FLYERS TRAINING CAMP REPORT: DAY 2 SYNOPSIS, DAY 3 PREVIEW
On the second day of the Philadelphia Flyers 2015 training camp at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, a big crowd turned out for the weekend practice and the taping of the annual "Meet the Flyers" season preview show on CSN Philadelphia. On the ice, new head coach
Dave Hakstol opted to stay with the same line combinations he used on the first day camp.
Group A (the probable NHL roster and bubble players) and Group B (rookies and players likely to play for the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms) switched ice-time order on the second day, with Group B going first.
In between the two sessions and prior to the taping of "Meet the Flyers," Comcast-Spectacor chairman
Ed Snider addressed the media.
"I think we’re going to turn this team around and I think we’re going to be a playoff team this year," said Snider. “I think a lot of things last year I wasn’t happy with and we’re going to correct a lot of those things. I think really we have a pretty good team. That same team last year that did not make the playoffs, made the playoffs the year before so it’s not they’re chopped liver or anything like that."
Snider went to say that, even last year, there were hopeful signs that the team was much closer to being a playoff contender than critics suggest, such as the team's 53-point showing on home ice and its winning record against teams that made the playoffs during the 2014-15 season. Those positive areas made the trouble spots that cost the team dearly in the playoff chase all the more vexing to Snider.
"I can’t understand our road record, I can’t understand the penalty killing that we had, on the road and for the first half of the season. Overall, those things are going to be corrected, I’m confident that it’s not going to occur again," said Snider.
Snider expressed his support for general manager
Ron Hextall's plan to stock up on prospects and hold to draft picks without gutting the core of the NHL roster or looking for quick fixes. Likewise, Snider said that Hextall's enthusiasm for Hakstol's coaching talents -- even as someone coaching pro players for the first time -- gives him confidence that the club found the right man for the job in the immediate future as well as the long term.
"I’m very impressed with Hakstol. It’s X's and O's, and he’s proven that he’s a winner and understands the game, and all of the players that have played with him and against him all show him the greatest respect. So it’s just to me, it’s exciting to see what will happen," Snider said.
Group A Synopsis
After a breakneck-paced first day of camp that had a little bit of systems installation work but was mostly focused on competitive individual and small-group drills, Hakstol spent a large portion of the second day on breakouts, transitional play and offensive zone entry/ defensive blueline defense and back pressure support.
“I think there was a little less battle out there today and a little bit more in terms of play making and execution and again I like the focus level of our group and that’s not singling one player or one line or one set of defensemen. I like the focus of our group, I like the pace of our practice and overall for day two the execution was pretty good," said Hakstol.
Across the board, Group A featured the same line combinations on Saturday as the ones featured on the first day:
Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek
Matt Read - Sean Couturier - Wayne Simmonds
R.J. Umberger - Vincent Lecavalier - Sam Gagner
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Ryan White
Chris Porter - Scott Laughton - Brayden Schenn
Nick Schultz - Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto - Evgeni Medvedev
Andrew MacDonald - Radko Gudas
Brandon Manning - Luke Schenn
Steve Mason / Michal Neuvirth
On Friday, Hakstol replied to a question about how his system would differ from former head coach
Craig Berube by saying there would be some tweaks but no wholesale changes.
"here’s a couple areas we will try to develop. Maybe in the offensive zone with some movement. Some of our mentalities in terms of transition and play in the neutral zone," said Hakstol.
In Saturday's session, the team spent time working on one of the more noticeable changes the head coach wants to implement in its neutral zone play and attempted prevention of clean zone entries by opposing attackers.
Veteran defenseman
Nick Schultz succinctly described the system tweak to CSN Philly.
"He wants the defenseman over the top in the middle instead of a forward there. It’s a little bit different. So, the D’s got to get up and make sure you’re in position. It’s the responsibility of the winger on the wide guy," said Schultz.
If done properly, with all of the defenders in the right position and forwards skating all out to handle their back-checking duties, it will either short-circuit attempted line rushes or force the attacking team to try to dump the puck in deep. With a quick retrieval and accurate first pass, the play can then quickly swing out of the defensive zone.
