MELTZER'S MUSINGS: JANUARY 3, 2016
1) Coming back from a disastrous post-Christmas road trip in which the team not only suffered three straight regulation losses and the penalty killing sprung a leak, the Philadelphia Flyers face a crucial stretch of games over the entire month of January. If the Flyers are to have any prayer at making the final two-plus months of the season meaningful in terms of battling for a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference, they are going to have to go on a tear against a string of quality opponents.
For one thing, with the exception of Thursday's game in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild, the rest of the month's schedule (10 of 11 games) will be played against Eastern Conference opponents. All but one game (Jan. 19 vs. Toronto) is against teams currently ahead of the Flyers in the standings, and nine of the next 11 games will see the Flyers play against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.
The reason why the Flyers such a heavily in-conference schedule this month is that they've already plowed through 17 of their 28 games against Western Conference teams. The Flyers have already had their annual California and western Canada trips. They have also finished their season series with the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues.
Considering that the Flyers are 1-5-3 against Pacific Division teams and lost both games in regulation to NHL-leading Dallas, it is actually not that awful that the Flyers are 6-8-3 overall against the West. That's because the Flyers swept their season series with the Blues, picked off an October home win against the Chicago Blackhawks and knocked off the Winnipeg Jets on the road to conclude an otherwise horrific western Canada trip. The other inter-Conference loss was an ugly home loss to the Colorado Avalanche upon the Flyers' return from western Canada.
Prior to stomping the host Boston Bruins in the 2016 Winter Classic, the Canadiens endured a horrific month of December. The club has been riddled with injuries the last couple months and is still without the services of superstar goaltender Carey Price (right knee) until mid-January.
With back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday (home vs. the New Jersey Devils), the Habs will likely split the goaltending duties between young Mike Condon and recently acquired veteran Ben Scrivens. Up front, the Habs finally have Brendan Gallagher (10 goals, 21 points in 23 games) back in the lineup after the right winger missed more than month's worth of action due to suffering two broken fingers on his left hand.
The Flyers will practice on Monday (10:30 a.m. start time) at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ: the first practice for the team at its training home base since the Christmas break. The two big decisions that have to be made for Tuesday's game are which goaltender starts the game -- the hunch here is that it will be Michal Neuvirth -- and whether the team dresses seven defenseman or goes with six defensemen and 12 forwards. On Saturday in Los Angeles, Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol elected to go with seven defensemen and made Matt Read a healthy scratch.
2) The semifinals of the 2015-16 IIHF Under-20 World Championship will be played in Helsinki on Monday. At 9 a.m. ET, the host Finnish team will play archrival Sweden, featuring Flyers prospects Oskar Lindblom and Felix Sandström (backup goaltender). At 1:00 p.m. ET, Team USA will take on Russia, featuring Flyers prospects Ivan Provorov and Radel Fazleev. Both games will be televised live on NHL Network.
3) Throughout his final seaseon of junior hockey and his rookie year of pro hockey, the Flyers have preached to 2013 first-round Samuel Morin to focus on keeping his game simple and worry mostly about his positioning and using his size and reach to his maximum advantage. Whether it was development coach Kjell Samuelsson or Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon delivering the message, the mantra has been the same.
The 20-year-old Morin has taken it to heart, and has had an excellent attitude about working on his game in the American Hockey League with an eye toward being a better NHL player for it down the road. As with any rookie, but particularly a first-year defenseman and most especially one with a huge frame, there have been some hiccups with the 6-foot-7 blueliner. For the most part, however, the Flyers organization is very pleased with his rate of progress thus far.
Among a large segment of hockey fans, even diehards, there is a tendency to be exceptionally harsh in judging defensemen. One bad shift out of 20-plus or a turnover or two gets equated to having a bad game overall, as does a night where, heaven forbid, the defenseman finishes with a minus and/or the other team gets more even strength shot attempts whether or not it's directly because one particular player happened to be on ice.
Coaches and organizational decision makers including Flyers' general manager Ron Hextall tend to look at a much bigger overall picture. If there was a mistake or a genuine bad game, how did the player respond the next time out? If he got beaten, does he adjust the next time the other team inevitably tries the same thing again? How did he perform on the bulk of his shifts in a give game? Over multiple viewings, does routinely make solid decisions and show good awareness? Can he consistently replicate making a good first pass, his coverage on a cross-over attack, his play in front of the net? How does he handle shifts that are spent mostly in the defensive zone; with poise and a bend-but-don't-break mentality or does panic start to set in? Does he show discipline in avoiding needless penalties?
All of these things are weighed much more heavily in tracking a young defensemen's development than whether he has a few less-than-stellar shifts in a game or whether he's producing points. When the Flyers drafted Morin in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft, they did so with their eyes wide open that he was very raw. They knew there was going to be a multi-year process involved, even after Morin turned pro, to try to develop him into the type of player they envision. From day one and even through his 2014 training camp flirtation with earning an NHL roster spot, the Flyers' vision for Morin was one steeped in the type of player he may become about five years removed from his draft year.
