BRISK PRACTICE ON SUNDAY, DAY OFF TODAY
On the heels of Saturday's 6-1 trouncing at the hands of the Boston Bruins that extended the team's winless streak to four games (0-3-1), the Flyers held a high-tempo practice yesterday at the Skate Zone before heading over to the Wells Fargo Center for the annual Wives' Carnival.
The hour-long session featured a lot of skating-intensive work. Although the team had just played three games in four days -- with an "optional skate" on Friday in which the majority of players participated -- it was not a surprise that the team did so much skating.
The coaching staff wants the team to get back to doing the sorts of things that built up to a 6-0-1 stretch in November in which the club went five and a half games without allowing an even strength goal and did not yield more than two goals in any game. During that time, practices similar to yesterday's were the norm.
On nearly a daily basis during post-practice media availability (and no doubt when speaking directly to the players), head coach Craig Berube stressed the need for the team to keep its feet moving. "Skate quicker and think quicker" were themes that were repeated over and over, and the drills on the ice were geared toward getting the club to do just that.
In more recent weeks -- by sheer necessity due to the heavy game schedule and a pair of six-game road trips after Thanksgiving and after the Christmas break -- the team has had much less opportunity to practice. When they have practiced, the sessions have been shorter and less geared toward skating (and systems work) since energy conservation for games is needed and players should already be well-versed in the system.
That is NOT an excuse for poor play. Every team in the NHL is in the same boat in terms of the schedule wreaking havoc on practice time leading up to the Olympic break.
Nevertheless, the Flyers obviously need a refresher course in the things they were doing well before they started needing to rely on third-period comebacks to pull out wins. They want to get back to having strong starts to games, playing from ahead and not having to score four or more goals per game in order to win.
The club has strayed from skating, puck support, gap control, high-percentage passing and attention to detail in general. Yesterday's practice was a baby step toward correcting those issues.
From a team standpoint, would be ideal if the Flyers had another two or three days to continue that work at practice. Unfortunately, they don't. The players have a total day off day as mandated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA. The club is not even allowed to gather the players for a video session without any on-ice work.
Time is precious and short for the Flyers to correct the problem areas that have crept back into their games. They have a home game against Detroit on Tuesday and then embark on a brutally difficult three-game road trip that will see Philly play all three of the NHL's California-based teams in succession.
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HARTNELL MISSES PRACTICE, RINALDO SKATES
With the exception of left winger Scott Hartnell, all Flyers players participated in yesterday's practice.
Hartnell took what the team labeled a "maintenance day" (day off to rest aches and pains that will not keep him out of the lineup). His still nursing a foot injury suffered several games ago while blocking a shot. He was wearing a walking boot at the Carnival yesterday, officially for precautionary reasons. The player is scheduled to meet with a doctor today.
Zac Rinaldo skated yesterday at practice with the team. The player, who is rehabbing a high ankle sprain, wore a gray no-contact jersey. Officially, Rinaldo is out until after the Olympic break but seems to be pushing for an earlier return if possible.
At yesterday's practice, all defensive pairings were the same as for Saturday's game. The "fourth pairing" (i.e., players likely to be scratched) was Andrej Meszaros and Hal Gill.
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DEFENDING STEVE MASON
Of all the Flyers who have been negatively affected by the schedule-related lack of quality daily practice time since the start of December, I think that goaltender Steve Mason has been among those who has been affected by getting thrown out of his routine.
Mason is a hard worker and he has established a great rapport with goaltending coach Jeff Reese and fellow Flyers netminder Ray Emery. Back in mid-November, I wrote a
blog detailing why I thought Mason's outstanding game-in and game-out play through that point of the season was the real deal.
Apart from his athleticism and calm demeanor, what impressed me most about Mason was his work ethic during a time when everything was going his way. He was always out on the ice well ahead of most of his teammates, hard at work with Reese on staying sharp in various facets of his game. Their attention to detail was very impressive, even by NHL standards.
Things haven't gone so well for Mason -- and least not on a regular basis -- in more recent weeks. The overriding problem has been that the defensive play in front of his taken a major turn for the worse and there has been a major uptick in the number of opposition goals that have simply been unstoppable. Mason is also having rotten puck luck of late: whereas he was getting most of the bounces to go his way in the first eight weeks of the season, right now lots of pucks are deflecting in off Philly defensemen or pinballing off the post and into the cage.
Mason, however, is not completely blameless. In the first eight weeks of the season, soft goals were virtually non-existent. If he could see it, he stopped it. Mason was always on top of his angles, his glove was always in the perfect spot and his rebound control and second-chance positioning on unpreventable rebounds was flawless.
Those things have slipped a bit and there has been inconsistency of late. The number of stoppable pucks getting past Mason -- including at least one and arguably two in Saturday's debacle against the Bruins -- have noticeably increased.
Part of it is the ebb and flow of the season. I think that having a little more daily practice time -- he had a great daily rhythm going until the two six-game road trips with the Christmas break in the middle -- would have helped make the subtle adjustments take hold and lessen some of his recent inconsistency. The good news is that I don't think, even now, Mason is all THAT far off from the things he was doing when he was giving the team Vezina caliber goaltending in the first quarter-plus of the season.
As far as Mason's recent contract extension goes, I don't think it has anything to do with what has gone on in game action. In terms of length of term and cap hit, it was nothing unreasonable for a player of his talent level with only one restricted free agent (RFA) summer left. With the cap ceiling about to shoot up next year, Mason's raise will only take him modestly higher than what he made in the last contract he signed in Columbus before taking a discounted one-year contract in Philly to prove himself.
