Yesterday was one of the more unusual days of practice at the SkateZone in Voorhees. The Flyers had to go back to work with no idea of their next opponent, venue or game date. As a result, conditioning and togetherness were the main themes of the day.
Max Talbot said it best.
"We just treated it a good day at the office," he said. "Everyone came in with a smile on their face this morning. We went out and worked hard together today. That has value."
Matt Carle's mindset was typical of the most of the players in the room.
"Physically, I just focused today on working up a good sweat. Mentally, it's a good time for all of us to recharge the batteries a little bit and get refocused on the next series," said the defenseman, who logged heavy-duty minutes in the Pittsburgh series.
Some of the veterans had previously been in the position of closing out a first-round playoff series well ahead of everyone else and, consequently, spending several days practicing for an unknown opponent. But it was a new experience for the young players and even a few veterans.
Wayne Simmonds allowed that it is "kind of weird" mentally to come to the rink with six possible opponents still on the table. But Braydon Coburn hastened to add, "Waiting beats what the alternative would have been today."
Of course, if the Flyers had not closed out their series with the Penguins on Sunday afternoon, they would have been in Pittsburgh yesterday preparing for Game 7 after having lost a 3-0 lead in the series.
So in this case, that old Tom Petty song had it all wrong. The waiting is the easiest part.
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Danny Briere (suspected ongoing back issues) and Kimmo Timonen (back and lower-body issues) did not participate at practice yesterday. They did off-ice workouts.
Andrej Meszaros participated in his first practice with the full squad after undergoing back surgery in March. Wearing a no-contact gray jersey, he skated first in the morning session with rehabbing players and the Black Aces (minor league callups) and then skated in the first portion of the full practice at noon. He is still a couple weeks from returning.
Nicklas Grossmann participated only in the morning session led by Blair Betts, Ian Laperriere and Derian Hatcher. The big Swede looked good but one can never tell how a player dealing with a concussion is actually feeling.
James van Riemsdyk took part in both sessions. He is still trying to fully regain his skating stride and timing after early March foot surgery. Peter Laviolette used him sparingly in Games 5 and 6 of the Pittsburgh series.
Marc-Andre Bourdon still has yet to return to the ice. Although the team will not officially admit he's had a recurrence of the concussion symptoms that previously sidelined him for several weeks, that is what appears to be the case with the rookie defenseman.
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Yesterday's practice was devoted mostly to conditioning skating. The latter part of practice was a little reward for the players from Peter Laviolette -- a fun little two-on-two game conducted from half boards to half boards.
There was a lot of laughter and needling at the end of practice. Apart from practicing shootout moves, the mini-rink two-on-two competition is one of many players' favorite end-of-practice activities (it can't really be called a drill).
"The biggest thing right now is to make sure we keep moving on the ice," said Peter Laviolette. "You’re planning for the long haul. You’re planning to mid-June, and I think it’s real important to keep the guys out there as a unit. We didn't want the players focus on systems today. I thought we had a really great pace.”
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After practice yesterday, the local beat writers and I spoke with Joe Mullen about the Flyers' power play success in the first round, the team's 19.7 percent success rate in the regular season and the prospects of continued success moving forward in the playoffs.
Said Mullen, "We've done nothing different. We try to keep everything the same and just work on execution. That's been the main thing in the playoffs."
On connecting on 53 percent of their first-round power plays against the Penguins' 3rd-ranked penalty kill:
Mullen: "It's not always that way. As long as it's going good, you just try to ride it and keep the guys sharp on the power play. Nobody expects 50 (percent). I don't think we can go up from that. If we do, great. But if we don't ... well, most of the time, chances are you're going to go lower."
Wayne Simmonds said one big key is staying with the same units. Is there temptation to change things when you struggle?
Mullen: "Always. Always when you struggle, you want to look for answers. The first answer is, do we change things up short-term? Sometimes you go back to what's been going well for you all year. You gotta make that decision and we like keeping them together because they're done a good job all year."
The team was tied for 5th in the NHL at 19.7 percent this season. You did it without Pronger and had 66 goals, the most in the league. How did you compensate?
Mullen: "We were pretty much without Pronger all year because he only played (13) games. Well, we put Kimmo there and he's been out there the last five years. He's very capable of quarterbacking that unit and being the main focus up top, other than G. Kimmo is the type of guy like Pronger who can settle things down when it starts getting a little hectic out there."
You could be playing 6 teams next round. Everyone's systems are different. Are studying them all?
Mullen: "No. There's no reason to do that. We've seen everybody anyways. To sit down and watch down and watch all guys that you might be playing is crazy."
Will you make adjustments when you know you're playing?
Mullen: "You might tweak things a little bit based on what the other team is doing. Everybody does pretty much the same thing, but they tweak things a little bit. We tweak it a little bit on the breakout. We watch the video. Everybody pretty much does the same thing."
When you were a player, you were part of great Pittsburgh and Calgary power plays. What did you take from them to give to the Flyers as a coach?
Mullen: "I think when you're really going good, there's no hesitation. People are getting pucks and moving them. There's no thinking about where you're going, there's no holding on to it too long. If you're moving the puck quickly, the chances of them putting that much pressure on you are slim."
Does being a good power play player translate to power play coaching ... on passing that knowledge along?
Mullen: "Well, I'd like to think so and that's the reason they hired me, to be the power play coach. I think the players listen because they have the respect. They understand I've been in those positions before. I just try to go out and do my job and pass that along to them ... what I've seen in the past when I played and what they're doing now.
On moving Jagr to second unit to have both Wayne Simmonds and Scott Hartnell on the first unit:
Mullen: "That happened because Jagr was hurt at the time. We put Hartnell and Simmonds together and they got red-hot, and they pretty much stayed that way until the end of the season. Any time you can bigger and talented guys in front of the net, it's going to help you. They're harder to move. We got Simmonds there. He stands right in front of the goalie and he's hard to move. Then Hartnell gets to move around, and when we do get the puck around the net, he's tough to move out, too."
What are your impressions of your second power play unit?
Mullen: "Schenn's doing a good job in front of the net. There's a lot to watch out for. The other team is looking over their shoulder all the time ... the second unit might be as good as the first unit."
Does depth on PP have a wear-down effect on opposing PK in the playoffs?
Mullen: "I think it does. I feel like we have two good groups. If we need to go, 45 seconds, one minute with our second unit, we're totally comfortable with it. You can't always start the power play with the first group and so it's a big help to have depth. We always have fresh troops out there, and that can have an effect in a game or a playoff series."
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The Flyers got some bad -- but not unexpected -- news from overseas yesterday. Finnish goaltending prospect Niko Hovinen needs offseason hip surgery.
The 6-foot-7 netminder missed several portions of the second half of the season -- including much of the playoffs -- with the lower-body ailment. He did record a pair of playoff shutouts, including one in the finals, but was unable to play in the last three games as his Pelicans Lahti team lost in five games to JYP Jyväsklyä.
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