Steve Mason on a roll, night after night

NASHVILLE - If it was up to him, Flyers goalie Steve Mason would like to play every night.

Lately, that's almost been the case.

Mason, in his best groove of the season, was outstanding Sunday night as the Flyers defeated Nashville, 4-2. It was his 10th start in the last 11 games, and he is thriving on the workload.

"This is the situation I want to be in," said Mason, who has gotten most of the playing time since Michal Neuvirth went down with a knee injury. "It's a workload that all summer long you prepare for."

Mason made his fourth straight start since rookie Anthony Stolarz defeated Calgary, 5-3,on Nov. 27 to trigger a five-game winning streak.

Thanks to that day off, Mason got "a couple of work days to just work on the details of his game, and that's important," coach Dave Hakstol said.

In his last four starts, Mason has a .945 save percentage.

Seventeen dads attended the Flyers' father-son weekend, including three from outside Canada and the United States: Luri Lyubimov (Roman's father) from Russia, Peter Raffl (father of Michael) from Austria, and Miloslav Voracek (Jake's father) from the Czech Republic.

They attended Saturday's 3-1 win over visiting Chicago, then traveled to Nashville for Sunday's victory.

Peter Raffl took a three-hour train ride from Austria to Munich and then a nine-hour flight to Philadelphia to be reunited with his son.

The fathers shared meals with their sons, stayed in the same hotel rooms, and attended team meetings together.

"The best part of the trip is to have fun with my son and to just see him play," said the older Raffl, who was a star player in Austria - he had his number retired - and played on some Olympic teams.

"I love having him around," said Michael Raffl, who scored the game-winner Sunday. "I was begging him to come, especially after he couldn't make it last year because my mom broke her leg and he had to take care of some stuff."

Lyubimov said his father coached some of his youth teams in Russia and influenced his hockey development.

There was a communication glitch, however, when one of the fathers animatedly tried to ask Luri Lyubimov, who doesn't speak English, how long it took to fly from Russia to Philadelphia. He typed the question into his phone and showed the answer: five years.

Radko Gudas missed his second straight game with the flu but will be available for Tuesday's game against visiting Florida, general manager Ron Hextall said. . . . Neuvirth will skate Monday and the Flyers hope he can return in mid-December.