My view of Mason hasn't changed despite his recent ebb: He's at the age where many goalies finally figure out what it takes to be an NHL starter. His struggles in Columbus after his Calder Trophy winning rookie year came at ages when many goalies who go on to be top NHL netminders are still playing in the minor leagues, serving as an NHL backup doing an apprenticeship before becoming a starter or, if applicable, playing in Europe.
Mason's protracted learning curve was there for all to see, because it happened on the NHL stage and came after he had a lot of success right off the bat. He had to mature both on and off ice, and playing behind generally mediocre-to-lousy Columbus teams didn't help things a bit. There were a lot of things out of his control.
Ultimately, I think he'll be fine when (and if) the Flyers team in front of him gets back to playing some defense in front of him and stops giving up so many shots and quality chances. Mason's own current issues are minor and eminently correctable. I thought taking care of the signing now rather than letting it linger into the summer was a good thing. It enables him to focus exclusively on his game.
Mason is one of the most athletic goaltenders the Flyers have had in a long, long time. Add into that his work ethic and personal growth and maturity, and I still have a much higher degree of long-term confidence in this player than I had in many of his predecessors.
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CARNIVAL MADE A BIG IMPRESSION
When someone has covered NHL hockey for a living for an extended period of time, it is sometimes easy to lose that sense of childhood awe about being around the rink and talking to the players and coaches. To this day, I do not take my access to the people around the game for granted. It is an honor and a privilege to do what I do. However, I do not get star-struck in dealing with any current-day players and coaches.
Ah, but where the Alumni are concerned -- the players I grew up watching and idolizing -- it is very easy for me to experience that old feeling of wonder and awe. I've been extremely fortunate to get to know a handful of NHL players of the 1970s to 1990s on a first-name basis (including my all-time favorite player, Mark Howe) but I still sometimes permit myself to get excited by the idea that I just exchanged a text, an email or had a conversation with someone that was part of the NHL at a time when I was just a fan.
The Broad Street Bullies teams were superheroes to me in my early childhood. The mid-1980s teams were arguably the ones closest to my heart -- I understood the game better by that point, for one thing but it was still a time when I referred to the team I rooted for using the words "we" and "us" as if I was out there skating with them. The 1990s players were of my own age group and the last teams for which I was simply a Flyers fan and hockey fan -- and not working in any sort of journalistic capacity.
When I was three years old, I got bitten by hockey bug as the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup. A few weeks after the Flyers beat Boston in the Finals, my late grandmom, Claire Rader, gave me a commemorative yearbook-style publication. It was called We're Number One and featured a large silver Stanley Cup on the front cover with images of Bobby Clarke (my first sports idol) and Bernie Parent (right behind Clarke).
I still have the book and have kept it in OK condition over the years, although I have since acquired another one in virtually pristine condition. In recent years, I started to collect the autographs of as many members of the Cup teams as possible on the book. For sentimental reasons, I picked the copy my grandmom gave me as the one to get signed.
The book -- the first tangible piece of my lifelong love of hockey -- will never be sold or otherwise leave my family's possession. I am holding it for my son, Benjamin, and will someday give it to him. Benji recently turned five years old, and has been bitten by the hockey bug within the last year.
So have my two nephews: soon-to-be 10-year-old Sammy and soon-to-be five-year-old Matthew. Sammy is a really special kid in that he has acquired a love for learning about the history of the game and the Flyers as well as loving the current team.
Benji was not able to come to the Carnival yesterday (he was in Texas with his mother for a weekend bar mitzvah on her side of the family). However, back in November, the Flyers graciously allowed me to bring Benji to the locker room after a practice. He was all kinds of excited beforehand -- he loves goalies above all else -- and was chatty and happy right up until the time we actually walked into the locker room.
Then he got overwhelmed by all the people in the room. A few players tried to speak to Benji -- most notably Matt Read -- but been just clung onto me and asked to leave. So it ended up being a short visit. I will try again next season or whenever I think he's ready.
Yesterday, the most fun part of the Carnival for me was that my sister, her husband and my two nephews came along. I was able to get Sammy into the building a little early and he had access during the day to some things that other event attendees his age didn't get to experience.
The Hockey Hall of Fame's Phil Pritchard let us take a picture of Sammy with the Stanley Cup before the doors opened to the public. Sammy met Brian Propp before the event. Later, Jakub Voracek fussed a bit over my wide-eyed, starstuck nephew. When I took Sam up to the press box to show him where his uncle works every home game, he met Wayne Simmonds just out the broadcast booth. Simmonds is Sam's favorite player on the current team, and Sam wore a number 17 jersey to the Carnival. To say that Sammy was thrilled when the player asked him his name and then signed his jersey would be the understatement of the century.
Being a budding hockey history buff, Sam was equally thrilled to meet the Broad Street Bullies alumni who were at the event. He was just as excited to meet Gary Dornhoefer and the members of the LCB line as the other kids his age were to meet Claude Giroux or Vincent Lecavalier.
I was elsewhere in the building when Sam, Matty and their parents took a photo with Bob Clarke, Reggie Leach and Bill Barber. Peanut-sized Matthew got a little freaked out when Mr. Leach scooped him up to take the picture but then settled right down as Reggie talked soothingly to him and even planted a gentle grandfatherly kiss on his cheek.
The day after the event, my two nephews -- but especially Sam -- are still on Cloud Nine. I was thrilled to be able to do some small things to make their day a little more special but it was really the Flyers both past and present that made it a day they'll never forget.
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