POST-PRACTICE QUICK HITS

* Jakub Voracek said after practice that the weight he lost in the off-season has been beneficial. He has steadily maintained a weight of about 208 pounds since reporting for training camp. Voracek attributes much of it to an improved diet. Last year by this time, he was at about 215 pounds after dropping some of his training camp weight.

Voracek said there is a bit of a trade-off. He sometimes does feel a difference in the corners and board battles for the puck, but most of the trade-off has beneficial. He has noticed that he feels fresher in third periods than he did early last season and it has perhaps helped him in making some key plays in the final period of several games this season.

* Wayne Simmonds said that he played long enough as teammates with Jonathan Quick to have a sense of approaching play against him. Quick is the most notable proponents of the reverse VH (post-lean) technique, and

"Quickie likes to come at you," said Simmonds. "He'll show you something and take it right away. You have to shoot fast and you have to get it high against him or he's going to stop it."

* Last season, the Flyers shut out the Kings in Los Angeles and played the eventual Stanley Cup champions tough in a narrow loss at the Wells Fargo Center. I asked Craig Berube what the team did well in those games that they replicate tomorrow. After joking that he'd have to go back and watch those games again, Berube gave his answer.

"We played a team game, a hard game," said Berube.

The coach said that the Flyers have to follow a similar process tomorrow night: take away space from the Kings and make them earn their chances, keep their feet moving with good puck support, finish their checks and take care of the puck when they have it.

* For a second straight day, Steve Mason had to answer a stream of questions about his confidence and what he is doing differently than early last season. Clearly not wanting to throw his teammates under the bus, Mason responded that, in hockey, sometimes you just don't the results you want.

Berube put it more bluntly.

"We just haven't played very good in front of him and he's had a lot of bad bounces," said the coach.

Nevertheless, with Ray Emery having played so well in his three starts to date, it is very likely that Emery will get the nod tomorrow. Berube claimed he'd have "sleep on it tonight" but Emery followed the practice regimen he uses only when he's starting.

Mason is a goaltender who tends to play as he practices. The goalie stressed that he's trying to build upon a good foundation from practice. While Berube joked that "I don't try to be a goalie coach or even a goalie", he concluding by saying that he felt Mason has had strong back-to-back practices.

My view: A lot of people are unfairly dumping on Mason right now. They look at his stats and not at the actual games that have been played. The truth of the matter is Berube is right: Mason was victimized by a stream of point blank chances off defensive breakdowns, nasty deflections, unfavorable caroms off the end boards and heavy screens. There is only one outright soft goal that he's allowed thus far; Dainius Zubrus' game-winner in the Flyers home opener.

With that said, there have perhaps been a few momentum saves that Mason was making most of last season that he hasn't been coming up with in the early going. That has been the only real difference thus far in Emery's games versus Mason's. Perhaps Mason could also slightly tighten up his rebound control and make other subtle adjustments but he is not nearly as far off from playing as well as he did last year as some seem to think.

Over time, things should correct themselves so long as Mason keeps the big picture in mind and sticks with the routine that has generally worked so well for him ever since he came over from Columbus. As for right now, Emery has earned another start.

That's really all there is to it. No "goalie controversy" necessary.

Meanwhile, this morning on NHL Network Radio, one of the hosts was griping that his fantasy hockey team isn't doing well because "Steve Mason sucks." Sorry, buddy, but it actually the Flyers team defense that has been atrocious.

Bernie Parent in his prime would not have made much difference in the games where Mason has had an ugly stat line (especially the Dallas game and the first period three-goal barrage in Chicago). When Emery had similar breakdowns in front of him in the third period of the Montreal game -- and as well as he played all game -- he still gave up three goals as the Habs came back to erase a 3-0 deficit.

That wasn't on Emery. Likewise, what is Mason supposed to do when Patrik Elias or Jamie Benn get the puck passed to their tape and are unchecked on back-door goals? What's he supposed to do when there are double-deflections in front? Maybe he could have made a ten-bell save when a puck caromed off the end wall to Patrick Kane on the far-side doorstep or been lucky enough to get hit with the shot moving laterally when Trevor Daley sniped a pair of power play goals from the bottom of the circle off power play goals.

Personally, I'm not going to criticize Mason for an inability to work miracles. When the team in front of him gives him fewer unstoppable or 9-of-10 difficulty saves to make, you will see his save percentage go back up again. Simple as that.

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PRACTICE UPDATES

* Jakub Voracek returned to practice today after taking a maintenance day on Sunday.

* Ray Emery will be the starter tomorrow night when the Flyers host the Los Angeles Kings. For the second straight day, Emery came out first to work with Jeff Reese. A minute later, Steve Mason joined him. Mason always comes out early. Unless he is starting, Emery typically comes out several minutes after Mason.

* Zac Rinaldo, who missed Saturday's game with an upper-body injury, will be back in the lineup tomorrow night in all likelihood. He skated on Chris VandeVelde's line at practice today. Blair Jones, a likely healthy scratch, skated along with Vincent Lecavalier (left foot injury). Lecavalier may be ready to play by Thursday but is not expected to be in the lineup tomorrow night.

