Quick Hits: November 14, 2023
1) The Flyers will hold an 11 a.m. ET practice on Tuesday before departing for Raleigh. On Wednesday evening, the Flyers will conclude their current four-game road trip with a game at PNC Arena against Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes (9-6-0 overall, 4-0-0 at home). The 7:30 p.m. ET game will be nationally televised on TNT.
The Flyers will have an off-day on Thursday after returning home from Raleigh. Thereafter, the schedule gets busy again. The team will practice in Voorhees on Friday, host the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m. ET). On Sunday, the Columbus Blue Jackets will pay a visit for an early evening game (5:30 p.m. ET) at the Wells Fargo Center.
2) The Flyers have returned goalie Cal Petersen and defenseman Victor Mete to the Phantoms. That's a good sign in term of Carter Hart being good to go for the game in Carolina. It also should mean that Egor Zamula will get back in the Flyers' lineup after being scratched in LA.
3) Hart, who left the Nov. 1 game against the Sabres at the 10-minute mark of the first period due to a mid-body injury (believed to be to the goalie's lower body), was slated to return to play in last Friday's road game against the Anaheim Ducks. He felt ill during the day and was scratched from the lineup. Samuel Ersson got the start in net.
On Saturday in Los Angeles, Hart woke up feeling a bit better. He planned to give it a go for that night's game against the Kings. However, as the day progressed, he still did not feel up to playing. As a result, Petersen was pressed into service.
As noted above, Hart should be ready to go for the game against the Hurricanes. Subsequently, the weekend B2B games are likely to be split between Hart and Ersson.
4) On an alternating-week basis, we are doing in-depth prospect-related content across the Flyers content platforms throughout the 2023-24 season.
This week, it's time for another Farm Report roundup article on the team's official website. The main sub-features this week look at the recent play of JR Avon, Samu Tuomaala, Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk, Cutter Gauthier, Matvei Michkov and Alexei Kolosov. There are also notebook sections that talk about other notable players and recent happenings around the Phantoms, and Flyers prospects in the CHL, NCAA and Europe. Each article includes several video highlight clips of standouts from the past week.
To read the current edition of Farm Report,
click here.
Next week, my colleague Brian Smith and I will present a new edition of the
Prospect Pipeline podcast on the Flyers Broadcast Network's family of podcast offerings. On Prospect Pipeline, we catch listeners up on major happenings within the farm system over the week since the last article. As with Farm Report, Brian and I usually start with the latest from the Phantoms and then pick a few other topics related to prospects at other levels of hockey. Before we know it, it will be time for our annual World Junior Championships preview show looking at Flyers prospects who will play for their national under-20 teams.
Hopefully, Flyers fans who follow the prospects in the farm system are enjoying the double-dose of prospect news to cover each week of the month. It also gives folks who prefer podcast-style content to reading online articles --or vice versa -- coverage options in their preferred format. Your feedback on how we can best bring the desired content to you is welcomed and very much appreciated.
5) On yesterday's "Mondays with Meltzer" edition of the Flyers Daily podcast, Jason Myrtetus and I discussed the untimely passing of Roman Cechmanek. We revisited the highs and lows of last week's three games in California. We discussed the Flyers transition game, head coach John Tortorella's efforts to generate more net-front presence and gritty goals, the play of Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost in the last two games, and what the key differences have been in Travis Sanheim's play this season after struggling last year. To listen to the 40-minute podcast,
click here.
6) In Saturday's game in Los Angeles, Bobby Brink was a healthy scratch for just the second time this season. The first was in the Saturday afternoon match the Flyers lost in Ottawa back on Oct. 14. For the season to date, Brink has posted eight points (3g, 5a).
With the notable exception of Brink's breakaway goal in Buffalo on Nov. 3, his overall play dipped a bit so far in November. He wasn't creating as many scoring chances -- Brink, first and foremost, is a playmaking winger -- as he had throughout October. So, it was not a total surprise when John Tortorella scratched Brink for the Los Angeles game.
However, I would personally have preferred if Brink had played. Los Angeles is the type of opponent -- a heavy, deep lineup that usually checks pretty tightly -- against whom I'd like to see to rookie put to the test. In general, I believe that over the course of the regular season, points are points, wins are wins. I don't care about which opponents they come against. But there's also a brand of hockey that changes from the regular season to the postseason. LA, with their 1-2-2 forecheck and the need to be patient and opportunistic in order to defeat them, is the type of club that plays more of a playoff-type game.
Brink's playmaking (and scoring) opportunism and patience are among his best traits. When he's on his game, he's not forcing plays. He pounces when he sees an opening. Against a club like LA, there are usually fewer such openings. Amid a rebuilding situation for the Flyers, and playing the second game of a B2B against a Kings team that was idle the previous night, I think an opportunity was missed to put Brink to the test. I also believe he's capable of handing that challenge.
