Le Journal

After a truly brutal showing against a struggling Rangers team on home ice on Saturday afternoon, and seeing their losing streak stretch on to six games, the Flyers are still looking around for answers and hoping that a trip out West will see their luck change. They have quite a steep hill to climb here — not only have they dug themselves quite a deep hole with their own play, but their first stop is Vegas to face off against the Golden Knights, who sit at the top of the standings in the Pacific. There’s a bit of a mismatch in the strength of their lineups, to say the least, but the hope is that the Flyers can at least manage some incremental improvement, and get things slowly moving in the right direction again. Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.How to watch/listen:📺: NBCSP+📻: 93.3 WMMR Pregame reading The Flyers’ center depth has taken a hit, and that’s thrown a bit of a wrench in the works of the plan to do a bit of managing of Sean Couturier’s workload. [BSH] Speaking of which, it seems a little weird, and a bit of a missed opportunity, that the Flyers haven’t used this moment to take a real run at the Trevor Zegras at center experiment. [BSH] Pregame watching By the numbers Philadelphia Flyers – 22-17-8 (5th in Metro) Goals: Trevor Zegras (18)Assists: Travis Konecny (25)Points: Trevor Zegras (42) Vegas Golden Knights – 24-11-12 (1st in Pacific) Goals: Mika Zibanejad (18)Assists: Artemi Panarin (35)Points: Artemi Panarin (51) Projected lineups Philadelphia Flyers Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett Matvei Michkov — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett Nikita Grebenkin — Lane Pederson* — Garnet Hathaway Emil Andrae — Travis Sanheim Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale Noah Juulsen — Cam York Sam Ersson (Aleksei Kolosov) Vegas Golden Knights Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone Pavel Dorofeyev — Mitch Marner — Reilly Smith Keegan Kolesar — Tomas Hertl — Braeden Bowman Cole Reinhardt — Tanner Laczynski — Alexander Holtz Jeremy Lauzon — Shea Theodore Noah Hanifin — Rasmus Andersson* Ben Hutton — Kaeden Korczak Adin Hill(Akira Schmid) Storylines to watch A more even effort The Flyers’ showing against the Rangers on Saturday was, in a word, rough. There’s a small positive to be found in that they were able to build up a bit more offense later in the game, found their legs eventually, but it remains that the damage was well and truly done by then, and waking up only when it turns to garbage time is not the most remarkable of feats. The Flyers’ sluggish, disorganized start was as much a killer in that one as was the less than optimal performance from Aleksei Kolosov, and the reality of their situation right now is that they simply cannot afford to keep not fully starting these games on time. They had the benefit of getting the first goal, which wasn’t nothing, but their inability to sustain that bit of momentum was troubling. This matchup will make things more challenging on them, but starting this game well and keeping up a more consistent level of energy and attention to detail will need to be a particular point of emphasis as they approach tonight’s game (and this challenging trip, broadly). Brink returns The Flyers’ troubles at the moment are numerous, but their depleted offense has certainly presented as one of the more significant ones, as they’re looking to really get their scoring game firing again. And while it’s going to take more than just one piece added into the mix to fix things around here, the group getting healthier is moving them in the right direction. The Flyers look like they’ll be getting a bit of a boost this evening, as Bobby Brink has been removed from IR and, after taking practice…

