Meltzer's Musings: October 9, 2017
1) Over on the Flyers' official website, there is a
five-point analysis of the California portion of the Flyers' season-opening road trip and keys to completing it with a win in Nashville. If the Flyers can come home with six points in the bank after playing four tough Western Conference opponents, it would be a strong start to the campaign.
2) Will Sam Morin get into the Flyers' lineup soon or will he be sent to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms? He had a strong preseason and Flyers general manager Ron Hextall has pledged that the team's young players will not spend extensive stretches as healthy scratches.
Right now, however, it seems that Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol prefers combinations that do not have Morin penciled in on any of the left-defense spots. The advisability of the coach's preferred combinations is certainly open to debate. However, the reality is that only one vote counts in making out the lineup for each game. As such, it can be helpful to try to view things through the prism of how the actual decision-maker (Hakstol) seems to view his personnel choices.
In previous blogs, I've stated that I felt all three of the Flyers' rookie defensemen are NHL ready and deserve a fair chance to prove themselves during the regular season. That means living with the the growing pains and not yanking them from the lineup after a costly mistake or a rough game. I still feel that way, and would like to see Morin worked into the lineup somewhere. The question is where he'd be used.
Morin exclusively plays left defense, whereas fellow rookies Travis Sanheim and Robert Hägg are both comfortable on either the left or right side. Being locked in on one side creates a bit of a problem right now for Morin based on what appear to be Hakstol's preferences.
It appears unlikely that the Flyers will pair two rookies (at least early in the season) barring an in-game injury or other extenuating circumstances such as incomplete line changes that result in two rookie D-men on the ice at the same time. If that premise is accurate, it really limits the options for Morin until there's an injury in the lineup that opens a spot for him.
Most Flyers do not want to hear this, but Andrew MacDonald is not imminently coming out of the lineup or being separated from Ivan Provorov. While MacDonald is clearly not an ideal top-pairing defender, he has the trust of head coach Hakstol and assistant coach Gord Murphy. The veteran also generally played well over the first three games. MacDonald may eventually be moved down in the rotation this season but it's doubtful that happens in the immediate future.
Even if it does, Morin probably won't go directly to the top pairing with Provorov. First of all, Provorov is a fixture on left defense on the top pair and won't be asked to switch sides specifically to accommodate Morin. It seems more feasible that Hägg could eventually be tabbed as the Russian standout's partner on the right side at some point later this season.
Veteran bruising right defenseman Radko Gudas is not going to be scratched, nor are he and Morin likely to be seen as Hakstol as well-matched defense partners at least until he is convinced that Morin can consistently play within the "keep it simple" style the organization wants from him. If he's not on the top pairing and not with Gudas and not with a fellow rookie, that means Morin is rapidly running out of landing spots in the lineup.
Sanheim started to settle in during the third period of his NHL debut in Los Angeles and played a much-improved all-around game in Saturday's 3-2 overtime win in San Jose. He started to jump into the play with much more confidence and was also more physical and decisive in the defensive zone. The player gave hints of his high-end upside as an offensive-minded defenseman with both size and mobility. His defensive game is still a work in progress but he's come a long way in one year.
Even if Sanheim were to be scratched, it appears that veteran Brandon Manning would be the head coach's choice to re-enter the lineup for purposes of playing with Gudas. Manning struggled on opening night paired with Gudas, and that pairing would not be my personal preference even if they had played well together on opening night. For what it's worth, I disliked seeing two of the rookie defensemen (Morin and Saheim) scratched in San Jose as much as many other observers and am glad that Sanheim at least has been in the lineup the last two games.
That leaves just one current pairing: the duo of Shayne Gostisbehere and rookie Robert Hägg.
The rookie Swede has been quietly efficient so far, and appears to be the most internally trusted of the three first-year defensemen. He does not seem in any imminent danger of being scratched. Third-year defenseman "Ghost" remains a very important part of triggering the attack and is part of the top power play unit. He had a three-point game on opening night and looks poised for a bounceback year.
Last season, Gostisbehere spent much of the season in Hakstol's doghouse. If that happened again, it is feasible that Morin could enter the lineup at Gostisbehere's expense. Right now, though, there's a clean slate and the team is playing well.
Again, the ever-popular fan cry of scratch/waive/trade MacDonald isn't on the Flyers' radar at present. Any realistic suggestions for rearranging the lineup need to include both the new alternate captain as well as Gudas within the proposed starting six. Hakstol is far from the only NHL coach who would be reluctant to choose five of six blueline starters with less than 150 games of NHL experience on their resumes; no matter how high the collective upsides of that group of five may be.
As it is now, there are four who meet that description. If Provorov weren't already so advanced in his game to the point where he seems more like a seasoned pro than a 20-year-old in his second NHL season, I suspect there would be greater reluctance to have even three inexperienced players on the blueline, let alone four. Provorov's maturity as a player enables him to be regarded as if he's a veteran.
