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Quick Hits: Couturier, Frost, Laczynski, York, Jack Prettyman |
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Quick Hits: January 17, 2021
1) Following back-to-back wins against the Pittsburgh Penguins to open the belated and shortened 2020-21 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers will return to practice today at the Skate Zone in Voorhes. Players are slated to take the ice at 11 a.m. ET.
2) Selke Trophy winning Flyers center Sean Couturier underwent an MRI yesterday after being forced to leave Friday's game against Pittsburgh -- which necessitated line juggling by head coach Alain Vigneault -- in his second shift of the game. The MRI revealed, per general manager Chuck Fletcher, that Couturier has a costochondral (rib) separation. The estimated timetable for a return to the lineup is two weeks but this injury has a nebulous recovery timetable that could range from slightly less than two weeks to considerably more, depending on the severity. The good news is that it's a self-healing injury that does not require surgery.
3) Couturier's injury means that second-year pro (NHL rookie) center Morgan Frost will get the opportunity to get back into the Flyers' lineup for the first time since a two-game recall (Feb. 8 to 10) in the latter half of the last season. His last non-scrimmage game, apart from the Flyers' intrasquad game last Sunday, was with the Phantoms on March 11, 2020.
The Flyers were pleased with Frost's training camp performance earlier this month -- by far his best all-around NHL training camp among the three he's attended to date.
In 2017, at the conclusion of Rookie Camp on Sept. 14, Frost was returned to the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In 2018, Frost did fine in Rookie Camp but struggled in NHL camp and was reassigned to the Greyhounds after a few days by then-general manager Ron Hextall. Last season, Frost and Joel Farabee dominated Rookie Camp. At the main NHL camp, Frost performed well at times and seemed overmatched at other times. He was also set back by a groin pull. One of the last few preseason cuts, Frost had an uneven but promising rookie year with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and played in 20 games with the Flyers.
This year, Frost focused on the areas that gave him trouble at times a years ago. He appears to have added a little bit more muscle and, by his description, has found and is trying to maintain a comfortable playing weight. At camp, he had his feet moving consistently, rather than going into glide mode to survey options. He was heavier on the puck, not getting knocked off as easily. He won more 50-50 puck battles. He got the right spots quicker in the defense zone. He also took fewer low-percentage risks that he got away with frequently in the OHL but which often resulted in turnovers last year.
Frost did quite well in drills at practice this year -- a night-and-day difference from his early camps -- and held his own when matched against the NHL roster players. A year ago, Frost got unsurprisingly manhandled by Sean Couturier (as did Isaac Ratcliffe by Claude Giroux) when Vigneault deliberately put them head-to-head in puck battle drills. This year, although he certainly didn't get the better of the top line center, it wasn't as lopsided.
The one thing that Frost -- whose bread-and-butter is his offensive game, especially his playmaking -- didn't get a lot of in camp was scoring chances in the scrimmages. Creating chances during drills, yes. Scrimmages, no. But Frost made many subtly clever little passes.
In the third scrimmage, Frost won a battle against Mark Friedman and set up Connor Bunnaman for a Grade A chance that Bunnaman was unable to finish. In the intrasquad game, Nolan Patrick fed Frost for a point blank power play chance that Frost was unable to bury. Frost also set up a Grade B scoring chance for Scott Laughton (it would have taken a perfect shot to score) and had a third period mini 2-on-1 with Bunnaman that missed connections.
The challenge now for Frost, while he has the opportunity to play, will be keep up the other improvements he's shown and add a little more offensive pop back into his game. Considering how long it's been since he played a bonafide hockey game, camp was a big success for him. The reward was making the Flyers' opening night roster.
During practice, I will post the Flyers revised line combinations. It's possible that Vigneault either slides Kevin Hayes and Nolan Patrick up one line apiece. Or perhaps Claude Giroux plays center or Scott Laughton moves up. There are lots of possibilities, so we'll see what the coaching staff has in mind for how to work around Couturier's absence, as well as where and with whom to slot Frost.
4) If Couturier goes onto the injured reserve list, the Flyers could move one of their taxi squad forwards -- Bunnaman, Samuel Morin, Carsen Twarynski or Andy Andreoff -- to the active (game-eligible) roster as a 13th forward.
5) On Saturday, the Flyers announced that rookie forward Tanner Laczynski (core muscle surgery recovery) has been cleared to play. He skated on his own before practice for much of camp and then began to practice with the taxi squad near the end of camp. Laczynski was activated from the INR list and assigned to the Phantoms' roster.
6) Flyers 2019 first-round pick Cam York had a power play assist and made several good defensive plays with his stick in Michigan's 5-0 win against Ohio State on Saturday night. He was also plus-two at even strength.
7) Longtime Voorhees Township police officer Jack Prettyman, a friend of many Flyers players and team employees of the 1980s and 1990s and especially close with the late Pelle Lindbergh, passed away yesterday from Covid-related causes
Jack was a key source for details in the Lindbergh autobiography that Thomas Tynander and I co-authored. I then kept in touch with him a few times via email after he retired. Quite simply, Jack was a good man who will be greatly missed.
In Nov. 1985, following Pelle Lindbergh's fatal car crash, Pretty received dispatch about a red Porsche being in an one-car crash and the driver and the car's two passengers being in area hospitals. Jack had the immediate, sinking feeling that the car could only be Pelle's. He went to the hospital and, sure enough, saw his Lindbergh lifeless and hooked up to machines to keep him breathing. He'd seen people in that state before, but this was a friend.
Later, it was Jack who had the gut-wrenching duty of going to Pelle's residence and informing his fiancee, Kerstin, and his mother, Anna-Lisa, about the accident. Years later, when Thomas Tynander was doing the original research for the Swedish version of Behind the White Mask, it was Jack who made details of the investigation and witness statements available to Thomas. That is why there was so much previously unknown-to-the-public detail about the night of the crash. Jack, quite simply, wanted his old friend's story to be told as thoroughly and accurately as possible based on what he knew.
Jack Prettyman wasn't just close with Pelle. He was friends with many figures on and around the Flyers, and remained a Flyers fan for many years. My deepest condolences go out to Jack's son, Jay, and the entire Prettyman family. Sadly, Jack's wife is also severely ailing at present.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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