MELTZER'S MUSINGS: DECEMBER 6, 2015
1) The Philadelphia Flyers never seem to be able to make anything easy on themselves. Their ongoing inability to play teams below them in the standings with the same focus and intensity they often bring to games against top-grade opposition is an ongoing frustration.
By failing to match the puck hunger and work ethic of a Columbus Blue Jackets team that came into town with a three-game losing streak and having been chastised by head coach John Tortorella the previous night, the Flyers set themselves up for a monumental chore over the coming week. The Flyers must climb back on the horse and not falling right back in the rut they'd worked so hard to climb out of over their previous 10 games. Unfortunately, they're going to have to do it under very unfavorable scheduling conditions.
Starting on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers start a three-in-four gauntlet of matches in three different cities. The opposition will be the New York Islanders, followed on Thursday and Friday with road games against the St. Louis Blues and the President's Trophy race leading Dallas Stars. All three opponents are of the type that a team can play well against and still come away with zero points or one point,
The Islanders have started to pull things together, and have compiled some impressive wins in skating off with points in eight of their last 10 games. In each of the last two years, the Flyers have played to scoreless ties in St. Louis before skills competition losses. Meanwhile, Dallas will be a rested team that will have been home all week and having two idle nights on the schedule before what could be a tired Philadelphia team comes to town. The Stars are the NHL's highest-scoring team and may also be the league's fastest in terms of pacing. No doubt Lindy Ruff's team will try to play at their highest tempo right from the outset.
Unlike most NHL teams nowadays, the Flyers under Dave Hakstol are not really a team that rolls all four lines throughout a game. The line with Scott Laughton (now back at center after a four-game stint at left wing) has been used rather sparingly even in games with mostly five-on-five play. While that is also dictated by the score and flow of play on any given night, it is also cumulative disadvantage to shorten the bench night after night.
With the Flyers, the traditional "fourth" line -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare's unit -- is deployed as the de facto third line and the third line (which has featured more offensive-minded specialists such as Sam Gagner and Nick Cousins) rarely hits double-digit ice time. That has generally worked well of late during the 10 games that preceded Saturday's clunker but it is not ideal and may not be sustainable for the long haul.
The Flyers, however, habitually seem to play better in the games that seem like "on-paper losses" than they do when the conditions seem favorable. That's why hockey games are played on ice and not on paper.
2) As a followup to why the Flyers seem to do better against clubs like Pittsburgh than they usually do against teams like Columbus (against whom Philly has now lost five of its last six), I have a theory. My explanation is a tangential one, but it will call back to the main point.
As some readers know, I am assisting Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jay Greenberg on Jay's 50th Anniversary History of the Flyers to be released in conjunction with the team's landmark season next year. The ongoing project Jay has tackled is an all-new followup volume to
Full Spectrum covering 1996 to the present day in extensive season-by-season detail with loads of previously untold stories, special sections on the 50 most important figures in Flyers' history and the most important games/moments, plus a re-release of the original Full Spectrum (spanning the roots of hockey in Philadelphia, the 1967 NHL expansion and the 1967-68 to 1995-96 seasons).
Late last year, I was honored to be asked by Jay to serve as the book's fact-checker and to also assist with some of the transcriptions of Jay's extraordinarily thorough interviews with dozens of people associated with -- or as opponents of -- the Flyers. Most recently, I completed the transcription of Jay's hour-long discussion with Danny Briere that covered only the 2011-12 season and 2012-13 lockout year. Other sitdowns with Briere covered the earlier period.
During the course of Danny's most recent interview, Briere raised a fabulous point to Jay -- going very in-depth as to why he thinks it was the case -- as to why the Flyers seem to do so much better against certain teams that seem superior on paper to other clubs against whom they struggle. Briere used the 2012 playoff series against Pittsburgh and New Jersey as his models.
