The Philadelphia Flyers’ Stanley Cup dreams became that much more real on Friday night as the NHL announced the first dates of its ‘return to play’ program.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ schedule looks like this:
August 2nd: @ Boston Bruins
August 6th: Vs Washington Capitals
August 9th: Vs Tampa Bay Lightning
Throughout that week, the NHL will be hosting between 5-6 games per day that also include the Stanley Cup qualifiers for those teams not in the Round Robin that decides the top-4 seeds entering the bracket.
Here are some important pieces of information directly from the NHL’s press release:
When competition resumes, the 12 participating Eastern Conference teams will play in Toronto, while the 12 participating Western Conference teams will compete in Edmonton. The Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final will take place in Edmonton. Each team will be permitted to bring a maximum of 52 individuals into the Secure Zones in the hub cities, including a maximum of 31 players.
In keeping with the League’s commitment to the health and safety of all participants, each of the 52 Club personnel will live inside a secure “bubble” – the Phase 4 Secure Zone – and will be tested daily for COVID-19 as well as being administered daily temperature checks and symptom screenings. As well, individuals who might have direct or indirect contact with NHL teams will be tested daily. Any person inside the Secure Zone who tests positive will immediately be isolated.
The Flyers will be playing in Toronto for all of their round-robin and future playoff matchups, before potentially having to take a trip to Edmonton if they make the Stanley Cup finals.
Team training camps are set to open on Monday July 13th, with the Flyers having already returned to the Skate Zone in some capacity for individual training. They will then travel to Toronto on July 26th after close to two weeks of camp and play exhibition games between July 28th-30th.
Photo Credit: Alex Mcintyre