FILE – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial during the 9th Annual Wreath Laying and Day of Reflection and Reconciliation, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) He helped pave the way for Martin Luther King Jr. and others to end Jim Crow — but few know his name. So respected was this civil rights pioneer that, at his funeral in 1961, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall served as a pallbearer, and King delivered his invocation. His name is John Wesley Dobbs. I learned about his incredible story after reading Bill Steigerwald’s powerful 2017 book, “30 Days a Black Man,” which documents Dobbs’ civil rights contributions. Born into poverty in 1882 in rural Kennesaw, Georgia, Dobbs’ parents were former slaves — his mother’s biological father was a slave owner. Smart and driven, Dobbs educated himself by reading constantly. Though he attended college briefly, he had to drop out to care for his ill mother and never earned a college degree. In his early 20s, he passed the federal civil service exam and became a railway clerk for the U.S. Post Office. For 32 years, he sorted mail overnight on trains from Atlanta, armed with a pistol. Rising to the position of supervisor — a remarkable feat for a Black man in the Jim Crow era — he earned enough to support his family of six daughters while gaining respect in Atlanta’s African American community. A gifted orator who memorized hundreds of poems and Shakespearean lines, Dobbs believed the best way to end Jim Crow was through the ballot box. He worked tirelessly to register thousands of Black voters in Atlanta and used his growing influence with the white Democratic power structure to get the city to hire its first Black police officers. It was in 1948 — at age 66 — that Dobbs risked his life to bring national media attention to the injustice 10 million Black Americans were suffering daily under Jim Crow. Up North, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named Ray Sprigle decided to go undercover as a light-skinned Black man in the Jim Crow South for a month. Teamed with Sprigle by the NAACP, Dobbs guided and protected him during their 3,000-mile car journey. Dobbs introduced Sprigle to sharecroppers, families of lynching victims and local leaders. They visited segregated schools and stayed in the homes of Black farmers and doctors. Sprigle, deeply moved and angered by what he saw and experienced, said he was ashamed to be an American. His newspaper series documenting life in the Deep South shocked white readers in the North. Time magazine praised Sprigle’s series. So did national Black leaders and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was syndicated to about a dozen major newspapers from New York to Seattle — but nowhere in the South. To protect Dobbs, Sprigle never mentioned him by name. The general public barely knew of Dobbs’ role until Steigerwald wrote about his story for the Post-Gazette in 1998. Dobbs died in 1961 — the same week that Atlanta’s public schools were integrated. By that time, all six of his daughters had graduated from Spelman College and gone on to become professors, educators and community leaders. One of them, Mattiwilda, became a famous opera singer in Europe. But Dobbs’ legacy extended even further: In 1974, his grandson, Maynard Jackson Jr., became the first Black mayor of Atlanta. Long before landmark laws were passed and marches filled the streets, Dobbs’ work helped push the nation toward the civil rights breakthroughs that finally dismantled Jim Crow. And now you know John Wesley Dobbs’ name. – Copyright 2026 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (AP) — More than 100 vehicles smashed into each other or slid off the interstate in Michigan on Monday as snow fueled by the Great Lakes blanketed the state. The massive pileup Monday morning prompted the Michigan State Police to close both directions of Interstate 196 just southwest of Grand Rapids near Hudsonville while officials worked to remove all the vehicles, including more than 30 semitrailer trucks. The State Police said there were numerous injuries, but no deaths had been reported. The crash is just the latest impact of the major winter storm moving across the country. The National Weather Service issued warnings about either extremely cold temperatures or the potential for winter storms across several states starting in northern Minnesota and stretching south and east into Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. A day earlier, snow fell as far south as the Florida Panhandle and made it harder for football players to hang onto the ball during playoff games in Massachusetts and Chicago. Forecasters warned Monday that freezing temperatures are possible overnight into Tuesday across much of north-central Florida and southeast Georgia. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s office in Michigan said multiple crashes and jack-knifed semis were reported along with numerous cars that slid off the road. Stranded motorists were being bused to Hudsonville High School, where they could call for help or arrange a ride. Officials expected the road to be closed for several hours during the cleanup.

The Philadelphia Flyers are by far not the strongest team at the center position, but they are trying to work with what they got. Part of that is, according to head coach Rick Tocchet, managing captain Sean Couturier’s workload so that he can be as effective as possible. Heading into this season, the Flyers added Christian Dvorak to their center depth, but they still are sorely lacking quality high-end players down the middle. Noah Cates has done an admirable job trying to resolve the issue, and Dvorak has certainly played well this season, playing himself into a five-year extension with the club. However, the injury to Rodrigo Abols puts the Flyers — already rather thin — even thinner at the center position. The most likely result is that Cates, Dvorak and Sean Couturier are going to have pick up more of the slack unless Flyers general manager Danny Briere tries a short-term fix in a trade. The injury also puts the team in a no-win situation of sorts. While Abols was working with fourth-line minutes, it’s still a position they’re now down an NHL-level player. And with Couturier not getting any younger, and going through a rather bad goalless streak, it’s crucial the Flyers try to get Couturier going without Tocchet benching him for a brief reset. Rick Tocchet wants to manage Sean Couturier’s workload better In a post-practice presser Sunday in Vegas, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet hinted that Couturier hasn’t looked quite as strong the last few weeks as he has earlier in the season. “He always tries, I think his energy level we have to manage it maybe,” the coach said when asked about the forward and longest-serving Flyer currently on the club. “But you know, you only have so many centers and he’s got to take a chunk of it. There’s some management time maybe. I think his energy level hasn’t been as great the last couple of weeks. “So maybe manage him and give him more days off, things like how to manage him. But he still does good things, he’s got a good stick and he does the little things good for us. Things like winning draws is big. That’s part of another thing; on our power play we don’t win draws. I mean that’s thirty-second so. Maybe if we can’t win draws then we might have to get him back out there again. But we’re trying to save his ice time too.” It’s a tough spot for both the coach and the forward. It seems apparent Couturier has hit a wall. Whether it’s the ridiculously condensed schedule for all teams with the Winter Olympics on the horizon, or just hitting a wall like he did in previous years, Couturier hasn’t looked as strong as he did even a month or six weeks ago. He hasn’t scored in 2026, and has just four assists. In fact, he hasn’t scored since Dec. 7 in a loss to Colorado. He did seemingly get a bit of a bump for a few games when the Flyers called up winger Denver Barkey, giving Couturier a younger, high IQ linemate who has done quite well in his short time in Philadelphia. But it appears Tocchet is going to have to figure out a way to limit Couturier a few ways. How can the Flyers get the most out of Couturier? One way would be to possibly have him take more practices off between games and allow himself to take more maintenance days. This approach to his workload might help in the short-term, particularly once the Flyers finish their pre-Olympic schedule on Feb. 5. Most likely Couturier can nurse and bumps and bruises in that nearly three-week period of downtime to be ready for the equally condensed gauntlet of games the rest of the way. But given the dearth of depth, Couturier is almost one of the core go-to guys down the middle, possibly playing in a top-six role when the energy required isn’t quite there. Granted, Tocchet and the coaching staff have curtailed Couturier’s minutes this month. After averaging 18:09 per game in…