Flyers continue vigorous stretch with weekend back-to-back

Ice hockey is a physical game. And there’s a reason why they don’t play games every day, like they do in Major League Baseball.

But that didn’t stop NHL schedule-makers from scheduling 15 Flyers games in the month of February. It’s a marathon and a spring all mixed into one.

“We’re not going to have a lot of practice opportunities here especially over the next month,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said.”It’s about being ready to play on game day, doing whatever that takes physically and mentally and we got to do as good a job as we can being fresh physically and allowing ourselves to be fresh mentally.”

The action doesn’t relent this weekend, as Philly will host division rivals the Rangers Saturday (at 1 p.m. on CSN) before heading to the nation’s capital to play Washington Sunday (at noon on NBC).

It’s a tough back-to-back, especially with the Flyers trailing both the Rangers and Capitals in the standings as they chase a spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

But the Flyers aren’t complaining.

“Sometimes it’s better when you play every other day,” Jakub Voracek said.”I don’t like practice as much, I’d rather play the games. It’s good for us, we have to make sure we find a way to win.”