Schultz, who will serve as the Flyers' primary shutdown defenseman, believes that the desired coverage change is not especially difficult. However, it will take a bit of time during camp to get everyone fully in synch.
"That’s just practice and reps of doing it and getting used to where you’ve got to be and if the puck moves, where you’ve got to change your spot to and things like that," Schultz said.
In the meantime, multiple players and Hakstol said that they've been very impressed thus far with Russian import defenseman
Evgeni Medvedev. The 33-year-old, who was signed primarily because of his KHL and international hockey reputation for being a fine breakout passer and mobile defender, has been impressive in both areas.
Asked if Medvedev's ability to consistently put passes on the tape was the first thing that jumped out at him through two days of camp and pre-camp workouts, Flyers top line right winger
Jakub Voracek nodded vigorously.
"One hundred percent," Voracek said. "He keeps it simple and it’s got to be a little hard for him not speaking English and learning everything, a new system, smaller ice. He’s doing a great job so far and I think it’s pretty impressive of what he’s shown the past few days. It’s great to have him on the team.”
From a coaching standpoint, Hakstol said that he has been pleased to see that Medvedev is proactive -- despite the language barrier -- to approach the coaches on the ice and ask for further explanation if there is an instructional area in which he has a question. The coach said he can already tell Medvedev is an intelligent person with good hockey sense.
"I’ve been impressed with Evgeni, he’s come directly to us a couple of times out there today. If he’s unsure we’re not necessarily communicating with language, but like I said he’s pretty sharp and when he looks at a drill I see him sitting there and really understands the concept. There were a couple of times out there today where he wanted some clarification and we were able to do that directly," said Hakstol.
While Hakstol has been very interactive with the forwards and defensemen, he said that leaves the bulk of the interaction with goalies
Steve Mason and
Michal Neuvirth to new goaltending coach
Kim Dillabaugh.
"Kim has an awful lot of that communication. At this time, especially going through camp, these guys are going through getting ready, preparing themselves for the season and Kim is the guy that works right on the front lines with them," Hakstol explained.
During the latter portion of Saturday's practice, after Group A changed ice surfaces from the Flyers rink to the Phantoms rink, the team engaged in some of the competitive drills seen on the first day: two-on-twos and three-on-threes.
The small group portion got pretty grueling, as players waged battle behind the net, in the corners and near the net. Players treated this seriously. Quite a few got knocked to the ice as they jostled for the puck and jockeyed for inside body position. Meanwhile, Mason at one point, was sprawled on the ice during a scramble near the left post and fully stretched out to get his skate up against the short-side post to deny
Claude Giroux in tight.
Even when the whistle blew to change players and the next group hustled in as the previous group, the group finishing up its drill was not finished. The entire group then had to skate hard all the way to the goal line at the far end and then get back as fast as possible to rejoin their teammates waiting for the next group changeover.
Standing at center ice during the changeovers was assistant coach
Ian Laperriere, who handles the conditioning skates during the season for scratched and rehabbing players among his duties. Lappy is a task-master when it comes to conditional skates, and kept everyone honest. He loudly exhorted the groups to dig deep and skate like they meant it.
Wayne Simmonds made this extremely taxing post-shift challenge look easy. Others looked gassed and miserable by the time they got to the blueline. The body-to-body combat part near the net was grueling but fun; the followup skate was torturous.
Second-year pro
Scott Laughton was among the standout players on day two. He did most everything at top speed. On day one, he had
Brandon Manning turned inside out. On day two, he made a sharp cut-in from the wall, blowing right past
Mark Streit and took the puck hard to the net. Mason made the save, but those are the sorts of plays that could help the team's 2012 first-round pick win a spot on the team.
Giroux scored a couple of pretty goals during rushes, both against Neuvirth and Mason. He also sprung Voracek for a breakaway with a perfect lead pass over the middle that split
Luke Schenn and Manning. Mason, who was stingy in goal on day two after seeming to tire in the latter stages of day one, made the save.
