Quick Hits: Oct. 1, 2019
1) Upsets such as the one that
befell the Flyers on Monday -- falling behind Swiss National League team Lausanne HC by a 4-0 score and then falling a goal short in a comeback bid to drop a 4-3 decision -- are not really all that unusual.
I've seen a Flyers team that ultimately reached the Eastern Conference Finals that year get thumped in a preseason scrimmage against the Philadelphia Phantoms. The 2008-09 Flyers did it again, losing to the Phantoms, 4-2, in what was the final time the Flyers played at the Spectrum.
I've seen Team France beat gold-medal favorite Russia at the IIHF Worlds, and Switzerland shut out NHL player-stocked Team Czech Republic and Team Canada in back-to-back games in the Olympics. Team Denmark beat Team USA in 2003. In 2011, Swiss club team EV Zug humiliated the New York Rangers, 8-4, in a preseason game.
It doesn't take a latter day "Miracle on Ice" for a lower-level professional team to beat one that plays in a superior league. It takes the favored side to not come out ready to play, to get outworked, and then to realize a little too late that it had better pick up the pace. Add in a little bit of puck luck and some good goaltending on the winning side, and you've got the recipe for an upset.
That is what happened to the Flyers in Lausanne on Monday. The Swiss team came out fired up to play in front of their home crowd. The Flyers simply went through the motions in the first period, and got embarrassed. The penalty kill, which was so good in the North American portion of the preseason, was passive (perhaps concerned of taking themselves out of position by applying strong-side pressure on the wider ice surface). Carter Hart had a rough day in goal. Next thing you know, it's a 4-0 game and Brian Elliott was brought in to finish up the game.
The loss in an of itself is not the concern. The concern is that Monday's game looked an awful lot like too many games from last season: a lack of urgency and energy in the first period, being forced to play catch up, and either falling a bit short or salvaging a regulation tie but then finding a way to lose beyond regulation.
Jet-lagged legs and unfamiliar rinks can affect execution for the first period of a game. But lack of competitiveness is never excusable, especially when said team keeps talking about the need to establish a new identity, is in its final dress rehearsal for opening night, and brought a 1-2-3 preseason record into that last game.
2) At Tuesday's early morning practice in Lausanne prior to the team's departure for Prague, head coach Alain Vigneault shook up all four forward lines and three of the four defense pairs. The new lines were as follows:
Claude Giroux - Kevin Hayes - Jakub Voracek
Oskar Lindblom - Sean Couturier - Travis Konecny
James van Riemsdyk - Scott Laughton- Carsen Twarynski/ Joel Farabee
Michael Raffl - Connor Bunnaman - Tyler Pitlick/Chris Stewart
Ivan Provorov - Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim - Matt Niskanen
Shayne Gostisbehere - Robert Hägg
Sam Morin - Phil Myers
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Alex Lyon
3) After Monday's loss in Lausanne, Vigneault, for the second time in the preseason, said he needed to see a little more from the veteran core of the team. He did so without naming any names or issuing outright threats.
"Right now we have a few younger players that are playing extremely hard and very competitive. I need to find out a little bit more of some of our older guys, what they can do, what they can bring to the table. And we will," Vigneault told NHL.com's Adam Kimelman.
On the positive side, rookies Joel Farabee, Connor Bunnaman (who scored a hustling backhanded goal off a rebound on Monday) and Carsen Twarynski all stood out positively as Monday's game progressed. At different times in camp, Vigneault praised the leadership being demonstrated by Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux and Scott Laughton. There were other holdover veterans, both up front and on the blueline, with whom he's seemed less pleased.
For example, after the Flyers' lone preseason win -- a home victory against New York -- he gave a backhanded compliment to James van Riemsdyk (who had his best night of the preseason in that game) by saying "he was skating tonight"; the implication being that there have been times in camp where Vigneault has perceived that JVR hasn't been moving his feet.
Earlier in the preseason, Vigneault recommended that general manager Chuck Fletcher accelerate the pace of roster cut-downs after a debacle of a home loss that saw a Boston Bruins' B-squad, in all three periods, outplay a Flyers lineup largely consisting of regular starters. At the time, Vigneault said it wasn't that he was displeased with the AHL players and prospects whose cut date was moved up. Rather, he felt the players who were locks -- or at least in the thick of the roster battles -- needed more games and smaller group practices than he'd originally planned.
Translation: He was trying to send a message to the team that the time to get prepared for opening night was shorter than they may have liked to believe.
At the time, Vigneault was asked if his track record of NHL success would get buy-in from the veterans to play in more preseason games than initially planned.
The coach responded, "They have no choice. That's just how it is."
The Flyers struggled to score goals but otherwise pretty well overall in their final three preseason games. A subpar goaltending performance by Brian Elliott sank them in Boston and Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding (as was Hart) in Madison Square Garden last Thursday, but the overall team performances were steps forward. Lausanne was a significant backward step.
4) AHL: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms finished the preseason with a 2-1-0 record. On Monday, the Phantoms got shut out by the Hershey Bears, 2-0, despite a strong performance in goal by Felix Sandström. Top forward prospect Morgan Frost (groin pull) has not yet made his debut in the lineup for Scott Gordon's team.
5) Flyers Alumni defenseman Larry "Stoney" Hale passed away of natural causes in his native British Columbia on Sept. 27. He would have celebrated his 78th birthday on Oct. 9.
Hale was born October 9, 1941 in Summerland, British Columbia. After a long stint with the Seattle Totems of the old Western Hockey League, where he was coached by Keith Allen, the Flyers claimed Hale from the Minnesota North Stars in the inter-league waiver draft on June 12, 1968.
Hale played 196 regular season games (five goals, 37 assists, 42 points, 92 penalty minutes, cumulative minus-51) for the Flyers between the 1968-69 and 1971-72 seasons. He chipped in five goals, 42 points and 90 penalty minutes in 196 regular games. Hale dressed in a total of eight playoff games for the Flyers in 1969 and 1971.
Hale he was left unprotected and was claimed from the Flyers by the Atlanta Flames in the 1972 NHL Expansion Draft. He later played six seasons in the World Hockey Association with the Houston Aeros, where he was a teammate with Gordie, Mark, and Marty Howe and coached by Bill Dineen.
.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»