Philadelphia Flyers Hockey

Video from the Philadelphia Flyers 2010 home opener.

After coming two victories short of earning their first Stanley Cup in 34 seasons, are the Philadelphia Flyers primed to seal the deal in 2010-11?

Behind a robust defense corps — bolstered by the additions of Andrej Meszaros, Sean O’Donnell and Matt Walker — and an offensive arsenal that rivals any other NHL team, coach Peter Laviolette thinks so.

“I think our guys will be pretty motivated, just because we got so close,” Laviolette said. “I think if we have a good training camp, there’s no reason we can’t come out and find success through the course of the regular season.”

While the loss of Simon Gagne hurts, General Manager Paul Holmgren hopes offseason acquisition Nikolai Zherdev will pick up some of the slack.

The Flyers took their fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride in 2009-10. A coaching change, countless injuries, rumors of dressing-room turmoil and even a five-man goalie carousel couldn’t derail the Flyers’ remarkable postseason run. They became the third team in League history to overcome a 3-0 playoff series deficit against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but fell short of becoming the third team ever to rally from a 2-0 hole in a Cup Final.

In our last segment of Summer Stories, philadelphiaflyers.com catches up with Flyers captain Mike Richards, who carried the team to its eighth Stanley Cup Final appearance in its history and is the leading force of the defending Eastern Conference Champions as they enter the 2010-11 season.

Richards was quick to admit the loss in Game 6 to the Blackhawks certainly hurt, but it by no means lingered throughout his off-season.

Flyers Center Blair Betts Stats

Recently Andrej Meszaros, Jody Shelley and Matt Walker all share more than a few things in common.

All three find themselves on a new team this season. All three arrived at the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone this week, started skating and met some of their new teammates. And of course all three players were on the outside looking in during last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It’s that last factor that each of them would like to put behind them, but it is also the reason that all three of them are here and excited to join the Flyers organization.

“I was very excited,” said Walker upon arriving earlier in the week. “Obviously coming to a team of this caliber you hear nothing but good things and then you show up and see the facility, and how hard the guys are working. Everything is at your disposal here, from the trainers and everybody on the ice, it’s been nothing short of great.”

Every year around this time, the operations crew at the Wells Fargo Center with the help of equipment manager Anthony “Rock” Oratorio, help refurbish and renovate the Flyers locker room at the Wells Fargo Center.

Composed of many different rooms, all with very different functions, the Flyers locker room goes through its annual painting, maintenance and updating.

Designed with the rich history and tradition of the Flyers organization in mind, the Orange and Black locker room contains two primary walls.

Flyers Best Fights & Hits of 2009 – 2010 Season

Chris Pronger will not be operating at 100 percent when the Flyers open training camp at the Virtua Center Flyers Skatezone on Friday Sept. 17.

He is currently recovering and rehabbing at the Flyers practice facility in Voorhees, N.J. following his surgery to remove “loose bodies” from his knee area on July 27 at Virtua Hospital by Dr. Peter DeLuca.