence stood out the most. Nolan Patrick was back on the ice as a regular member of the rotation, as was Oskar Lindblom.

As camp opens, the Flyers will face some questions that could make or break their success in the upcoming season. While they are widely regarded as a team that should make the playoffs and have a successful run, there are a lot of “ifs” that the Flyers are dealing with. Here are five of the questions the Flyers are facing as they hit the ice for the first time this year as a group.

Team USA – and Flyers prospects Cam York and Bobby Brink – held off a rally by Slovakia to claim a 5-2 win. Team Sweden – and Flyers prospect Emil Andrae – were eliminated on a last-minute goal in a 3-2 defeat to Finland. Team Canada defeated Czech Republic and Russia defeated Germany to round out the final four teams of the tournament.

On Saturday, the Flyers released their roster and schedule for training camp ahead of the 2020-21 season, set to begin in just 11 days.

The World Junior Championships has closed out group play and moved into the tournament portion with the Quarterfinals taking place on Saturday with four games on the schedule. All three Flyers prospects remain in the tournament, set for their own matchups on Saturday.

According to a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Flyers will face the Bruins in an outdoor game at Lake Tahoe in February.

For the second straight week, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher addressed the media. There were some typical announcements, one on an injury update for a goalie prospect and the news that the training camp roster would be released on Saturday. But there was also a very unexpected nugget that Fletcher revealed: Sam Morin is switching to left wing.

Training camp begins for the Flyers in just three days, starting with physicals and off-ice proceedings on Jan. 3, then the first on-ice workouts on Jan. 4. As the calendar officially turns to 2021, here are five New Year’s Resolutions for the team.

Claude Giroux has been captain of the Flyers for eight seasons, his ninth set to begin on Jan. 13, the day after his 33rd birthday. Giroux’s career has had its peaks and valleys from a production standpoint, but he’s remained durable, very rarely missing action, and is respected as a leader by his teammates. To him, the age he will reach one day before the season opener is nothing but a number.

As 2020 draws to a close, here are some of the topics discussed in the State of the Flyers, a short playing year with a lot of progress made.

Though the circumstances are very different, the NHL has been here before when it comes to shortened seasons, and not too far in the past either. The NHL saw the 2012-13 season shortened to 48 games after a lockout. Sean Couturier remembers that season well, and how a slow start can turn things sour quickly.

Both the USA – with Flyers prospects Cam York and Bobby Brink on the roster – and Sweden – with Emil Andrae on the roster – are playing in Group B. Through Monday, Sweden sits atop the standings in the Group, with two wins in two games. The US is in a three-way tie with Russia and Czech Republic with one win and one regulation loss.

Take the emotion of playoff hockey and bottle it up into a 56-game schedule where you play the same seven teams all season and it’s a recipe for rivalry. The 2020-21 season schedule will be the strangest we’ve seen so far, but it has a chance to restore some divisional rivalries for the Flyers.

Shortly after the NHL released the schedule, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher spoke to the media, covering a range of topics surrounding the 2020-21 roster and how the Flyers will manage things in a shortened season.

The Flyers are set to open the 2020-21 season on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins. View the full Flyers schedule here. The start time for all games is TBA.

For Kevin Hayes, a newcomer to the Flyers last season, this was the reason he had signed in Philadelphia. He wanted a chance to win and saw the potential the Flyers really offered as a key part of their success, and he believes that last season’s playoff run is only scratching the surface.

While this season holds some different circumstances, the importance of getting off to a hot start remains the same. With only 56 games on the schedule and every one within the division, there is little room for off nights and none for lengthy losing streaks for the Flyers.

The Flyers were relatively inactive in free agency, adding newcomer Erik Gustafsson on the blue line, but not making any other significant additions. Perhaps that’s because the significant additions that could come may be internal.

Alain Vigneault’s second season as Flyers head coach will begin next month on Jan. 13, when the NHL opens the 2020-21 season. The 56-game condensed schedule, realigned divisions, empty arenas and shortened training camp present a new set of challenges.

After weeks of negotiations and planning to conduct the 2020-21 season in the midst of a pandemic, the NHL and NHLPA officially announced their plans for the season on Sunday evening.

According to a report from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet Canada, the NHL and NHLPA have a tentative agreement on a 56-game season. TSN’s Renaud Lavoie adds that an announcement could come in the next few days with the 2020-21 season beginning on Jan. 13.

Defenseman Mason Millman has signed an entry-level control with the Flyers, GM Chuck Fletcher announced.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spoke in a panel discussion on Wednesday morning and said the NHL’s target remains a mid-January start and talks are mainly regarding COVID-19 protocols for the season. That start date is far from certain as more time passes.

Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom is 369 days removed from the diagnosis that changed his life and supposedly ended his 2019-20 season. One year later, he not only managed to return to the ice, but remains cancer free following his most recent scans.

The Flyers will be tasked with finding a way to replace Matt Niskanen’s 20 minutes or more a night and produced points at a solid rate. On the surface, newly-signed Phil Myers could see his role increase and play on the right side of Ivan Provorov on the team’s top pairing.

2019 first-round pick Cam York and 2019 second-round pick Bobby Brink will play for Team USA and 2020 second-round pick Emil Andrae will be on Team Sweden’s roster.

The Flyers announced that they have re-signed Myers to a three-year deal worth $7.65 million, a $2.55 million average annual value.

According to a report from The Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi, the Flyers and defenseman Phil Myers are close to agreeing to a new contract and it could become finalized later this week.