Flyers Showcase NHLs Cultural Diversity

Andrej Meszaros and Matt Carle

   Over the past twenty-five years, the NHL has become the most culturally diverse of the major North American sports. Perhaps nothing better exemplifies this than the eight men charged with keeping pucks out of the Philadelphia Flyers net. Canada, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Russia and the United States are considered the seven Hockey super-powers. All seven of these countries are represented in one locker-room on Broad Street.

      DEFENSE

• Kimmo Timonen (Kuopio, FINLAND)        
• Braydon Coburn (Shaunavon, SK, CANADA)
• Matt Carle (Anchorage, AK, UNITED STATES)
• Andrej Meszaros (Považská Bystrica, SLOVAKIA)
• Nicklas Grossman (Stockholm, SWEDEN)
• Pavel Kubina (Celadna, CZECH REPUBLIC)

    GOALTENDING

• Ilya Bryzgalov (Novokuznetsk, RUSSIA)
• Sergei Bobrovsky (Togliatti, RUSSIA)

Ilya Bryzgalov - Team Russia

  The Flyers are the only team in the NHL with this varied distinction. With the exception of Bobrovsky, all of these players have represented their countries in various levels of international play. Timonen, Kubina, Meszaros, and Bryzgalov proudly donned their countries jerseys during the Winter Olympics. There was once a time in Flyers history where the organization vehemently despised Russian hockey players (spawned in large part by the famous 1976 exhibition between the Broad Street Bullies and the vaunted Soviet Red Army team) and considered European players soft. Fortunately that archaic philosophy no longer exists within the organization.

   When you look up and down the rosters of every NHL team you'll see an unprecedented assortment of countries represented. At one point in time, the NHL was nearly 100% Canadian. That number has shrunk to around 50% with players now originating from South Africa to Japan. In fact, forty different countries have now had at least one player in the NHL. With fantastic leagues in Europe, such as the Czech Extraliga and the Swedish Elite League, developing top flight prospects year after year, this trend won't be changing any time in the foreseeable future.


Kimmo Timonen - Team Finland

   The Flyers newly assembled international defense has only played four games together, all on the road. So far It's been a mixed-bag of results, exhibiting strong play in games in which the team was shut-out 2-0 in Edmonton and 1-0 in San Jose, and playing very loose in 5-4 wins over Calgary and Winnipeg. Before bringing in Kubina and Grossman, the Flyers were allowing 2.93 goals per game. Since then they have allowed 2.75 gpg, all while adjusting to new pairings each night as head coach Peter Laviolette continues to try and find what works best. The slowly improving play of Bryzgalov has been a factor, but It's a step in the right direction nonetheless. All that remains to be seen for this group of men hailing from eight separate nations is if they can gel into ONE nation, under Lavvy, and help bring the Holy Grail of sports back to the City of Brotherly Love for the first time in thirty-seven long, heartbreaking years.

DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU'VE SEEN SO FAR FROM THE NEW LOOK INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE? COMMENTS BELOW ARE WELCOME!