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This week is very light in terms of Flyers-related and Flyers prospect games. The Adirondack Phantoms are Trenton Titans are both idle until Friday of this week. Meanwhile, all eight of the Flyers playing in Europe during the lockout are now on club team schedule breaks of 10 days or more.
The European seasons start and end earlier than their North American counterparts, so that they can accommodate several schedule breaks during the season. The current break overlaps with the Karjala Cup tournament as well as lower-profile international tourneys involving many of the secondary hockey countries.
In Canada, the Super Series starts on Monday, with the touring Russian national J20 team playing two games apiece against squads representing each of the three CHL-affiliated major junior leagues. The schedule is as follows:
Game 1 – Monday November 5 at Blainville-Boisbriand, QC (QMJHL)
Game 2 – Wednesday November 7 at Val-d’Or, QC (QMJHL)
Game 3 – Thursday November 8 at Guelph, ON (OHL)
Game 4 – Monday November 12 at Sarnia, ON (OHL)
Game 5 – Wednesday November 14 at Vancouver, BC (WHL)
Game 6 – Thursday November 15 at Victoria, BC (WHL)
Apart from the Russia vs. Team QMJHL match, there are no major junior games being played on Monday. It is an open date in both the OHL and WHL. Their schedules resume on Tuesday, which is a non-game day in the Super Series.
With the game schedule lightening up this week, I have more opportunity to focus my Flyers blogs on the progress of particular players during the lockout. From Monday through Thursday of this week, the lead section of each day's blog will take an in-depth look at certain notable players on the Phantoms and Titans.
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Couturier and Schenn Carrying Load for Adirondack
One of my biggest concerns for the Adirondack Phantoms heading into the 2012-13 season was whether the club would have sufficient scoring depth. Even with the additions of Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier during the NHL lockout, this was still a team that often struggled a year ago to put pucks in the net with any consistency.
Through the first nine games of the season, the Phantoms have scored 23 goals (2.56 goals per game. Heading into Sunday's games, the Phantoms ranked 20th in that category among the AHL's 30 clubs. The club ranked 22nd in power play efficiency (7-for-55, 12.7%).
Schenn and Couturier have done their part, however. Among the 23 goals the Phantoms have scored to date, either Schenn or Couturier (or both) has been the goal scorer or been credited with an assist on 15 of them. In other words, two players have been involved in 65.2 percent of the Phantoms total output this season.
To put things into a bigger picture, even without the benefit of having multiple scoring threats around them, Schenn and Couturier have stacked up very well against other "big name" young NHL players from other organizations assigned to the AHL during the lockout, as well top prospects who would be NHL rookies were it not for the work stoppage.
To date, Schenn has 11 points in nine games (4 goals, 7 assists). He's tied for 10th on the AHL's scoring leader board. Couturier has one fewer point (2 goals, 8 assists). Here's how that compares with some of the other top young forwards playing in the AHL:
* Jordan Eberle (Edmonton/Oklahoma City): 10 GP, 6 G, 9 A, 15 PTS
* Mikael Granlund (Minnesota/Houston): 8 GP, 4 G, 8 A, 12 PTS
* Gustav Nyquist (Detroit/Grand Rapids): 9 GP, 5 G, 6 A, 11 PTS
* Sven Bartschi (Calgary/Abbotsford): 9 GP, 4 G, 7 A, 11 PTS
* Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton/Oklahoma City): 9 GP, 3 G, 7 A, 10 PTS
* Ryan Johansen (Columbus/Springfield): 9 GP, 5 G, 4 A, 9 PTS
* Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders/Bridgeport): 8 GP, 5 G, 4 A, 9 PTS
* Chris Kreider (NY Rangers/ Connecticut): 8 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 PTS
* Jacob Josefson (New Jersey/Albany): 8 GP, 4 G, 2 A, 6 PTS
* Magnus Pääjärvi (Edmonton/Oklahoma City): 10 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 PTS
* Alexander Burmistrov (Winnipeg/St. John's): 10 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 PTS
* Jakob Silfverberg (Ottawa/Binghamton): 9 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 PTS
* Mattias Tedenby (New Jersey/Abany): 8 GP, 2 G, 1 A, 3 PTS
* Mika Zibanejad (Ottawa/Binghamton): 9 GP, 0 G, 3 A, 3 PTS
* Adam Henrique (New Jersey/Albany): 8 GP, 2 G, 0 A, 2 PTS
As you can see, the early output that Schenn and Couturier have produced for the Phantoms is not too far out of line -- and in many cases, is superior -- to what many of the others have done for their respective AHL teams to date.
