Quick Hits: Dec. 9, 2019
1) After a complete off-day on Sunday, the Flyers resume practice on Monday (11:30 a.m. ET) at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. The team will also practice tomorrow before departing for Denver to begin a three-game road trip. The Flyers play the Avalanche (19-8-2, 8-3-1 at home) on Wednesday, the Minnesota Wild (currently 14-12-4, but 7-1-2 at home) on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets (presently 18-10-2, and 8-5-1 at home). The trip should be a good test for the Flyers.
Although Philly has four of six possible points so far in December and a 12-3-4 record dating back to the beginning of November, there is no breathing room for them in the standings. The Pittsburgh Penguins, one point behind the Flyers, could leapfrog Philly on Tuesday with a home win against the still-struggling Canadiens. Carolina, two points behind the Flyers, starts a western Canada road trip on Tuesday against Edmonton.
On the flip side, the Flyers have closed to within a single point of the New York Islanders for second place in the Metro. New York, 5-4-1 over its last 10 games, still holds two games in hand over Philly.
On Monday night, they will host a Tampa Bay Lightning team that has seemed mentally fragile ever since getting swept in the first round of the playoffs last spring after running away with the President's Trophy in the regular season. I keep waiting for Tampa to go on a tear, and still think they will at some point. (By the way, the Flyers have yet to play the Lightning this season, meaning that there are three games with them remaining on the schedule).
2) Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said after Saturday's 4-3 win over Ottawa that he expected the organization to have an update on the status of Travis Konecny on Monday. When and if the update comes, the Flyers will post it their social media simultaneously with emailing the update to the local media.
Konecny left Saturday's game late in the first period after getting steamrolled in open ice on a neutral zone hit by Mark Borowiecki. The pass Konecny received and then furthered up the ice put him in a vulnerable position. The Borowiecki hit was delivered a bit late -- the puck was already gone -- and borderline but not blatantly high. It was an aggressive body check did not look like it was an intentional attempt to injure.
3) On the flip side, there was pretty clear intent behind the late game cross-check that Brady Tkachuk delivered to Scott Laughton (before jumping the Flyers forward) in double retribution for Laughton chirping the Senators bench after scoring the game-winning goal and, earlier, for a hit at the Flyers blueline on Jean-Gabriel Pageau that the Senators took exception to.
Tkachuk received a (joke of a maximum CBA allowable) fine from the NHL. Rather than a double minor -- two for cross-checking and two for roughing -- the incident deserved a match penalty. Tkachuk also effectively conceded to the Flyers what was still a one-goal game. The fine acknowledges that the on-ice call was insufficient to the offense but the fact that Laughton was not actually injured (unlike the Robert Bortuzzo double cross-check sequence that injured Viktor Arvidsson and led to a four-game suspension last month) probably saved Tkachuk from supplementary discipline over and above the fine.
3) If the Flyers lose Konecny for any length of time, it would be a significant obstacle to work around but not an impossible one. One option would be to move James van Riemsdyk or Joel Farabee up in the lineup onto Claude Giroux's line and juggle combinations. There really isn't a player the Flyers could call up from the Phantoms who could directly give them what Konecny brings but there are a few possibilities.
Connor Bunnaman has been back in the Phantoms lineup for several games after missing a month-plus due to injury shortly after the Flyers sent him down. David Kase brings some of the speed and motor that Konecny has, although he's not an equivalent offensive talent. Carsen Twarynski has had two stints on the NHL roster this season and could play in the bottom six again if JVR or Farabee moves up and combos are switched around accordingly.
None of the call-up options, of course, are as good as having Konecny healthy and available to play. But a team has to play with the hand it is dealt.
4) Speaking of the Phantoms, Lehigh Valley has been in a bad way in terms of their own lineup depletions. The club is scuffling mightily to score goals. Last Wednesday, the Phantoms lost 2-1 in regulation to Springfield despite generating 63 shots on goal. On Friday, the Phantoms scratched out one goal on 25 shots in a 2-1 loss against Hershey. The next night in Hershey, Lehigh Valley lost 1-0 despite a 32-20 shot edge.
That's a grand total of two goals on 120 shots over three games. Only one of the two goals -- a Bunnaman tally from near the hash marks -- was shot into the net directly. The other was a pinballing Andy Welinski goal originally credited to Kase. Replays showed that the puck went off goalie Vitek Vanecek then off a Hershey defender (without Kase getting a piece of it) and then into the net.
The injury-riddled Phantoms did finally get high-energy forward Kyle Criscuolo back in the lineup this past weekend but promptly had the injury bug bite again. In Friday's game, Hershey left winger Beck Malenstyn's elbow caught defenseman Mark Friedman up high, and knocked him out of both that game and Saturday's. Although it did not look deliberate, it was reckless and the AHL subsequently suspended Malenstyn for three games.
Saturday's rematch in Hershey was relatively peaceful until 11:49 of the second period. Bears veteran tough guy Kyle Kessy knocked Phantoms center Cal O'Reilly out of the game with a dirty-looking hit on the end boards. Phantoms finesse forward Greg Carey was the first to his teammate's defense, and both he and Kessy received double minors for roughing.
The rest of the game got nasty at times. On the next shift after O'Reilly was injured, the Bears took exception to an elbow Phantoms rookie forward Isaac Ratcliffe delivered to Tyler Lewington on the end boards; resulting in 14 minutes worth of penalties to Ratcliffe and 12 to Lewington.
At 2:38 of the third period, Kessy and Phantoms tough guy Kurtis Gabriel fought off a faceoff. It was a lengthy bout. Things momentarily calmed down and then erupted again as words were exchanged between the benches and the players on the ice. An irate Gabriel attempted to go at Kessy again, and was physically tackled down by a linesman. From the situation, Kessy collected an instigation minor, a fighting major, an automatic 10-minute misconduct stemming from the instigator penalty, and an automatic game misconduct for fighting immediately at the drop of a faceoff. Gabriel got five for fighting and a game misconduct for abuse of an official in trying to continue the altercation with Kessy.
Unfortunately, unless the game officials re-categorized the expulsion of Gabriel as something other than abuse of an official, the AHL (and NHL) Rule Book imposes an automatic three-game suspension.
As of this writing, no suspensions have been announced by the AHL for any players -- Hershey or Phantoms -- stemming from Saturday's game. On Sunday, the league announced Malenstyn's suspension stemming from Friedman's injury on Friday.
5) On Monday, USA Hockey will announce its World Junior Championships selection camp roster. For a look at the status of Flyers' WJC candidates,
click here. It is likely, just as New Jersey did with Jack Hughes, that the Flyers will make Joel Farabee unavailable for the WJC.
6) The new broadcaster's roundtable, featuring moderator Tim Saunders, Jim Jackson, Steve Coates, Chris Therien and me, will be recorded today at the Skate Zone after Flyers practice. Look for it late this afternoon or early in the evening on
Flyers Radio 24/7 and
Flyers Podcast Central.
7) My weekly Flyers Radio 24/7 podcast with Chris Therien, the Bundy and Bill Show, will be recorded on Wednesday of this week per usual. In the meantime, Chris' weekly "Therien's Take" article on the Flyers' website looks at Flyers goalies, both the current duo and the ones during his Flyers playing days:
Click here.
8) Recently, the NHL produced a two-minute "Hockey is For Everyone" film looking at the Flyers Warriors first year of existence, with footage from the team's introductory press conference in the Flyers locker room during the Stadium Series countdown and then from the victorious championship game at the 2019 USA Hockey Warrior Classic in Las Vegas in early October. It's definitely worth the watch.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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