Without spoiling some tremendous anecdotes and poignant quotes from Briere that will appear in the book, I will share Briere's main theme: To this day, the Flyers are a team that feeds off emotional energy.
When they are revved up to play a team and have a chip on their shoulders is when the Flyers typically play best, even long after the Broad Street Bullies days. It starts with players such as Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek (and, previously, the likes of Briere himself, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen and, back in 2009-10 through Chris Pronger and Mike Richards). The teams against whom the game action is much more sterile and clinical -- competitive between the whistles, mind you, but with little animosity afterwards tend be the ones that beat the Flyers time and time again.
Even the current season has been a good example of the power of emotional energy and the friction of rivalry in hockey.
It is not a coincidence that the Flyers' recent trend of making sure to stick up for teammates has been a part of their much-improved performance in recent games. For instance, Luke Schenn's actions in defense of Nick Schultz, followed by the team working through being down to four and then (briefly) three defensemen on the penalty kill was a crucial rallying point in how and why the Flyers turned around last Saturday's road game against the Rangers. Dylan McIlrath's out-of-position run at Schultz made the Rangers' opponent angry and resolved to channel that anger in a positive and unified way. That is Flyers hockey.
As a matter of fact, Saturday night's game against Columbus may have looked very different if the Michael Chaput hit that resulted in Luke Schenn injuring himself -- the hit itself was clean as was McIrath's but it was the situation and outcome that lit the fuse -- had happened much earlier in the game. It woke the Flyers' up emotionally, with first Brandon Manning and then Brayden Schenn (who dropped the gloves with ex-Flyers draftee Chaput) stepping up to defend Luke Schenn. Unfortunately, it was far too late in the game to make a difference.
Final thought: There is no reason why an emotional spark always needs to be a reactive one. In fact, it shouldn't be. The adrenaline rush can -- and should -- more consistently be a proactive one, which historically has been a hallmark of the Flyers during their best seasons.
Say what you will about Radko Gudas but he is one player who raises the temperature of a game for his team. He could be smarter about it, as he takes too many bad penalties (and is currently serving an NHL suspension) in the process. But at least he initiates rather than waiting for an opponent to light the spark for him.
3) Amid a very disappointing night for the Flyers against Columbus, Shayne Gostisbehere had another strong game. As impressive as his explosive shot is, Gostisbehere's skating ability -- both his acceleration and his ability to change direction -- is what stands out most of all.
Something else that jumps out is his tenacious competitive drive. The undersized defenseman makes his share of mistakes but recovers more often than not. Why? It's because he never gives up on the play and has a quick stick as well as fast feet. As a result, Gostisbehere may get beaten initially but he'll make the defensive play on a second effort. Overall, his initial reads are improving steadily, so he needs fewer desperation recoveries.
Even so, there will no doubt there will be nights ahead where Gostisbehere gets beaten a few times and pucks end up in the Flyers' net. The learning curve is still there to be navigated and every young defenseman has bumps in the road. No one is immune. However, more and more it seems that Gostisbehere is well-equipped to bounce back quickly when there is some adversity.
I frequently get asked if the Flyers are going to be forced to send Gostisbehere back to the Phantoms for salary cap reasons when Mark Streit returns to the lineup. It's not worth stressing over too much. These things have a way of working out, because a lot can (and probably will) happen between now and the time Streit is ready to be activated from long-term injured reserve.
For one thing, injuries elsewhere in the lineup are an unfortunate fact of life in hockey. The Flyers will update Luke Schenn's status at some point on Sunday, but the optics of the play where he was hurt -- the awkward way his foot got caught under him, the way it twisted and the fact that he couldn't hobble off under his own power and eventually needed assistance just to get off the ice -- looked like he might miss significant time.
