Quick Hits: December 11, 2018
1) After taking an off-day on Monday following a set of home-road-road (vs. Columbus, at Buffalo and at Winnipeg) games in less than four nights, the Flyers will practice in Calgary on Tuesday in preparation for a meeting with the Western Conference leading Flames on Wednesday night.
2) According to Natural Stat Trick, after the Flyers were hemorrhaging opposing scoring chances (including high-danger chances) at 5-on-5 and getting very few saves on them early in the season, the team has actually done a good job at cleaning up those issues. At present, per the site's stat tracking, the Flyers are tied for the second-fewest opposing scoring chances allowed and are fourth in fewest high-danger chances allowed. That's the good news.
The bad news: the Flyers goalies still rank near the bottom. Flyers goaltenders rank 28th in the NHL at making saves on opposing scoring chances, although they are a respectable 11th specifici to the high-danger areas. Essentially, that backs up the eye-test observation of Flyers goaltenders allowing too many medium-danger and "soft" goals.
That does NOT mean, of course, that there is not a team component to why the Flyers have allowed 63 goals (vs. 61 scored) at 5-on-5, why the club has allowed five shorthanded goals and why the penalty kill ranks last in the NHL. The Flyers have to take better care of the puck on zone exits and be a little more consistent on making opponents go 200 feet if no controlled attack zone entry is possible.
Nevertheless, the Flyers No. 1 issue, both per statistics and per the old-fashioned eye test, is subpar goaltending.
The game in Winnipeg was all-too-typical in that regard. Michal Neuvirth was not solely to blame for the three goals he allowed on 10 shots, but he was partially culpable on all three. The first one punctuated a bad shift for all five skaters on the ice but the shot itself was a clear-sighted one from a distance where saves are generally expected. The second one saw Ivan Provorov accidentally screen Neuvirth but it was a low glove-side shot from the point. The third one was a routine glove save that turned into a high-danger chance because Neuvirth boxed it into the lower slot. Provorov failed to contain his man and was beaten to the loose puck but there never should have been a second-chance opportunity off the initial shot.
3) As an addendum to the above point, I will say that I think Anthony Stolarz's overall stats (3.39 GAA, .898 save percentage) are a bit deceptive. He's had three games -- the relief appearances in the debacles in Toronto and Winnipeg plus a start at home against Ottawa -- where his play in net has not been the issue and he ran into some tough luck with bad bounces. I'd only rate one goal he's allowed -- the first one in the Columbus game -- as a "soft" goal. Nevertheless, Stolarz's presence is not sufficient to declare that the Flyers' goaltending issues are solved once Brian Elliott comes back, and the team could potentially go with a tandem of the veteran Elliott plus Stolarz.
4) Elliott is close to being able to return from a suspected groin pull, perhaps during the current road trip. In the big picture, given his dual surgeries (core muscle and hip) within this calendar year plus a recent groin pull and generally declining mobility at age 33, the Flyers need to proceed with caution. The risk of reinjury is significant at this point. In terms of his overall play, Elliott has been the Flyers' best goaltender when healthy.
5)The status of Sean Couturier (day-to-day with a lower-body injury) after missing the last two games and not having practiced on Friday before the Flyers' departed on the current road trip may be a little clearer at Tuesday's practice.
6) Two weeks ago, I spend 20 minutes interviewing Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim one-on-one for the newest edition of the monthly "Road to the NHL" long-read feature series on the Flyers' official website. The article is done and could run this week (perhaps as soon as today) on the Flyers' site, since Sanheim played his junior hockey in Calgary and hails from Manitoba; the team's two most-recent stops on the current road trip. Previous articles in the series looked at Shayne Gostisbehere and Oskar Lindblom.
7) With the Flyers out in western Canada, I am taking the opportunity to travel to Nashville to attend the 2018 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony tomorrow. Although the marquee inductee this year is Predators general manager David Poile (whose late father, Bud, was the Flyers' first general manager), I am primarily going because Paul Stewart has become a good friend over the years and a friend to my entire family in more recent years. I am going as one of Stewy's guests rather than as media, so I can just enjoy the night. Tonight, I will be attending the Predators vs. Senators game in Nashville. Tomorrow is the induction.
I was proud to assist Paul in completing his autobiography, entitled "Ya Wanna Go?". My nine-year-old nephew, Matthew Sherman, was inspired to write a children's book about Paul's first pair of skates, which Stewy wrote about on his former blog at Huffington Post and later became the subject of a radio program on NPR's nationally syndicated "Just a Game" series. For those unfamiliar with the story, it was basically a real-life version of Ralphie finally getting his long-coveted Red Ryder air rifle as his final (and well-hidden) gift in "A Christmas Story." The book was written completely by Matthew's own initiative -- as well as it being his own initiative to donate part of the proceeds from the book to the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, so other kids could get a chance to skate and play hockey -- and a local student artist was enlisted to draw the illustrations.
Matthew called his book, "A Magical Christmas for Paul Stewart." The book has had newspaper stories written about in the local papers in Bucks County and word of the book even reached the legendary Wayne Gretzky (whom Paul has known since the days Gretzky was playing for the long-defunct Indianapolis Racers in the WHA and Stewy was an enforcer for the Cincinnati Stingers). Gretzky told Stewy he'd prefer a copy of Matty's book to Paul's own.
Both "Ya Wanna Go?" and "A Magical Christmas for Paul Stewart" are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and similar sites. Alternatively, either or both can be ordered through Paul's official website,
YaWannaGo.com.
Congrats, Stew! Looking forward to seeing you in Nashville.
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