There’s a longstanding Kings-Flyers connection in place. Dean Lombardi was a scout for the Flyers before becoming Kings general manager. Terry Murray was the head coach and assistant coach in two stints with the Flyers. Kings assistant GM Ron Hextall was a part of the Philadelphia organization as a player and front-office member. On the ice, Michal Handzus and Justin Williams once played for Philadelphia while Flyers defenseman Sean O’Donnell and (injured) forward Ian Laperriere are former Kings. There’s one more. Kings assistant coach John Stevens will be facing the Flyers for the first time since they fired him as head coach last season and replaced him with Peter Laviolette. Stevens (pictured, right) had a 120-109-34 record as Flyers head coach, and today the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about tonight’s “reunion.”
Flyers will get to see ex-coach Stevens
That won’t be the only reunion. The Kings’ Kevin Westgarth and the Flyers’ Darroll Powe are both 2007 graduates of Princeton University, and are two of the three Princeton alums currently in the NHL. (Anaheim’s George Parros is the third.) Look for a lot of polysyllabic trash talk on the ice tonight…
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