For another, the Flyers have a variety of non trade-dependent options at their disposal to keep Gostisbehere aboard even when Streit eventually is cleared to return to the lineup. For instance, with Laughton's ice time severely reduced, he is a candidate to be assigned for awhile to the AHL and would not require waivers to do so since he's still on the his entry-level contract. The Flyers could also waive a player who lacks a no-movement clause in his contract -- Vincent Lecavalier is immune due to an NMC but R.J. Umberger is a player who does not have a NMC -- and get up to $950,000 of cap relief, which would be enough to keep Gostisbehere on the NHL active roster if the team is unable to trade someone.
One way or another, it will work itself out. It's nothing to lose any sleep over, because it's a no-brainer that Gostisbehere will be kept with the big club.
4) On Friday night in Newark, Flyers equipment manager Harry Bricker worked his 2,00th game in the NHL. The setting was fitting, too, as the Devils and Flyers are the two teams that Bricker has served at the NHL level. On Saturday, the Flyers presented Bricker with a tiffany crystal to honor him for his yeoman's work over the years.
The role of equipment manager is a tough and thankless one, but also one that is of greatly underrated importance to the day-to-day and in-game functioning of the team and the running of the bench. The equipment guys are also frequently confidants of the players and one can often tell a lot about a player's character as a teammate and person by how he treats the equipment guys.
It is is for good reason that Harry Bricker's name is constantly invoked in the "thank you" list of honorees at Flyers' Hall of Fame ceremonies and post-retirement press conferences. The 45-year-old is very meticulous and devoted to his job and is one of the NHL's more innovative equipment managers when it comes to problem-solving. Along with Derek Settlemyre and Anthony "Rock" Oratorio, the Flyers have one of the NHL's best equipment staffs in the entire league. While that does not mean much if anything to fans, it means a lot to the players.
During Peter Forsberg's tenure in Philadelphia, for instance, he and Bricker worked daily on trying to find ways to work around Forsberg's foot problem (which eventually ended Forsberg's career). Bricker even accompanied Forsberg to the skate factory in Canada to get customized skates constructed after dozens of different inserts and modifications would work for a game or two but then stop working. Forsberg's issue ended up being an unsolvable one -- even subsequent additional surgeries and a variety of conditioning programs failed -- but it was only due to diligence of Bricker and Forsberg working in tandem that the player was able to play at all once his foot issues got as bad as they did in 2006.
5) I understand the reasoning for why the Flyers moved Jakub Voracek off the Giroux line and placed him on Bellemare line. However, it may very well be time to make another change now that the Flyers are facing a week where they need all hands on deck both offensively and defensively to get through the aforementioned unfavorable schedule.
First of all, here's my semi-educated guess as to why Voracek was placed on the Bellemare line by Hakstol. I do not agree with much of it personally but there's likely a multi-piece line of thinking by Hakstol that went into where he was moved:
* Plain and simple, Voracek has not been scoring goals for quite a long time regardless of his linemates at five-on-five. Dating back to the final 32 games of last season, Voracek has scored just six goals total -- four power play, just one at five-on-five, and a 3-on-3 overtime goal that is his only tally to date in the 2015-16 season -- over a span of what is now 59 games. The vast majority of that time was spent with Giroux as his center. Right before the switch was finally made, Voracek had seemed to be on the brink of a breakthrough but then seemed to be getting frustrated again.
* Even with the five-on-five switch, Voracek still plays on the top power play unit. That is where he and Giroux do a large percentage of their damage, anyway.
* When he is playing at his peak, as he was in the pre-All Star break portion of last season, Voracek is not really a linemate dependent scorer. Rather, a large percentage of his scoring chances were self-created -- either with speed off the rush or via using his physica strength to shield the puck off the forecheck and make Mikael Renberg-esque cuts in from the right circle or swing moves out from beyond the net to move across the bottom of the circle and find shooting daylight in the slot.
* Bellemare and, to a lesser extent, Chris VandeVelde are good at getting in rapidly on the forecheck and forcing opposition turnovers behind the net, theoretically creating opportunities for Voracek to claim loose pucks and take them around in front or else crash the net and look for a centering pass. During his stint on that line, Voracek has actually had about three or four good scoring chances of that nature once he's claimed pucks off the walls but none have gone in for him.
