QUICK HITS: FEBRUARY 5, 2017
1) The Flyers generated precious little offense against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday afternoon -- not unexpected because LA is a stingy team in terms of yielding time and space to make plays -- but there were times during the game where the Flyers were on the wrong side of the fine line between patience and over-caution.
In the meantime, while the Flyers played a fairly strong defensive game, it was primarily stellar goaltending by Michal Neuvirth that stole a point from a game that was a scoreless deadlock through regulation. Ultimately, ex-Flyer Jeff Carter was left alone in OT for a chance that Neuvirth had little chance to stop and the Kings skated off with a 1-0 win.
Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol pointedly disagreed with a postgame question over whether he thought the team played a little too defensively -- specifically to the point of passing up some opening shots. The Flyers finished with just 17 shots on goal as Peter Budaj cruised to his second straight shutout and NHL-leading seventh.
“No, absolutely not. Pulled back from taking shots? No, no I don’t. I would disagree with that. I think we had some shots blocked tonight. They’re a good team. They’re a smart, veteran team. They get sticks in the lanes; they make it tough on you to get pucks through. But no, I don’t think we turned anything down in terms of pucks to the net," Hakstol said.
In reality there were long stretches where there were few opportunities to take or pass up shots because the Flyers had trouble getting out of their own zone and getting the puck up ice. They protected well between the dots, blocked a lot of shots and got big saves from Neuvirth when there were some breakdowns. From the attacking side, there wasn't much to speak of for much of after the first period. Generating eight shots over the final 42 plus minutes is nothing praiseworthy regardless of how well one defends or how stingy the other team is.
Hakstol also left himself open to second-guessing for his personnel in the three-on-three overtime. In an interconference game especially, there is no reason not to go all out looking for offense in a 3-on-3 overtime. Furthermore, to call the use of the trio of Brayden Schenn, Dale Weise and Brandon Manning out against Carter, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty anything but what it really was -- an inexcusable line mismatch at worst and, at best, a clock killer just to survive until the next shift in a short sudden death period -- is to be unrealistic.
2) It will remain to be seen until Monday whether the Flyers will reinsert either Shayne Gostisbehere or Travis Konecny back in the lineup after both sat as healthy scratches the last two games. An upcoming blog will look at their removal from the lineup but by way of preview, it should be said that there are often diminishing returns each time a player is scratched.
While Konecny seems to be just going through the usual ups and downs of a teenage player in the NHL, the situation with Gostisbehere is a little more complicated. He seems deeply lost at this point on the defensive side of the puck. It is NOT a question of his abilities when he has the puck on his stick, even with his point-production pace off from his rookie year. It's when he is on the defensive side of the puck where he seems to pressing with bad reads in coverage, losing physical battles on the walls and in front of the net and often ending up in poor stick/body position.
There's no one easy answer, but it is possible that having him switch sides defensively -- where'd he'd have his stick on the strong side -- could help simplify things for awhile as he works through his various issues. It could be worth a try, as opposed to scratching him repeatedly from the lineup on a team that desperately needs more puck movement out of the back end.
3) The Flyers Alumni trip to Russia is one week away. Over on the Camden Courier Post site, Dave Isaac
looked at the political angle and the possibility of Vladimir Putin suiting up to play for the Russian side during one of the three games in the tour. I will be keeping a trip diary on behalf of the Flyers' Alumni website, and will have a tour preview later this week.
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