By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It’s certainly a unique season for all sports as they navigate their schedules with unprecedented flexibility around COVID-19. That finally hit the Flyers, who had four games rescheduled by the NHL as a result of two outbreaks within the East Division.
Both the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres had to postpone multiple games as they deal with outbreaks, and that has forced the following adjustments to the Flyers schedule:
The Flyers will now play the New York Rangers on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 6 p.m., moved from Tuesday, Feb. 16.
The Flyers will face the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 1 p.m., moved from Friday, Feb. 26.
The Flyers will also now face Buffalo on Wednesday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m., moved from Tuesday, March 30.
Finally, the Flyers will play the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, April 1, at 7 p.m., moved from April 20.
The result of these four reschedulings create some challenges and advantages for the Flyers. There will be more games in an even more condensed schedule than before at times, but also some newly added extended breaks as well.
The move of the game against the Rangers to Feb. 14 creates a three games in four nights scenario from next Thursday through Sunday, and requires the Flyers to make a quick trip to New York after playing the Devils at home on Saturday. However, this also adds some extra time off for the Flyers, as they will play just one on Thursday, Feb. 18, before their game the following Sunday in Lake Tahoe against the Bruins.
The move of the Buffalo game on Feb. 27 now creates a back-to-back.
Similarly, the move of both the Buffalo game to March 31 and the New Jersey game to April 1 create another back-to-back. The move off of the April 20 date does create a span of four days off from games before the final nine games of the season, a good chance for the Flyers to get some much-needed rest and healing time ahead of the stretch run.
All of these changes are far from permanent. COVID-19 is forcing teams to be as flexible as possible, and that means that nothing is a certainty, even after these announced changes.