As it turned out, the Flyers won the game in Los Angeles. It's also not the end of the world if he sits out one game if the coach feels the player needs a mini reset. Even so, a true rebuild (at least as I see it) needs to maximize the opportunities to give younger players a chance to shine under both favorable and adverse matchups. Such experiences, in combination, are how these players grow over time.
7) In Saturday's game, the Flyers dressed Ryan Poehling. He was moved up from fourth line center to the third line, although he did skate some shifts flanked by Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers (his typical linemates). I have nothing against Poehling. I like his speed. I think he's a good penalty killer. He a diligent checker. I also don't think he's devoid of skill (he wasn't originally a first-round NHL Entry Draft pick for nothing). In fact, during the preseason, Poehling displayed some skill along with grit.
Yes, there's a but coming.... As I see it, it's fine to play Poehling if there's a place for him in the lineup BUT that place should not come at the expense of Bobby Brink, Morgan Frost or any of the other homegrown players age 25 or younger. Poehling is only 24 himself, but he's in his third NHL organization and on a one-year ($1.4 million) contract for a reason. It's not his work ethic (which is solid) or his two-way diligence (ditto). It's certainly not his feet (which are above-average) or his frame (6-foot-2, well-conditioned).
When all of those thing are positives but the player has been bouncing around, the reason is usually that the player comes up just a tad short on the type of offensive skill and creativity needed to play a top-nine -- today's NHL is very much a top-nine, no longer a top-six, with a playable fourth line that serves more than just a specialist (checker, pugilist, PKer, faceoff, etc.) role. Poehling fits the playable fourth-liner role well. In fact, I wouldn't mind a bit if his stint with the Flyers lasts more than just this season. He's a good, current day fourth liner.
However, over time, I'd like to see someone with a little more versatility to move up in the lineup as needed plus the ability to play center or wing with equal comfort. At age 29, Scott Laughton is still a good prototype for that sort of player. Move him to center. Move him to wing. Play him on the fourth line. Play him on the third. Even have him periodically play most of a game on the second line if he particularly has it going that night or an injury to another player necessitates it. For many years, Michael Raffl was also that sort of player.
While Poehling is still young enough to fully emerge as a Swiss Army Knife type of role playing forward, I don't think more naturally skilled players should be sitting out for him. I also believe, that while Poehling was a nice depth addition (and every team, certainly including the Flyers, needs all the depth they can muster), there's not really a dire need for him to be more than a part-time starter on a club that already has Laughton and Noah Cates. I'd go so far as to say that there's redundancy if Poehling is also starting regularly and I'd prefer both Cates and Laughton in the 3C/4C spots on a typical basis.
The Flyers lineup, depending on how want to look at it, is either a 1st (Sean Couturier's line), 2A and 2B, and 4th line arrangement or, ideally a 2nd, 3A and 3B, 4th line setup in lieu of a star-powered top line. However you wish to describe it, Poehling is mainly a 4th line option.
Moreover, it may just be a one-year arrangement. Cates is likely to be a Flyer for years to come. It's anyone's guess what the Flyers' plans are for Frost, but it's clear that John Tortorella still doesn't have the same faith in Frost that he does in the other players who progressed markedly in 2022-23. The Flyers thus far have always shot down trade proposals involving Laughton, because of his on-ice versatility, competitiveness and his stature as one of the mainstay team leaders (even in what has been a tough era of Flyers hockey, Laughton takes genuine pride in being a Flyer and representing the club in positive ways). As long as Couturier is healthy, he's going to be in the Flyers' lineup, playing heavy minutes.
So where does that leave Poehling in the long run? He's not a viable alternative to Frost. He's not better than either Laughton or Cates. Moreover, the organization would still like to develop second-year pro Elliot Desnoyers into a Swiss Army knife type of role player when they feel he's ready to do so at the NHL level (in the AHL, he plays a top-six role). Cutter Gauthier, assuming the play remains to keep him at center when he turns pro rather than moving him back to wing, would be the candidate to take Frost's spot in a year if they move Frost to another club. Tortorella has already said he won't move Frost to a wing, and the Hockey Ops folks have long said they think Frost belongs at center.
For all of these reasons, I have my doubts that Poehling will be a long-term Flyer. As such, even if he is very much a viable fourth-liner in today's NHL -- and I believe that he is -- he still may not be in Philly for more than the current season. If that's the case, it's particularly tough to justify having either Brink or Frost scratched in the name of playing Poehling,
8) Initially, I planned to include sections about Tyson Foerster, a deeper-dive on Frost's recent play, a section on the Flyers Alumni Game and a couple other topics in today's blog. It's run very long, though, so I may actually do two blogs today. Time permitting, the second one will be written mid-to-late afternoon today.
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