right circle past Pickard, who was screened by Christian Fischer.Couturier put Philadelphia back up two goals, shooting into an open net from the right circle after Grabner collided with Kuemper

The Philadelphia Flyers were busy during their four-day break in the schedule.A week after firing Ron Hextall as the club’s general manager Adidas Riley Nash Jersey , the Flyers named Chuck Fletcher as the man in charge.“At the conclusion of a rigorous review of GM candidates, Chuck Fletcher clearly stood out from the field of talented and capable executives we considered,” Dave Scott, chairman and CEO of Comcast Spectacor and Flyers governor, said in a statement released by the club.Article continues below ...“Chuck has earned success throughout his impressive NHL career and offers the right mix of expertise, business acumen and leadership qualities that the Flyers need today as we work to achieve our ultimate goal, the Stanley Cup championship.”Fletcher spent nine seasons as the GM of the Minnesota Wild and was fired last year. Now, he’s running an 11-12-2 team that heads into Thursday night’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets — with a one-game winning streak.Philly ended a two-game losing streak with a 4-2 win at Pittsburgh last Saturday night and look to even the season series with the Jackets, who beat the Flyers 6-3 in Columbus on Oct. 18.The Jackets are coming off a wild — and rather bizarre — 9-6 home loss to the Calgary Flames that was a rather historical game for coach John Tortorella.Not in a good way.“They had 11 scoring chances and they scored nine goals,” Tortorella said after his team’s second straight loss. “I have never been in a game like this.”Sergei Bobrovsky allowed eight goals on 26 shots before being relieved in the third period — Cam Atkinson’s hat trick and extending his points streak to 11 straight games wasted as the Jackets fell to 15-10-2.“We played a really good first period, then for whatever reason sat back and let them play,” Atkinson said. “I don’t think we checked hard. We made it a really easy game for them Adidas Anthony Duclair Jersey , and they just capitalized.”With his new team 28th in the NHL allowing 3.52 goals per game, Fletcher is intent on improving the defense.“It’s not the ideal situation. It’s not a normal situation when you have a GM coming in midway through the season,” said D-man Shayne Gostisbehere.“Anything in life, you only get one first impression, so you obviously want to be on your game. Hopefully, we can string some wins.”Anthony Stolarz, the latest in the ever-growing list of goaltenders for this team, got his first win since 2016 against Pittsburgh.Bobrovsky, who fell to 10-9-0 with Tuesday night’s loss, has dominated the Flyers, his old team, since leaving going 11-3-1 with a 1.98 GAA and .931 save percentage. He is expected to face Stolarz Adidas Martin Hanzal Jersey , a draft pick the Flyers received when they traded Bobrovsky.Calvin Pickard was in goal for the Flyers in the Oct. 18 loss, with Atkinson scoring twice for Columbus.The Jackets blew a 4-1 lead Tuesday night.“I fought all night long as far as, should I take (Bobrovsky out)? all night long, because you could see,” Tortorella said. “But some of them were deflected and there was some crazy … it was just one of those nights. He didn’t look comfortable, but I just decided to see if he could play through it.”“That game was a fluke,” said Jackets captain Nick Foligno. “You’re going to see the real Columbus Blue Jackets tomorrow in the way we’re going to play. We have to.”Atkinson’s streak is the second-longest in club history, trailing only a 13-gamer by Ryan Johansen. Atkinson has 13 goals and six assists during his streak and his hat trick was his club-record sixth of his career.New Flyers assistant coach Rick Wilson officially joined the team on the ice for practice Wednesday. The 68-year-old Wilson also worked for Fletcher in Minnesota. GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Philadelphia Flyers struggled to start the season and have seen one goalie after another go down with injuries.They kept battling and now are back to .500 after earning seven of a possible eight points on a just-completed road trip.Claude Giroux had two goals and an assist, Calvin Pickard stopped 35 shots and the Flyers beat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 on Monday night.Once 4-7, Philadelphia went 3-0-1 on a swing through California and Arizona to get its season headed back in the right direction.“Tonight for sure wasn’t our prettiest game, but we found a way to win Adidas Blake Comeau Jersey ,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s a lot of strengths that we like out of this road trip and there’s a lot of areas we can look at and try to improve as well.”The Flyers jumped on the Coyotes early, going up 2-0 after first-period goals from Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere. Sean Couturier also scored and Oskar Lindblom added an empty-net goal to help the Flyers end Arizona’s five-game winning streak.“We probably needed a little more from a couple of guys, but the main part, I thought we battled back,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “In the third period, we had our chances, they scored on theirs.”Pickard made his second straight start after Michael Neuvirth was placed on injured reserve and Brian Elliott was injured in a collision with teammate Travis Konecny during practice Sunday.Pickard was sharp most of the night, giving up Alex Galchenyuk’s power-play goal in the second period and Michael Grabner’s goal late in the third after giving up four goals in an overtime loss to San Jose on Sunday.“It’s good to get in a rhythm for sure,” Picard said after his fifth start of the season. “I’m starting to get more comfortable and I thought the last two were my best two so far.”The Coyotes went on a scoring binge during their win streak, outscoring opponents 24-7 over five games, including four straight games with at least three goals in the first period.Philadelphia had the jump early in this one, though Adidas Erik Condra Jersey , scoring midway through the first on a shot by Giroux from the blue line that goalie Darcy Kuemper had trouble seeing through traffic.Gostisbehere scored from near the same spot on a power play late in the period on a shot that caromed off Arizona center Derek Stepan’s stick past Kuemper.“It was a tough bounce,” Kuemper said. “Everyone’s trying to do the right thing and it kind of takes a weird deflection, but what can you do? You just have to keep working and get back into it.”The Coyotes did 64 seconds into the second period on a power play, when Galchenyuk wristed a shot from the right circle past Pickard, who was screened by Christian Fischer.Couturier put Philadelphia back up two goals, shooting into an open net from the right circle after Grabner collided with Kuemper and knocked him out of the crease.Giroux put the game out of reach with his sixth goal of the season in the third period, using a deke to beat Kuemper after a feed from Wayne Simmonds.“We’re happy about our road trip here, but we can’t be satisfied,” Lindblom said. “We have to come home and have a good stretch and build on this road trip, keep climbing in the standings.”NOTES: The Flyers called up Alex Lyon from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to shore up their lack of depth at goalie. … Coyotes D Kevin Connauton returned after missing two games with an illness. … The Flyers have allowed a power-play goal in eight straight games. … Arizona’s run of four straight games with a short-handed goal ended.UP NEXTThe Flyers and Coyotes meet against on Thursday in Philadelphia.