Couturier went through a mini-slump offensively after opening night. He had a goal and an assist in the regular season opener (and was named first star of the game) and then went three games in a row without a point. That led a few fans to wonder if something was "wrong" with the second-year center.
In fact, there was nothing at all wrong. If a player goes through a three-game offensive dry spell in December or February, no one really notices. But when it's three of the first four games of the season, some folks tend to overreact.
The truth of the matter was that Couturier played his usual strong two-way game but the pucks just weren't going in for a few games. Right now, he's in the middle of a hot streak, with eight points in the team's last five matches.
In Saturday's game against Albany, Couturier played a dominant all-around game. He scored a brilliant shorthanded goal (see below) and later added assists on a power play tally and an even-strength goal.
Schenn, meanwhile, was the driving force behind the Phantoms' 4-3 comeback win in Syracuse last Sunday. He had a hand in all four Adirondack goals.
In the second period, Schenn assisted on a pair of goals scored by Tye McGinn; the first was a rebound goal off a Danny Syvret shot and the latter was a 2-on-1 chance.
With the Phantoms on a 5-on-3 power play late in regulation, coach Terry Murray pulled goaltender Cal Heeter to create a 6-on-3 attack. Schenn tied the game by ripping a shot past Helenius with 1:02 remaining in regulation. Couturier earned an assist.
After Syracuse was nabbed on a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty will 11 seconds left in regulation, the Phantoms received a carryover two-man advantage in overtime. The extra frame lasted just 11 seconds before defenseman Brandon Manning pinched up to the right circle and one-timed home a Schenn pass to win the game. Couturier drew the secondary assist on the play.
The Phantoms put forth their best 60-minute effort of the season in their 4-0 win over Albany on Saturday. Although Couturier deservedly got the biggest plaudits from that game, Schenn also had a multi-point game. He assisted on Couturier's shorthanded goal in the first period, as well as a third-period power play marker by Erik Gustafsson.
Couturier and Schenn opened the regular season on the same line. Couturier centered and Schenn played left wing. In the hopes of spreading the offense, Murray soon separated them onto different lines. However, they are reunited as needed in a variety of different game situations.
The production of the two second-year pros has been especially impressive when you consider how little firepower up front the Phantoms have shown around the two players. To date, the team's most consistent offensive threats beyond the big two have been power forward McGinn and locked-out second season Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo.
Murray has already done a lot of lineup tinkering, both to get a handle on his personnel and also because he was dissatisfied with what he saw from some players in camp and/or the first few games of the season.
For example, minor league veteran Matt Ford, who led the team in scoring from the time of his acquisition last season from the Washington Capitals organization (31 points in 31 games for Adirondack), has been a healthy scratch three times. He's produced just a pair of assists to date. Checking forward Tyler Brown, a player whom some said had a shot at a fourth line role with the big club this season, has been a healthy scratch five times.
It took Shane Harper four games to get into the starting lineup after opening the season as a healthy scratch. He scored in his first game, and also tallied one in Saturday's win against Albany. The team will need more of that from him after a strong second half of last season.
Even Eric Wellwood (8 GP, 0 G, 1 A) has been a healthy scratch in one game this season. While the speedy forward will never be a sniper at the pro level, he needs to get involved a little more than he has in many of the games to date. At the AHL level, he's also needed to provide at least a little more opportunistic support offense than he has.
In the meantime, Jason Akeson (the team's second-leading scorer as a rookie last season) was demoted to Trenton before the start of the season. Apparently, the organization felt that the undersized forward was a bit too one-dimensional and could use the time in the ECHL to work on his all-around game while continuing to see power play responsibilities.
On the backline, the Phantoms theoretically have four defensemen (Gustafsson, Marc-Andre Bourdon, Manning and veteran Danny Syvret) who can trigger the rush and contribute some power play and even strength offense. That element has not been there with nearly enough consistency thus far.
When I take a deeper look at the Phantoms roster and what the club has done to date, I think the 4-5-0 record is a pretty good indication of how they've played as a team. On individual levels, though, Schenn and Couturier have already shown why they are the go-to players who need to lead the way.
They're leading the way, now others need to quick the pace a bit in following that lead.
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SUNDAY RESULTS ROUNDUP
Flyers in Europe
* Allsvenskan: Södertälje SK won for the ninth time in its last 10 games, pulling off a rousing 2-1 overtime win on the road against first-place Leksands IF. The winning goal by Andreas Hjelm was scored with one second left on the clock in overtime. Matt Read played a stellar two-way game and assisted on both goals. Game highlights are available here.
* DEL: Eisbären Berlin played a rather lackadaisical game against lightly regarded DEG Dusseldorf, losing 4-3 via shootout. Unlike several recent games where the Polar Bears have fallen behind early only to bury opponents under a later avalanche of goals, Berlin was not able to mount a sustained attack. Eisbären fought back from three one-goal deficits but never led at any point. Claude Giroux earned a pair of assists in the game, while Danny Briere had one assist.