The line of
Vincent Lecavalier centering
R.J. Umberger and
Sam Gagner had a pretty good second day of camp. Lecavalier roofed a few unstoppable shots from the right circle and the middle slot, while Umberger (who is skating much better than lat year) was one of the first players to score on Mason in the first portion of practice by getting position on Medvedev in front of the net and unleashing a quick low snap that was in the back of the net almost before Mason could react.
Arguably, the nicest goal scored on Day Two was a top-shelf backhander by
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare as he turned and cut across the slot. That tally came during the second half of practice. During the first half of practice, Medvedev scored on a rocket of a shot over Mason's blocker.
The hardest hit of the day was during the 3-on-3 in the second half of practice. Schultz cleanly checked Lecavalier into the wall and knocked him to the ice. They both smiled and exchanged stick taps skating off immediately afterwards.
Group B Synopsis
As with the first day, a scrimmage highlighted Group B's Saturday on-ice activities. Most of the players adsigned to Group B took part in the Team White vs. Team Black scrimmage. Absent players were
Radel Fazleev (upper-body injury),
Christian Marti (undisclosed) and
Brandon Alderson (undisclosed). These were the respective teams:
Team Black won the scrimmage, 2-1, on a
Derek Mathers seeing-eye goal from the outer left circle hash marks in the waning seconds of 3-on-3 overtime. Earlier,
Chris Conner converted a
Samuel Morin turnover in the neutral zone into a breakaway goal.
Danick Martel answered back on the next shift to tie the game at 1-1.
Morin remained paired with
Shayne Gostisbehere on defense, as he has been throughout rookie camp into main camp.
Travis Sanheim was paired with Phantoms defenseman
Mark Alt.
Ivan Provorov played with veteran
Davis Drewiske as his partner.
Robert Hägg was with
Logan Pyett.
The scrimmages have used an unusual format for penalties. Rather than power plays or traditional penalty shots, fouled players essentially get breakway head-starts from center ice. It starts out like a penalty shot but after the shooter gets a head start from the center ice dot, defenders are allowed to pursue him back checking from the blueline.
At one point, Provorov got boarded. He was OK. On the ensuing semi-contested penalty shot, he was unable to convert.
The most dynamic forward line was Team White's trio of third-year pro
Nick Cousins centering
Aaron Palushaj and
Taylor Leier. They did not score but they buzzed around the offensive zone on several shifts. Another notable combo was Team Black's top line of veteran
Tim Brent centering 2015 first-round pick
Travis Konecny and third-year pro
Petr Straka.
After the day one scrimmage, Gostisbehere felt he could have played a lot better. It was his first 5-on-5 "game" (albeit an intra-squad scrimmage) in the 10 months since his knee injury in November of last year. Things went better on day two and he said afterward that it's hard not to try to do too much too soon and simplifying things at the outset is part of the process. The most important thing at this stage is that he physically feels 100 percent.
Leier stoically dealt with injury issues of his own last year. In the second half of his rookie season, he had injury to both shoulders and a wrist. The player said that he felt he learned lessons about mental toughness from the adversity but said he couldn't pat himself on the back for it because he still felt like he should have produced more than he did.
Meanwhile, defenseman Sanheim seemed focused on keeping his own game simple. He did not jump up into the offensive play much -- as he has regularly and effectively done for the WHL's Calgary Hitmen. Mostly, he tried to take care of his own end of the ice and move the puck quickly. He quietly had a solid scrimmage.
Cousins, who spent the final 11 games of the 2014-15 season at the NHL level with the Flyers, said that the first four or five games went well but then he hit a stretch where he realized he still had things to work on to become an NHL regular. He spent much of the summer continuing to work on his skating, although he made significant progress last year in keeping his feet moving and also in bettering his two-way game. Cousins said that his first pro year (2013-14) was an eye-opening experience of how much tougher the pro game is to play than junior hockey but it also was a lesson in patience and the need for continual improvement.