In actuality, Morin is right on schedule. Over the course of his first pro season to date, Morin has shown all of the elements the Flyers want to see -- above-average straight ahead mobility for a man his size, a mean streak, puck-moving ability, bouncebacks after mistakes and even periodic hints of ability to make plays with the puck and chip in some offense when the opportunity presents itself (nine points in his last 15 games).
Has Morin put it all together yet? No. Is he still a work in progress in refining some of his footwork and not getting caught on the wrong side of the puck? Yes. Does he still take a few too many bad penalties? Yes. Does he sometimes get away from "less is more" and try to do too much with and without the puck to his detriment? Yes.
None of this is unexpected. Morin is right about where the Flyers thought and hoped he would be near the midway point of his rookie pro season. As a matter of fact, if he continues progressing at the same rate over the rest of the season, it will have been a very strong start to his pro career from the perspective of his long-term upside.
The absolute worst thing the Flyers could have done with Morin would have been rush him to the NHL last year or this year. He may not even be quite NHL-ready at the start of next year but he's still very much on the right track for where the Flyers think he could be come about 2018. Even at the AHL level, there are glimpses of a new-age shutdown defenseman. It takes time, a whole lot of patience and some good luck health-wise to navigate that process.
With Morin, there is no questioning the tools or the work ethic. He embraces the work, is an enthusiastic learner and seems to fully understand that consistency is the end game with him to become an NHL regular. To get there, he'll need lots more reps, more experience and continued good coaching. Sam Morin in Jan. 2016 has improved significantly from the player we saw at the World Junior Championships last year and during training camp this September. At the same rate of progress between now and Jan. 2017, the Flyers would be thrilled with his development path.
4) While I have no doubt that the Flyers are doing due diligence on the price tag the Tampa Bay Lightning want in order to trade disgruntled young forward Jonathan Drouin, I also do not expect him to be moved to Philly. This is a caveat emptor situation.
At least when the Dallas Stars traded for an immature and cocky Tyler Seguin, the player had already flirted with a 30-goal, 70-point NHL season. It was mostly a matter of hoping he'd get his priorities in order. What has Drouin done at the pro level thus far, except walk into his first NHL training camp with an expectation of making the Lightning right away (on merit, he didn't) and then spend the last couple years privately and sometimes not-so-privately griping and sulking about ice time he hadn't earned on a Cup-contending team.
I've never met or dealt with Drouin. Maybe he's a great kid who, for whatever reason, just didn't click with head coach Jon Cooper. I find it hard to believe, however, that Cooper would decide to hold back a player whom he thought was on the brink of becoming a major impact performer. Rather, it seems more likely that Cooper felt the youngster needed to refine his game and understand that the role he craves has to be earned.
At least from the outside, Drouin seems to have an inflated sense of what his draft position and a couple big seasons in the Q "entitle" him to in the NHL. He also has one of the NHL's more controversial agents (Allan Walsh) who tirelessly pumps clients' tires. It did not sit well with many when the Drouin camp rocked the boat during the playoffs last year with the Bolts on their way to coming within two wins of the Stanley Cup.
The early-career controversies do not mean Drouin will not at some point become every bit the NHL offensive force he was projected to be when the Lightning selected him with the third overall pick of the 2013 NHL Draft. His early-career NHL production has been decent and should only increase over time. However, the 20-year-old seems to lack some emotional maturity and perhaps self-awareness about being a better 200-foot player (a vital facet of today's NHL even for scoring-oriented players). A swap of uniforms in the event the Lightning honor Walsh's trade request and send Drouin to another organization will not make those needed adjustments go away. In fact, it may even increase the difficulty in handling his development.
Bottom line: Drouin has earned nothing as a pro. He is -- or should be -- still paying his dues and, if that includes embracing an AHL assignment as a chance to work on the things that will get him where needs to go (things that are not about speed or puck skills) so be it. He's going about it the wrong way so far. I don't think the approach that Drouin and Walsh have taken would play any better with Hextall and Hakstol than it has with Steve Yzerman and Cooper.
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Bringing the Decades Together: Flyers Alumni to Play in Reading
In celebration of nearly a half-century of Flyers hockey, the Flyers Alumni Association is bringing together players representing every decade of franchise history for a special Orange vs. Black intrasquad Alumni game on Feb. 5, 2016 at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be held at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA, home of the Philadelphia Flyers' ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals.
Confirmed participants to date include the legendary Bob Clarke, Danny Briere, Kimmo Timonen, Flyers Hall of Fame inductees Brian Propp and Joe Watson, Bill Clement, Bob "the Hound" Kelly, Paul Holmgren, Dave Poulin and Brad Marsh. Full rosters of the Alumni will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for the Alumni game start at $12 and are on sale now. For more information on the game,
click here.
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