* Extraliga: HC Bili Tygri Liberec closed out a miserable performance in the pre-break portion of their schedule on an encouraging note. The team put forth a focused effort and outworked PSG Zlin to skate off with a 5-1 road win. Wayne Simmonds earned an assist on the penultimate goal. His linemate, ex-Flyers center Petr Nedved, had a goal and an assist.
* EIHL: Tom Sestito scored the game-winning goal in overtime, as the Sheffield Steelers defeated the Dundee Stars by a 4-3 count. He took one minor penalty in the game. Side note: Sestito's season penalty minute totals were reduced by 20 after the EIHL rescinded the match penalty (and automatic three-game suspension) he received for a check to the head. It took the official site awhile to remove the 20-minute penalty from his season record, but the stat has finally been adjusted.
PROSPECTS
* OHL: Defense prospect Colin Suellentrop did not record a point but he was plus-two in the Oshawa Generals' 5-4 win over the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday. Overall, Suellentrop has 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists), 16 PIM and a plus-seven rating in 19 games.
* OHL: Center prospect Scott Laughton served the fifth game of his 10-game OHL suspension, and was not available for Oshawa against Kingston. Prior to the suspension, he was named to the Team OHL roster for the Super Series. To date, Laughton has 13 points (5 goals, 8 assists) and 28 PIM in 14 games.
* OHL: Enforcer prospect Derek Mathers entered the weekend still in search of his first goal of the 2012-13 season. Now he has two in the last three games, tallying in a losing effort as the Peterborough Petes went down to 6-4 to the Niagara IceDogs on Sunday. Overall, Mathers has five points (2 goals, 3 assists) and 32 penalty minutes in 17 games.
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COUSINS COURT HEARING SLATED FOR MONDAY
Flyers center prospect Nick Cousins is scheduled to appear in Sault Ste. Marie court at 9 a.m. on Monday. He and two SSM Greyhounds teammates, Mark Petaccio and Andrew Fritsch (a Phoenix Coyotes) prospect, have been charged with sexual assault stemming from an Aug. 24 incident. The hearing was originally scheduled for Oct. 1 and then postponed.
The court hearing is not a criminal trial. Rather, the Greyounds players will appear in front of the judge with their attorney(s). A decision would be made the next steps in the legal process; such as whether to try the case before a jury. There would then be another court date set if deemed necessary based on the judge's findings from the hearing.
Cousins, drafted by the Flyers in the third round of the 2011 Draft, was signed to an entry-level contract on March 26. A year ago, Cousins finished tied for fifth in league scoring with 35 goals and 53 assists for 88 points. This season, he is currently tied for third on the OHL scoring leader board, with 27 points (8 goals, 19 assists) in 18 games. The agitating center also has 30 penalty minutes on the season.
Despite his on-ice success this season and his inclusion on Team OHL in last year's Super Series, Cousins was conspicuously left off the roster for the 2012 series. Ontario Hockey League vice president Ted Baker claimed to the Sault Star that the criminal case involving Cousins had "no bearing" on his omission this year.
According to Baker, the selection committee made a hockey decision. Baker noted that there were other controversial omissions this year -- like all years -- and leaving off a few worthy candidates due to the roster limit is part of the process.
I agree with Sault Star columnist Peter Ruicci, who wrote an editorial on Oct. 26 labeling the OHL's explanation as "100% bull."
Cousins' omission from the Super Series has everything to do with the criminal charges. Plain and simple, the league preferred to take a little heat in hockey circles by leaving off one of the circuit's top players to potentially subjecting itself to harsher and more widespread outside criticism by including a player with a pending sexual assault charge as one of its representatives.
As Ruicci points out, the "hockey decision" doesn't wash in light of Cousins being selected a year ago. He's a better player now than he was then, even if his defensive game and skating may not be pro hockey ready quite yet. If Cousins was good enough to make Team OHL a year ago, has improved since then and yet is left off this year, it wasn't a hockey decision. I
t's a matter of opinion whether the OHL made the right or wrong decision here. But couching it as a hockey assessment is hogwash.
In regard to the criminal charges themselves, I have no idea of what actually transpired on the night in question. There is, of course, plenty of rumor and hearsay but none of that belongs in print. It is wrong to cast aspersions on anyone involved such a grave matter -- whether its the accused or the accuser -- until more of the facts are know.
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COMING TOMORROW: A look at the all-around performances of Phantoms defensemen Erik Gustafsson, Marc-Andre Bourdon and Brandon Manning to date.
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