Numerous players in Group B were asked if they were disappointed that they did not get the opportunity to test themselves --- and potentially impress the Flyers' NHL coaching staff -- by practicing with and against the Group A players. Most couched any sense of disappointment in terms of being worried only about the things within their control.
The engaging and self-confident Palushaj, who seems to be a pretty candid straight shooter, was one of the few Group B players to express his genuine emotions before similarly shifting the focus to his determination to impress over the long haul of camp and the season.
"I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed," Palushaj said. "I can’t really do anything about it. You have to respect the coach's decision. That doesn’t reflect my chances to make the team. You've got to play well when you get out there. If I play one or two exhibition games, do what I can to show everybody. I think there are a lot of people who are unfamiliar with me and my game. I just got to go out there and show what I can do."
The 26-year-old Palushaj, who has 68 games of previous NHL experience, added that he's not going to give up pushing for an opportunity to earn his way up to play with the Flyers' NHL roster.
“My expectations for myself is to make the [NHL] team. I’m skating with the rookies and young guys now but that doesn’t force me to automatically think I am making the team or give them any reason to keep me up here. That is my goal and that is what I am hoping to do," he said.
Whether he plays for the Phantoms under
Scott Gordon or the Flyers under Hakstol, Palashaj said that he is confident he will receive high-quality coaching to help him get the most out of his abilities.
"I never played for [Gordon] but I have some buddies who are friends with him and have worked with him. They say he is a great guy. Good coach. Same with Hakstol. I think we are in good hands here in this organization from top to bottom. I'm excited to be here," said Palushaj.
SUNDAY PREVIEW AND CAMP QUICK HITS
* For the third day of camp, the group ice-time order will revert to the one used on Friday. Group A will take the ice at 9:45 a.m. EDT and Group B will go out at 1 p.m. EDT. For the first time, Hakstol plans an abbreviated five-on-five scrimmage for Group A. The "big boy" scrimmage will be at approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT.
* Hakstol said he in the process of determining the rosters for the split squad games against the New York Islanders on Monday. It has already been announced that Hakstol will coach the game at the PPL Center in Allentown and that both Giroux and Voracek will be in the Allentown tilt. The rest of the rosters for Allentown and Brooklyn may not be announced until Monday.
* Hakstol was asked about whether or not he will make any line changes for Sunday's Group A practice and why there were none on Day 2. The coach responded, "It doesn’t make sense every day to jumble things. We might change them up a little bit tomorrow we might not, but nothing is set in stone. We thought leaving things as is from yesterday moving into today was the most efficient way to keep building our team in day number two here, so that’s what we did.”
* Hakstol was also asked about his reasoning for not intermingling players from Group A and Group B on the ice thus far. He said, “I think the last couple of days for the group in this locker room have been good. To be together and to get some work done, we said all the way along we’re going to evaluate it after every day and we did that yesterday and we decided to stay with the same groups and just keep doing the work. We’re going to sit down after today and we’ll do the same thing, we’ll evaluate it and you may see more of a mix tomorrow, but we’ve got to get through that discussion first.”
* Voracek was also asked about his view on the roster division through the first two days. He said he could see both sides of the coin. "It’s a tough answer for me. From the rookie perspective you want to be practicing with the guys from the NHL you feel like you have a bigger chance. For us that have been here for a few years it’s probably better because we work together so we know what to expect from each other and we can work on things like that better. Put two teams differently and you only have a few days to work with it. We have a few weeks before the season starts so it’s a positive note at this point in time.”
* In answering a question about Medvedev's level of progress in learning English, Voracek harkened back to his own experiences when he first arrived on the QMHL's Halifax Mooseheads as a teenage player. "I remember when I got to Halifax ten years ago. I didn't speak any English as well. The hockey stuff you kind of pick up really quick. Out of the stadium or out of the rink it’s a little harder.”
* Flyers defenseman
Michael Del Zotto, speaking to the team's official website said that he felt the second day of camp was a little easier for the players than the first while still being held at a high tempo.
