Flyers-Hurricanes postponed; will be played tomorrow

For the first time in more than two decades, a Philadelphia Flyers regular-season home game has been postponed due to inclement weather.

The club announced earlier in the afternoon that no make-up date was revealed, but thanks to some maneuvering by the National Hockey League later on, the contest will go on tomorrow evening, with a 6 PM start time.

The last time a home game began with that earlier start time was a Flyers-Canadiens game on February 12, 2010, the club's final one before the NHL went on hiatus for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Philly came out on the right side of a 3-2 decision to the Habs on that Friday evening, roughly 48 hours after being slammed with its second 12-inch-plus snow event in less than one week. 

A Flyers insider previously reported that the next closest day that the contest could be rescheduled within the rules of the new CBA would be March 10. By-laws prohibit a team from playing games on three consecutive nights, which is why tonight's game could not be played tomorrow as the Hurricanes already have back-to-backs this week.

However, late breaking news from Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer revealed that the league was working to move Carolina's game against Ottawa to Saturday in order to accomodate a Wednesday start time. That is what did occur a short time ago.

The last time a Flyers game was postponed, was March 13, 1993, during the so-called "Storm of the Century," whose wicked winds caused a pane of glass on the Spectrum concourse to break once the contest between Los Angeles and Philadelphia had already begun. It was later re-played from the start on April 1, with the Kings taking a 3-1 victory.

Two more casualties of that storm was that subsequent road games in Pittsburgh and Hartford had to be moved due to the aftermath of the blizzard. The Flyers lost to the Penguins, 9-3, one week later, then topped the Whalers, 5-4 in overtime, on the final day of the regular season.

A Flyers-Capitals preseason game in September of 1999 was called off due to the ravages of Hurricane Floyd, which flooded most of the Northeast.

Oddly enough, during the Blizzard of 1996, when Philly received its single largest snowfall ever at 30 inches, no games were postponed. While most schools had the week off and the area was digging out, the Orange and Black played to a 2-2 tie against Anaheim and a 4-4 tie with St. Louis on home ice.