Day 2 of Flyer practice post-Tampa Bay mortem ...
And it looks like another double-down day. Meaning two sheets of ice, a double practice right into Saturday before the club leaves for Pittsburgh late Saturday afternoon.
Not much has changed since the 4-2 loss in Tampa. The Flyers remain 5 points back but now have slipped to 14th place in the Eastern Conference.
Everything I am hearing within the organization suggests the club will not carelessly or needlessly throw away a good draft pick or player for a rental at the trade deadline.
Most of the people making decisions right now realize the Flyers are not going to the playoffs. There is no one player, no one deal, no one coach out there who is going to change the club's fortunes around this season.
Without saying so directly, I expect the Flyers to play the season out without making a move unless they get a player who they figure to bring back NEXT season.
I know their scouts want everything left alone.
Which is how it should be.
As for the present, coach Peter Laviolette is still miffed with Scott Hartnell judging from the new lines he ran on Thursday.
Hartnell sank to a line with Ruslan Fedotenko and Zac Rinaldo while Matt Read advanced to the top line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.
On Friday, Read was still up there on the top line while Hartnell advanced to a line with Max Talbot and Danny Briere. BTW: I still think Briere ought to be at center and not wing where he is a misfit.
Hartnell and Lavy spoke since his benching against the Bolts and subsequent line demotion that game.
“We had a good talk,” Hartnell said. “Kinda about my start, I guess you could say. You play for eight months, you come back for three games. Starting to feel better and then you sit on the couch for four weeks watching the guys play and struggle.”
Hartnell has taken 32 minutes in penalties in the 11 games he has played since returning to the lineup after missing 16 games with a foot fracture.
What the FLyers need from him is goals and points and not penalties, like the one he took in Tampa that got him benched.
“I don’t mind," Hartnell said of his punishment. "I think I needed it, to be honest. Sit on the bench and watch the guys play. I had a couple shifts. Some of my best shifts in a half dozen games in the third period. It’s about how you respond to [adversity].”
I thought the most interesting thing said by any player - access has been limited this week - came from Simon Gagne who has raised his game since coming here but has not been able to see that become a "trickle down" effect on other players.
You need several players to raise their levels simultaneously if the Flyers are to have any chance to get back into this. And any logical person would say the season is over even if the Flyers remain mathematically alive.
"The reason I came here, I had no control, it was a trade," Gagne said. "But I was very excited to come here. Looking at it as a challenge for me to play and the role the team would give me. I remember first talk I had with Lavy, he give me the role of playing on the third line.
“Play on the power play once in awhile and help the team get back in the playoff mode. We won the first couple games and help the team get back to .500 but from that point on, it looked like, we win one game, we lose one game.
"It’s not enough good hockey. Personally, you try to do more but at the same time, it’s a team game. It doesn’t matter.
“Look at Claude every game. He gives 110 percent and he is going to try and do everything to help us win but he is only one guy. We need more than one guy if you want to win.
"It is what it is in this league now. It’s hard to make the playoffs. I had a chance to be with really good teams and be in that position and right now, getting in at the right time, good stuff can happen.
"Our hockey is not consistent enough. We need to find it quick to get some wins in a row to get back in. At one point, it’s going to be too late."
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