POST-PRACTICE UPDATE (11:55 AM)
The Flyers held a relatively short but intensive practice today in preparation for tomorrow night's game against the Devils. Not surprisingly given the style that New Jersey plays -- one that often gives the Flyers trouble -- there was a heavy emphasis on structure and good decisions with the puck.
One of the Devils' best assets is that they have a lot of big forwards who like to cycle the puck in the offensive zone. The Flyers cannot afford to spend long periods of time hemmed deep in their own of ice.
I asked Flyers head coach Craig Berube how important puck retrievals and quick breakouts will be against Pete DeBoer's club.
"Extremely important," Berube said. "Like you said, they have players who like to hang onto the puck and we don't want to get caught in their cycle game. We need to outnumber them quickly and get the puck out of our zone."
Towards that end, the Flyers spent much of the early part of practice today with Berube pushing the team very hard on a drill that started in the defensive corner and then went quickly up the ice. Even through the glass in the upstairs press room, you could hear the "Chief" when he did not think things were being with enough quickness.
One of my concerns about tomorrow night's game is that it is easy sometimes to get accustomed to a certain style of play. The Flyers last three games have been against opponents (Washington and Toronto) that like to open up the play a bit. The Caps and Leafs are decidedly more dangerous off the rush than the Devils but they also give up a lot more real estate to opposing attackers.
All of the Flyers players, including Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek and Mark Streit, said the right things about the way the team needs to play tomorrow night. Berube wanted them to be as prepared as possible to put those words into action.
"It is a different style of hockey," Simmonds said. "I don't think the adjustment is more difficult [going from playing teams like the Caps and Leafs to playing with the Devils] but we definitely need to play structured and be patient. We have to stick to our system."
Voracek had a slightly different take. He admitted that there is a risk of getting too accustomed to open ice and then getting frustrated when they face a game where it's harder to generate speed and traffic, but came back to the same central points as Simmonds.
"It's an adjustment, but we have to make the adjustment," Voracek said. "Against the Devils, it might take 55 minutes until we can score a goal but we have to able work through it and expect that type of game."
NOTES:
* The Flyers had all three goaltenders on the ice today, with Ray Emery (groin issue) joining Cal Heeter and Steve Mason at practice. Emery, who skated yesterday, said he felt better today. He won't dress for tomorrow's game and remains day-to-day. Berube acknowledged that Mason will get the start tomorrow.
* Steve Downie (flu) returned to the third line at practice today, and will rejoin the lineup tomorrow night on Sean Couturier's line.
* All defensive pairings are the same as the last two games. Erik Gustafsson and Hal Gill worked as the "fourth" pair.
* Assistant coach John Paddock ran a faceoff drill outside the blueline with Adam Hall and Michael Raffl. The work was primarily for Raffl's benefit. Hall dominated.
* Not surprisingly, much of the locker room talk centered around the appearance of Simmonds and team captain Claude Giroux in yesterday's Globetrotters game at the Wells Fargo Center. Simmonds was in good spirits and laughed about his slam dunk yesterday. I suspect that the Flyers coaches and management were just glad that neither Simmonds nor Giroux suffered any freak mishaps.
************************
MONDAY QUICK HITS
* The Flyers will hold practice Monday morning at the Skate Zone in Voorhees in preparation for tomorrow night's game against New Jersey at the Wells Fargo Center. By virtue of the New York Rangers' 3-0 shutout win over Detroit on Sunday afternoon, the Flyers have dropped to third place in the Metropolitan Divison; one point behind New York with a game in hand. I will have a post-practice update to today's blog in the afternoon.
* I have been impressed by the work that Andrew MacDonald has done in his first two games in a Flyers uniform. I already knew that he had good mobility and was an outstanding shot blocker but I have had more opportunity to pay attention to things like his stick positioning and his ability to retrieve pucks and make a good first pass. He also has the ability to make some stretch passes -- something that has been a bit lacking -- which could help trigger the transition games as he settles in. He's not flashy but he's just a very solid NHL defenseman.
* The Adirondack Phantoms were strafed by the Providence Bruins on Sunday, running headlong into the business end of a 9-3 buzzsaw. Adirondack only trailed 2-1 as the game neared the midway point of regulation but then the floodgates opened. Seth Griffin led the way with four goals and an assist, while Tyler Randall (two goals, two assists) enjoyed a four-point night. Providence scored three of their goals on the power play.
Phantoms goalies Carsen Chubak (16 saves on 20 shots) and Yann Danis (16 saves on 21 shots) were bombarded with a total of 41 shots in the rout. Tyler Brown, enforcer Derek Mathers and defenseman Stephen Delisle scored for the Phantoms.
* The SHL playoff best-of-three miniseries start on Monday. Flyers prospect Robert Hägg is eligible to rejoin the Modo lineup after serving his fight-related suspension from the league. Modo opens their series on the road against Linköping.
For the regular season, Hägg finished the regular season with one goal, six assists, 49 penalty minutes and an even plus-minus rating (+21, -21) in 50 SHL games. He averaged 13:06 of ice time per game, playing very little on the power play or 4-on-4. His overall ice time was actually higher in the earlier portion of the season. Hägg also dressed in two games for Modo's J20 team this season, recording three assists and nine shots on goal.
* I had a great time at last night's Abrams fundraising event in Yardley. Flyers alumni Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Bill Clement, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly were on hand. It is always a pleasure to meet any of them and to have them all in one place was tremendous. There were also some great items up for silent auction and raffle.
