Shorthanded Flyers Return to Practice, Gear Up for 1st Game in 11 Days

Shorthanded Flyers return to practice, gear up for 1st game in 11 days originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

For the first time in eight days, the Flyers were able to take the ice Tuesday morning.

There were some new faces at practice while plenty of familiar faces were missing.

The team was back on the ice after its seven-day pause enforced by COVID protocols.

General manager Chuck Fletcher on Tuesday said the Flyers had more than one positive COVID-19 case in Washington, D.C., last week, which resulted in the team's NHL-mandated shutdown. Head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed that Claude Giroux's COVID-19 test came back positive last Tuesday, which led to the team's game that night being postponed.

There have been a multitude of postponements and schedule changes across the league. The Flyers had four games last week postponed. Last Thursday's and Saturday's games were already postponed prior to the Flyers' shutdown. The Flyers last played Feb. 7 against the Capitals. Travis Sanheim missed the team's 7-4 win that afternoon because of COVID protocols. Without Sanheim, the team practiced last Monday at Capital One Arena and was then shut down the following day.

The Flyers had 16 players for this Tuesday's practice at Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone. Fletcher said the Flyers will have a group of eight players eligible to join practice Wednesday.

James van Riemsdyk, Sean Couturier, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Philippe Myers and Erik Gustafsson did not practice Tuesday but have not been on the NHL's COVID protocol list. Fletcher said the Flyers are following the league's quarantine requirements. The league's latest daily COVID protocol list will come out around 5-5:30 p.m. ET. 

The Flyers on Monday night had seven players on the COVID protocol list: Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost (already on injured reserve), Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux and Justin Braun. Vigneault said those players will not be available to play Thursday against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

Here is the group of 16 players (14 skaters, two goalies) that practiced Tuesday:

Andy Andreoff

Connor Bunnaman

Brian Elliott

Joel Farabee

Mark Friedman

Shayne Gostisbehere

Robert Hagg

Carter Hart

Kevin Hayes

David Kase

Nolan Patrick

Derrick Pouliot

Ivan Provorov

Michael Raffl

Travis SanheimMaksim Sushko

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