PHILADELPHIA — In his second game back after a challenging abdominal injury, Kevin Hayes gave the Flyers an emotional lift in a 2-1 overtime victory over the Calgary Flames.
Just three months after the death of his brother, former NHL player Jimmy Hayes, Kevin scored at 4:37 of the second period to force a 1-1 tie, then immediately paused to point to the sky in tribute.
Cam Atkinson supplied the game-winner 45 seconds into overtime.
“He (Hayes) has worked real hard to come back,” Alain Vigneault said. “And that was a big help to score and tie the game — big for us, and very nice for him.”
Vigneault appreciated the emotion of the moment.
“No doubt that goal was significant for him personally, and also for his family,” Vigneault said. “Hopefully it’s a start of many more to come.”
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With Vigneault declaring Ryan Ellis “week to week” with a hamstring injury, defenseman Nick Seeler was promoted from Lehigh Valley to pair with Keith Yandle on a semi-regular basis.
“I love playing with him,” Seeler said after a morning skate. “He’s really good at communicating on the bench or on the ice and he’s a heck of a player.”
Though left-handed, Seeler is enthused about playing on the right side.
“Being that ‘depth’ defenseman, you are willing to play on either side,” said Seeler, who has not supplied a point through his first 12 Flyers games. “They started me on the right side, and it is feeling more and more comfortable every game, which is a good feeling. And I am just going to continue to build off of that.”
Ellis, acquired from Nashville in the Nolan Patrick sell-off, has played just four games, re-injuring himself in a Saturday loss to Dallas.
Given the chance Tuesday, Vigneault did not rule out surgery for the 30-year-old veteran of 11 NHL seasons.
“I don’t know, we’re in the evaluation process here,” the coach said. “He’s seeing a doctor today and he’s seeing one tomorrow. Until we get some results of their their findings, I won’t have anything for a couple of days.”
Until Ellis returns, Vigneault will trust Seeler, who made a return to the NHL this season after taking last year off.
“I have really liked this young man, who basically didn’t play hockey last year and came here and had a real strong training camp,” Vigneault said. “He caught our attention with his skating ability and that he comes in and plays hard.
“I was looking through the competition for that seventh spot, and he really caught our attention. I mentioned in training camp that your seventh defenseman is going to play 50 or 60 games just by how things unfold in a season. He has been good for us.”
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Paul Holmgren and Rick Tocchet joined the Flyers Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony attended by, among others, the previously inducted Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach, Mark Howe, Dave Schultz, John LeClair, Gary Dornhoefer and Eric Lindros.
Tocchet, the franchise leader in penalty minutes, found it fitting to enter the Hall with Holmgren, who’d previously held the record.
“For sure,” he said. “When I got drafted here, the teams they had with Homer and those types of guys, just hanging around them, it taught me what it meant to be a Flyer. Homer and I were similar types of players. You needed to have those kinds of players to win.”
Holmgren was similarly pleased to enter with Tocchet, a player when he was the head coach.
“No one better epitomized what it meant to be a Flyer than Rick Tocchet,” said Holmgren, who played for the Flyers from 1976 through 1983.
Holmgren received the jersey he wore in Game 2 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Final when he became the first American-born player to post a hat trick in the final round. Tocchet, who played parts of 10 seasons for the Flyers, was presented with the jersey he wore in the 1985-86 season.
During early warmups, the Flyers all wore either No. 17 for Holmgren or No. 22 for Tocchet.
