Keith Yandle sets NHL record for most consecutive games

Despite the fact the Philadelphia Flyers have been downright awful as of late, (a franchise record 13-game winless streak dating back to December 29), one Flyers defenseman did make hockey history on Tuesday. That is when Keith Yandle of Boston, MA set the NHL record for the most consecutive games with 965.

Yandle has played in every single game for his team since March 26, 2009. In that time he played 448 straight games with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes from 2009 to 2015, 103 straight games with the New York Rangers from 2015 to 2016, 371 straight games with the Florida Panthers from 2016 to 2021, and 43 games this season with the Flyers. During his time in the NHL, there were rumours of Yandle being traded to Edmonton and Boston, but they never materialized.

Now that Yandle has broken Doug Jarvis’s remarkable streak of 964 games (Jarvis’s streak went from 1975 to 1987), it will be interesting to see how long it will take before the Flyers bench their veteran blueliner. The reason is because he is a terrible -23, and has not scored in 43 games as a Flyer this season. Yes, he does have 13 assists, but there is no doubt the Flyers were probably expecting more.

There is another player who could pass Jarvis rather soon. That is because Phil Kessel of Madison, WI has also played 941 consecutive games. Ironically, Kessel’s streak also began in 2009.

The Flyers meanwhile are struggling mightily, and the Mike Yeo days as head coach of Philadelphia could be coming to an end soon. He was named the interim head coach of Philadelphia on December 6 when the team fired Alain Vigneault.Since then Yeo has only won five of 21 games.

In other hockey news, the Vancouver Canucks have named Patrik Allvin as their new general manager. A native of Fallun, Sweden, Allvin has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In Pittsburgh, Allvin worked closely with former Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, who is now the Canucks president of hockey operations. With the Penguins, Allvin won a Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017.