I am now the owner of a limited edition autographed Team USA stick signed by Jeremy Roenick and a fun little novelty item (a Howie Mandel DVD with the "guffaw!" routine that inspired Propp's signature goal celebration, autographed by Propp on the DVD case). My brother-in-law placed the winning bid on a stick signed by all three members of the LCB line.
My sister, Liza Sherman, did a tremendous job in helping to coordinate the list of special guests and securing many of the items up for bid. Just an enjoyable night all around.
***************
GORDIE HOWE'S SON: A REVIEW
While I was in Texas over the winter holidays, I received a copy of Mark Howe and Jay Greenberg's "Gordie Howe's Son" (Triumph Books, $25.95) autobiography of the Hall of Fame defenseman. Eagerly anticipating a book about my all-time favorite hockey player co-authored with my favorite hockey writer, my expectations were very high.
I am happy to say that the book did not disappoint. Written with a combination of Mark's unassuming but straightforward honesty and Jay's thorough research and engaging writing style, the book is a must-read for any hockey fan.
The chapters about the tight-knit Howe family and Mark's upbringing both off and on the ice were not unfamiliar. Other books (such as "...And Howe") have told similar stories but it was interesting to hear them exclusively from Mark's point of view.
Greenberg has said that it took some convincing to get Mark onboard with the idea of the book. Howe felt he was "too boring" of a subject for an autobiography and felt lost in reading some of the details of his own life and career. That was the genesis of re-casting the project in the light of talking about life as a member of hockey's royal family.
The funny thing about Mark Howe from my own standpoint, however, is that I seldom thought about who his father is when I watched Howe as a player during his Philadelphia years. What I saw was a once-in-a-generation two-way defenseman that the Flyers never had the likes of before or since. I saw a player who had been a star forward make the extremely difficult switch to defense look easy.
I have said this before and will say it again: For those who didn't have the privilege of watching "Howie" play, just watch video of the now-retired Nicklas Lidström in action because they were very similar players. They played an extremely difficult position with a consummate skill level, grace and intelligence that was a treat to watch.
Contrary to Howe's self-effacing belief that there was not much within his life story that would be interesting to readers, there is actually a wealth of tremendous material of interest to anyone who loves the game; both to Flyers fans and non-Flyers fans alike.
The treasure trove of material includes:
* The story of Mark becoming a 16-year-old Olympian for silver-medal winning Team USA and the 1972 Olympics.
* Colorful tales from the never-dull history of the WHA, including how the Howes came to play together for the Bill Dineen-coached Houston Aeros and later in Hartford.
* A detailed look at making the transition from forward to defenseman. It was not nearly as easy as Howe made it look on the ice. He tells a great story about how he worked with longtime NHL defenseman Ed Van Impe when the Flyers had their former captain as a special instructor at practice. Whereas Howe had previously relied on his speed and hockey sense to play the position without really being schooled in the fundamentals, Van Impe passed along specific tips about positioning and strategy that had not occurred to him.
* No-punches-pulled (without taking cheap shots) views on his coaches and the makeup of the teams he played on. If you want to know what went right -- and wrong -- during the coaching regimes of Bob McCammon, Mike Keenan, Paul Holmgren and Bill Dineen, Howe had a finger on the pulse of the teams under each coach. Mark Howe cannot help but be honest in his sharing his views. He doesn't sugar-coat and he doesn't pile on, either.
* The Pelle Lindbergh tragedy told through Howe's eyes, as well as the ascension of Ron Hextall.
* The authors present various interesting and humorous stories about Howe's interactions on the ice with teammates, opposing players and officials. Howe discusses his on-ice partnership and close off-ice friendship with the late Brad McCrimmon in detail, and the adjustments made to playing with different partners (including Glen Cochrane and Kjell Samuelsson).
* Howe candidly discusses how he and Dave Poulin felt a bit hurt about the symbolic meaning of having the "A" and "C" taken off on their uniforms after Paul Holmgren took over for Keenan. Howe admits that it bothered him privately but jokes that, for awhile, he signed autographs as "Mrk Howe" after he lost the assistant captaincy.
* There's a story about how Howe, in a fit of pique, shot a puck at Kerry Fraser and then felt awful -- admitting that he deserved to be kicked out and suspended. Kerry immediately accepted Mark's apology, saying he had once done the same thing as a player. There is also a good story about HockeyBuzz's own Paul Stewart and another about Wally Harris' payback to the Flyers in his final game as an NHL referee for years of causing him grief.
* Howe offers straightforward stories about what went on contract negotiations before today's era.
* The process and reasoning behind Howe's decision to leave the Flyers and finish his career with the Detroit Red Wings. There are good stories about Steve Yzerman, Lidström, Vladimir Konstantinov, and troubled teammates Sheldon Kennedy and Bob Probert, among others.
* There is an interesting overview of what was like to make the transition to becoming a pro scout and how the Wings built their Stanley Cup winning teams and perennial playoff clubs.
* Interspersed through the book are moving stories about Howe's personal life, including the raising of his three children and his eventual painstaking realization that the time had come to end his marriage to ex-wife Ginger and start anew.
In lesser hands than Greenberg's, "Gordie Howe's Son" could easily have been just another run-of-the-mill sports autobiography. With Jay's skilled touch, the final product turned out to be one befitting of its subject. It transitions seamlessly and is a treat to read.
Apart from the hardcover version of the book, a digital eBook edition of the book is available on the iBookstore, the Kindle Store, BN.com and ipgbook.com.
*************
Click below to follow me on Twitter:
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»