With shortened training camps, conditioning a challenge for some
Yesterday afternoon, I had the chance to ride with Eklund and Capt. EO to attend the NHL's press conference in New York. It was a joy to be able to gather again with people I consider my friends as well as my colleagues and shoot the breeze about actual NHL hockey: the Flyers' outlook for the shortened season, the abrupt firing of Brian Burke in Toronto, and players around the league that might step up or regress this season.
Before Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs (representing the Board of Governors) and commissioner Gary Bettman spoke, there was a media availability session with three NHL general managers: Steve Yzerman (Tampa Bay Lightning), David Poile (Nashville Predators) and George McPhee (Washington Capitals). We were told ahead of the GMs arrival that no CBA-detail specific questions would be answered at this time, but everything else was pretty much fair game.
Three simultaneous media scrums ensued, as Poile, Yzerman and McPhee stood about 10 feet away from one another. Some fast-moving reporters were able to get to all three or at least two of the three, but others just honed in on one. I chose Poile, because he's been an NHL general manager for 30 years and already went through a shortened season once before in 1994-95.
Poile said that while his 1995 Capitals were fortunate enough to make the playoffs after getting off to a poor start (something which also happened to the Flyers), it made things tough when there was little time to recover. A few ill-timed injuries here or a sudden hot streak there -- this was the year where flash-in-the-pan young Capitals goalie Jim Carey won the Vezina Trophy -- could change the outlook in a hurry.
The Nashville general manager noted that the shortened season required a little bit of a different perspective in directing a team: There is typically a mentality of "this is a marathon, not a sprint" in assessing players and making adjustments. In a 48-game season, the reverse is closer to the truth.
I had the opportunity to ask Poile a question that relates to every team in the NHL: With players coming to training camp with such widely different levels of conditioning and given the shortened nature (six days at a maximum) of the camp, was there any concern about players who have been idle from game action since last spring?
His response, "Yes, there is a little bit of concern. But it's something that every team has to deal with. You'll have, say, seven guys in camp who were playing in Europe or the American League, seven guys who haven't been playing but have been skating and working out for months, and other guys who were rehabbing injuries or doing other things. But you've still got to get everyone ready to go when the season starts the next week. That's definitely a challenge because, as I said, it's a sprint rather than a marathon."
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My two cents on Luongo rumor
Eklund and the Flyers beat writers have pretty much already covered the bases on yesterday's reports of Philadelphia being interested in acquiring Roberto Luongo from Vancouver. It appears that any info was coming from sources out west.
The Flyers have flatly denied the rumors. That does not always mean there is no truth to the reports, of course. With any team, there are always denials and past cases in which a player is actually being traded to the rumored team for something close to the rumored return. In this case, however, I just can't see serious interest on the Philadelphia side.
Philadelphia having done more than putting in an inquiry at some point as a matter of due diligence. The Flyers are an organization that kicks tires on pretty much every prominent name on the trade or free agent markets. But Luongo is not the right fit here, not at his salary and at least not as long as Ilya Bryzgalov is still around.
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Expectations for Luke Schenn
Four seasons have passed since the 2008 NHL Draft. That may seem like a lot of time, but most of the players selected that year were born in 1989. There is still time for players labeled underachievers to have their breakthroughs at the top level.
Luke Schenn has not come close to living up to the big hype that accompanied him into the defenseman-heavy 2008 Draft. But were the expectations even fair in the first place?
The Hockey News Draft Preview labeled him "the second coming of Adam Foote; a tough, physical defenseman with a modicum of skill and a ton of leadership qualities."
A scout quoted in the 2008 McKeen's Draft Preview said, "With the way he dominates physically, any points he brings to his NHL team will be a bonus."
Kyle Woodlief's pre-draft Redline Report rankings hailed the elder Schenn brother as "the best shutdown defender to come along in years."
Living up these standards is a mighty heavy burden for a young defenseman to bear, especially for a 18-year-old who goes directly to the NHL in his draft year. There is still a multi-year learning curve to navigate, and learning on the job in the world's toughest league is tough in any market, let alone under the relentless daily scrutiny that comes with playing in Toronto. That is one market that is even higher-pressure than Philly.
In retrospect, it really should not have been a big surprise that Schenn went from untouchable at 18 to trade bait in his early 20s. Traded to Philadelphia in a straight-up deal for James van Riemsdyk (who has also struggled under the weight of lofty expectations after being the 2nd overall pick of the 2007 Draft), Schenn will try to get his career back on track this season in another high-pressure market.
Having younger brother Brayden on hand as a teammate can be a positive for Schenn. Just as important, he will have four years of NHL experience under his belt, with a better surrounding cast than he had for most of his Toronto tenure.
Even with all the injury issues and the departure of Matt Carle from the Flyers' blueline, the team does not need him to be the next Adam Foote, going head-to-head with the top opposing line each and every game. Rather, they need Schenn to reliably eat some minutes in conjunction with Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Nicklas Grossmann. Eventually, Andrej Meszaros may be able to help out as well, but it could take time for him to get back up to speed from Achilles tendon surgery.
Right off the bat, the Flyers need Schenn to keep his game relatively simple, bang some bodies and make a good first-pass out of the zone. Anything beyond that would fantastic for Philly, but may not be immediately realistic.
Schenn's biggest weakness will always be his lack of blazing speed. Even before he was drafted, scouts said he needed to refine his anticipation of the play in order to fully translate his WHL success to playing in the NHL.
This learning curve is why his aggressive hitting game has sometimes gotten him in trouble at the NHL level. Thus far, he's gotten in ruts where he is prone to taking himself out of position and has been unable to recover.
By no means is it unusual for a young defenseman to need multiple NHL seasons to work through the issues that Schenn has dealt with thus far in his career. Just by means of comparison, Foote (the 22nd overall pick of the 1989 Draft) did not reach the NHL until age 20 and did not have his breakthrough year as a top-caliber NHL defenseman until his fourth season.
Schenn will never be a big point producer for the Flyers. Nevertheless, he is an underrated passer who is capable of duplicating or surpassing the 20 assists he had for Toronto last year. His shot is heavy but is not especially accurate nor is it released quickly. Even so, he's had a pair of five-goal seasons so far, and he's capable of getting one or two more than that in any given 82-game season.
Strictly in terms of being a defensive defenseman, Schenn is arguably a reasonable replacement or even an upgrade on free agent depature Carle. However, when other elements of the game are considered -- particularly in terms of skating with the puck and playmaking -- they are two different types of players. Carle provided skills that Schenn will not, and the Flyers may need to bring in additional outside help to replace it.
As he continues his NHL development, Schenn remains capable of bringing to the Flyers something similar to what Karl Alzner brings to the Capitals or what Brooks Orpik has brought to the Penguins in his best years. However, I don't expect that to happen overnight simply because he's had a change of scenery from Toronto to Philly.
There's work to be done for Schenn to take his game to the next level. For this season, there's not much time for that to happen in a shortened season with a new team, and with the player having not played in any professional games since April 7 of last year. So the mantra needs to be to keep things as simple as possible and go from there once he gets settled into his new environment.
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