* Playing with Bellemare and VandeVelde was never intended to be a long-term solution. It was an attempt to get Voracek to re-focus on the little things he tends to do well when he's scoring and to make some east-west things happen away from other team's top shutdown defenders while his linemates take care of the north-south gruntwork.
* Why not place him on Sean Couturier's line, since the trio of Couturer, Wayne Simmonds and Matt Read themselves could not buy a goal until very recently? While I am not 100 percent sure this was the reason, I suspect it's because that line -- even when not scoring -- has by far been the Flyers' best puck-possesion trio and Hakstol wanted to keep them intact longer.
* Why not place him with Scott Laughton (or Nick Cousins, as some have suggested)? Look at that line's ice time distribution. Hakstol wanted Voracek on the ice more often, based on the way he uses his personnel. Alloting Voracek a similar amount of non-power play time to the way Hakstol uses Sam Gagner Laughton, Cousins and Taylor Leier was never a serious consideration, because the coach is not inclined to change the way he uses lines overall in order to accommodate one player; even if that player is one of Voracek's stature on the team.
Now that the Flyers' run of strong performances came to a crashing halt, the time seems right to put Voracek back on Giroux's line if only to try to restore some confidence. In Saturday's game, Voracek's confidence with the puck seemed to be at its lowest ebb of the season. Whatever reasoning went into the change, the end result needs to be that he eventually starts chipping in goals as well as his team-leading number of assists. Voracek will always be more of a playmaking winger than a pure scorer, but he is capable -- and the Flyers need -- him to get on a mid-20s goal pace prorated to the remainder of this season. That's probably not going to happen with the current arrangement, so it may be time to go back to what had worked so well for a few seasons.
6) Repeating a small news-and-notes item from yesterday, BehindtheNet.ca had an interesting statistical nugget on how Hakstol used Cousins during the third-year pro's four games with the big club. Cousins skated a total of 46 shifts (all at even strength). One hundred percent of those 46 shifts were offensive zone starts. It should also be noted that the "quality of opposition" stat during Cousins' stay with the team was markedly lower for the line than when Laughton was centering it and Taylor Leier was on the left wing.
Cousins played well during his time with the Flyers. He made things happen in the offensive zone several times. A player can only do the job he's asked to do, and Cousins performed his tasks well enough to have merited a longer stint with perhaps some secondary power play unit experimentation.
Nevertheless, the stat evidence in this case is pretty overwhelming. It was clear based on zone-start and opposition matchup usage -- no matter what the coach may say publically about having two-way confidence in them -- that Hakstol felt a line with Cousins, Laughton (who has been scuffling of late) and Colin McDonald had to be very carefully managed and sheltered into the least-difficult matchups; I'd never use the word "easiest" because there's no such thing as an easy matchup in the NHL.
7) Over on the Flyers Alumni site, there are lots of exciting things planned to be rolled out in upcoming months. As the pieces fall in place and things start to be rolled out, I'll talk more about what is in store. For now, suffice it to say that, with the 50th anniversary season coming up next year, there will be many Alumni events and tied-in website features that stress how the various generations of former and current Flyers are bonded together by one important thing: the identity of having been Flyers and all that goes along with it, including giving back to the fans and community who support the team.
8) If you check my
Twitter timeline from last night after the Flyers' game, I posted a series of updates on how Flyers' prospects fared in their games on Saturday. Moving forward, my plan is to do a once-per-month comprehensive farm report on HockeyBuzz as I did on
my December 3rd Flyers blog and to have Phantoms updates as time and space permits in Flyers off-day blogs as well as incorporating any major prospect-related news. Otherwise, keep checking my Twitter page for the game-in-and-game-out capsule updates.
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