These were the Flyers lines:

Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek
Brayden Schenn - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Wayne Simmonds
R.J. Umberger - Sean Couturier - Matt Read
Zac Rinaldo - Chris VandeVelde - Jason Akeson

Extra forwards: Vincent Lecavalier (left foot), Blair Jones (healthy)

Nicklas Grossmann - Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto - Nick Schultz
Shayne Gostisbehere - Luke Schenn

Ray Emery (probable starter for Tuesday)
Steve Mason

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PHANTOMS REPORT

Playing for the third time in three nights, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms suffered a 3-0 road shutout loss in Hershey last night, falling to 4-2-0 on the regular season. Anthony Stolarz got the nod in goal, turning back 27 of 29 shots before Hershey added an empty-netter in the final minute. Phoenix Copley earned a 22-save shutout for Hershey.

Lehigh Valley entered the game with a 36-percent success ratio on the power play but went 0-for-4 on this night. The Phantoms killed off all four of their own penalties.

With Gostisbehere on NHL recall and Mark Alt unavailable due to an upper-body injury suffered early in the first period of Saturday's win in Binghamton, the Phantoms recalled offensive-minded defenseman Brett Flemming from the ECHL's Reading Royals.

The Phantoms were also a bit shorthanded up front. Sniping winger Petr Straka missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury (suspected to be a knee issue) sustained in Friday's home win against Hershey. Additionally, with Jay Rosehill serving the first game of his three-game suspension by the AHL for an illegal check to the head, Lehigh Valley called up enforcer Derek Mathers from Reading.


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FLYERS WINNING BUT THE PROCESS ISN'T SUSTAINABLE

In the wake of Saturday's 4-2 Flyers win over Detroit, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock had a rather blunt assessment of the game. He was not about to give Philadelphia much credit for defeating his team.

Said Babcock, "I thought we did tons of good stuff. We obviously have to get our power play going. Our power play wasn’t good enough, even though the first one we kept them in there the whole two minutes, I didn’t think that was giving us any life. Other than that we played a good game, you play like that most nights, you’re gonna win. .... I didn’t think they had momentum ever, to tell you the truth. They scored a goal, we came right back and scored another one, to make it 2-2. ...I don’t know about frustrating, that's a waste of time. We’ve done lots of good things and we weren’t rewarded. ... I thought we prepared well, I thought we played hard. And we weren’t rewarded, but in the long-term we will be.”

Over on the Flyers' side, coach Craig Berube recognized that his team had been outplayed for 40 minutes. Thankfully, goaltender Ray Emery and the defense stepped up in its own-zone play.

Said Berube, "I thought the guys did a good job of keeping things to the outside. But it's just too much time in our own end. You gotta kill plays, you got to be more aggressive and get numbers in there. They did a good job of boxing guys out, blocking shots, keeping them to the outside. ... I think we realized [with the game tied 1-1 at the second intermission] if we go play the period the way we can, we might win the hockey game. I thought that there was a lot more life, a lot more energy in the third period than there was in the first two."

Not coincidentally, Berube conducted a lengthy up-tempo practice at the Skate Zone on Sunday. Afterwards, he told reporters that he wanted his team to recognize there are still many areas of needed improvement despite the team's 3-1-0 record over the last four games.

"It's a reminder that you can't get comfortable when you win," said Berube. "You win a game here, but there is too much high and low. You got to stay focused, even keel. We talked about that before. Consistency is a big thing in the National Hockey League. And our hockey club has to learn to be more consistent."

Hockey coaches often talk about winning being a process and not just a result. In other words, there may be a few games here and there where the club plays well enough to win but the end result is a loss. There may be a few games -- such as Saturday's -- where the team is significantly outplayed but still finds a win. Nevertheless, in the bigger picture, it's all about playing a responsible two-way game as a team.

Ultimately, if the club wants to have reproducible good outcomes, it has to be the club that wins most of the puck battles in a game. The Flyers do that sporadically. They also are prone to long stretches where they spend too much time pinned in their defensive zone and struggle to clear the puck. There are still too many lapses in team defense, both the defensemen and the forwards.

Additionally, there are too many stretches where the club stops skating and the club can't even reliably dump pucks in with active forechecking pursuit much less carry pucks into the offensive zone. There are still prolonged segments where opposition breakouts and zone entries are too easy and the ones for Philly are elusive.

Most of all, the Flyers simply cannot afford to chase games on a regular basis. Yes, they are one of the premiere comeback teams in the NHL, but playing from behind every night is NOT a process conducive to winning regularly. The Flyers have yielded the game's first goal in seven of eight matches thus far.

Considering the fact that the Flyers have played a very tough schedule in October, they are fortunate to be 3-3-2 right now. Comeback ability can only take a team so far.

Come tomorrow night, the Flyers play the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. No team in the NHL is better at playing the puck possession game combined with skill, size and grinding ability than LA. Even when the Kings struggled for goals for much of the regular season last year, their even strength goals for/ goals against ratio was stellar.
Good special teams are, of course, very valuable but the process of being able to consistently achieve favorable outcomes starts at five-on-five.

Improved five-on-five play was the Flyers' number one goal heading into this season, along with greater discipline and conditioning. The first goal has remained a bit elusive and cannot be blamed solely on injuries.

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