If the lineup arrangement premises spelled out above are, in fact, how Hakstol views his personnel choices, it unfortunately still leaves Morin waiting for his chance to play. If that's the case, Morin would be better off returning to the Phantoms until the Flyers figure out a spot for him to play.
3) Speaking of Provorov, did we learn nothing at all from the player's rookie season about the importance of sticking with NHL-ready young players? Lest we forget, he had a minus-five game in Chicago early last season (with two of the goals against resulting from gaffes by Provorov and the other three simply from being on the ice at an unfortunate time). After 11 games last season, he was minus-nine.
The knee-jerk-reaction element of the fan base jumped all over Provorov's case early last season, despite the fact that he simply needed to incorporate a few eminently doable adjustments into his game. He did just that and was soon by far the team's best defenseman. It would be a shock if Provorov doesn't win his second Barry Ashbee Trophy this year, as long as he stays healthy.
The other day, I had a sense of deja vu as I subjected myself to the crap the very same knee-jerk-reaction element was spewing about Sanheim after his NHL debut. If you want to "let the kids play," it means sticking with them even if they struggle in their early games. If they dazzle, great. The league will adjust and then the rookie will still have to counter-adjust. It's all about readiness in the big picture, never the small window.
If you really looked at the game, Sanheim's issues were ones of being a little too tentative and passive in his lane on the first LA goal. The turnover in the neutral zone that set the sequence in motion was not made by Sanheim. In fact, Sanheim made a good initial read as he dropped back into a defensive position. The rest -- the gap control , the stick position -- was played a little too conservatively but is something fixable.
The second LA goal off an odd-man rush started as a situation where the Flyers were down 1-0 late in the game. Sanheim attempted to pinch in to keep the puck alive in the attack zone for his team. In that specific game situation, the risk was one the Flyers would want Sanheim to take again. Unfortunately, he lost the puck battle and LA countered. Next time around, hopefully Sanheim will be the one who comes up with the puck and the Flyers will be the team that gets a scoring chance.
Is Sanheim as advanced now as Provorov was last year? No, he's not. But he has outstanding potential in his own right.
There were games in the middle to latter one-third of the preseason this September where Sanheim was downright dominant on both ends on the ice. In his final out, he was "merely" solid. More important, when he had ups and downs in the Rookie Game and first preseason game -- and then spent a practice relegated to the "impending roster cut" group of players bound for the Phantoms or junior hockey -- he bounced right back. When he made a mistake here and there near the end of camp, even one that contributed to an opposition goal, he put aside and didn't let the errors compound.
This is the basis by which NHL readiness is judged, and Sanheim cleared the bar in my opinion. I would say the same for Hägg (although his game is more one of two-way equilibrium than plays that would make a highlights package) and the same for Morin.
4) AHL: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms dropped a 2-1 road verdict via skills competition on Sunday to the Hartford Wolf Pack. The Phantoms were outplayed after the opening period but an outstanding goaltending performance from Alex Lyon ensured they got a regulation point.
Lyon stopped 35 of 36 shots, yielding only a 5-on-3 power play goal in the first period. The Phantoms survived a late third period penalty that carried over into a 4-on-3 in the opening minute of OT. Lyon also stopped an overtime breakaway and several earlier odd-man rushes. Lyon went 2-for-3 in the shootout, being beaten only by Adam Tambellini (who earlier scored the Wolf Pack's only regulation goal).
Coming off a hat trick on opening night, speedy little Phantoms forward Danick Martel scored in the opening period for the lone Lehigh Valley goal. Mike Vecchione earned the lone assist on the goal, which was scored directly off a clean faceoff win by the 2016-17 Hobey Baker Award finalist.
After struggling in his first regular season game, rookie left winger Oskar Lindblom seemed to start settling in during Sunday's game. He recorded five shots on goal after having none in the opener. In the third period, Lindblom deflected a T.J. Brennan slap-pass on a scoring attempt that eluded Hartford goalie Chris Nell. However, the puck went off the goal post and stayed out of the net. Tabbed to shoot in the second round of the shootout, Lindblom again hit the post. A third post was hit by third-round shooter Phil Varone, nailing down the win for Nell (28 regulation/OT saves) and Hartford.
Rookie center Mikhail Vorobyev was among the Phantoms players robbed by Nell during the game. Twice, Nell stopped the Russian rookie from point-blank range. Vorobyev, who notched an assist on opening night for his first point in North American pro hockey, had five shots on goal in Sunday's tilt.
Rookie defenseman Phil Myers is still finding his two-way game in the early going of his first pro season. In the third period, however, the 6-foot-5 blueliner showed off his outstanding mobility as well as his size when he took off with the puck and created a dangerous-looking rush. Myers had two shots on goal in the game. Fellow rookie defenseman Mark Friedman also had a pair of shots.
The Phantoms (1-0-1) return to action at the end of the week as they embark on games over three consecutive days. On Friday night, the Phantoms play the road half of a home-and-home set with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. The teams rematch at the PPL Center in Allentown on Saturday. On Sunday, the Phantoms visit the arch-rival Hershey Bears in a rematch of opening night and the first round of the playoffs this past spring.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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