* Fourth line forward
Chris VandeVelde became a lineup mainstay last season and has past experience playing for Hakstol at the University of North Dakota. Based off last season, VandeVelde admitted that it felt good to report to an NHL camp for the first time in his career among the players considered likely to be in the opening night lineup. However, he also said he realizes that there's still competition for spots and players in his role can't take anything for granted.
"Last year, I don't think I was expected to make the team and I didn't. I was sent down and then called right back up. I think I had a good camp last year. I went out and just worked hard. I need to continue to do that, though. They're not going to give anything away just because of a contract or whatever."
The Flyers signed VandeVelde to a two-year contract in the 2015 off-season, paying $712,500 per season. It is the first one-way contract he's received in his professional career since graduating UND.
* Far and away, the Flyers are among the best NHL organizations when it comes to caring for people in the local community. On Saturday, there was an impromptu meeting arranged with Flyers players for nine-year-old
Mason Hicks by Flyers senior communications director
Zack Hill after Hill spotted Mason in the crowd.
Mason Hicks with Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Sam Gagner, Brayden Schenn and Luke Schenn (Photo courtesy of Flyers/Zack Hill)
In August 2008, when Mason was only two years old, he was playing in the basement of the home of five-year-old friend
Justin Freitag while Mason's mother babysat, seated at the bottom of the basement steps.
According to a
report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, as the boys played they accidentally knocked over a can of gasoline stored beneath the stairs. The fumes rapidly traveled to the water heater pilot light, immediately causing an explosion and a fast-spreading fire.
Justin died in the hospital. Mason, who was trapped in the house before being rescued by two rescued by two Chews Landing firefighters, survived after weeks in critical condition at St. Christopher's Hospital. He sustained third-degree burns over much of his body.
A Flyers fan, Mason got to meet some of his favorite players on the team after Saturday's practice in Voorhees.
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PROSPECT UPDATES: SEPTEMBER 20
* SHL: Flyers 2015 fifth-round pick
Oskar Lindblom played a sound but statistically nondescript game for Brynäs IF in Saturday's 3-2 road loss to Färjestads BK. Lindblom skated 14 minutes of ice time, recording no points or shots. He won several battles on the walls and made a nice back-checking play in the third period. Lindblom, who recorded an assist on a cross-ice pass to Anton Rödin in BIF's opening-night win over Malmö, set up a prime scoring chance for linemate
Greg Scott in the FBK game but Scott hit the post.
* Flyers 2015 third-round pick
Felix Sandström served as the backup goalie for Brynäs in both the Malmö and Färjestad games. With Sunday's Brynäs J20 team game against Modo taking place in Örnsköldsvik, Sandström stayed with the senior team and did not make the road trip.
* KHL: Flyers 2015 seventh-round pick
Ivan Fedotov served as the backup goaltender for parent KHL club Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk in its game on Saturday. As such, he did not dress for junior league team Reaktor in its Saturday game.
* MHL: Flyers 2015 fourth-round pick
Mikhail Vorobyov did not record a point for Tolpar Ufa in its 3-2 shootout loss on Saturday to Belye Medvedi. Vorobyov, who has gone pointless in three straight games since a three-assist performance in the regular season opener, went 9-for-18 on faceoffs and was even in plus-minus.
* Czech Extraliga: Pirati Chomutov, featuring Flyers 2015 fifth-round pick
David Kase as its fourth-line center, plays a road game on Sunday against HC Vitkovice Steel.
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For every point he registers during the 2015-16 season, Flyers All-Star right winger Jakub Voracek will donate $1,000 to the multiple sclerosis charitable foundation he created in honor of his older sister, Petra, who is afflicted with the incurable and degenerative condition of the central nervous system.
Public donation and corporate contribution information, the foundation's three-fold mission statement as well as information about the direct beneficiaries of all monies contributed and distributed are available on its bilingual (Czech and English) official website
JakubVoracekFoundation.com.
In the interest of complete transparency, the Voracek Foundation site will publish its first financial resource allocations in April 2016 and subsequently follow up on a quarterly basis.
Initially, the funding allocations will be geared MS toward patients in the Czech Republic, but the founder plans over time to offer support to people in need in North America as well.
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