QUICK HITS: FEBRUARY 15, 2018
1) The Flyers resume practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees at 11 a.m. on Thursday. Any items of note, such as line combination changes, will be posted later today and reflected in tomorrow's game preview blog.
2) The last time the Flyers won a road game in Columbus was all the way back on Dec. 13, 2005. Robert Esche was the winning goalie and the Flyers got goals from Peter Forsberg, Jeff Carter and Sami Kapanen (empty net) in a 3-1 victory. Since then, the Flyers have lost each of their last 11 games in Columbus, although six of the 11 losses were in overtime or via shootout. On Dec. 23 of the current season, the Flyers dropped a 2-1 shootout verdict in Columbus.
3) The Flyers released a statement today from defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere regarding yesterday's horrific shooting spree at the Parkland, FL high school he once attended.
4) The latest edition of the FlyerBuzz podcast with Brian Smith and yours truly aired yesterday on
Flyers Radio 24/7. If you missed the show, you can still listen to it or download it on-demand. The Flyers Radio 24/7 program archives is available for free at
flyersradio247.blubrry.net. Yesterday's program will be available either later today or by Friday before the Flyers take on Columbus.
5) A new Flyers CHL prospect roundup will run shortly on the Flyers' official website. The Brian Elliott news pushed it back a few days.
6) AHL: Coming off an impressive 5-0 win over Charlotte on Tuesday in which goalie Dustin Tokarski recorded a 40-save shutout and Nicolas Aube-Kubel racked up three assists, the Phantoms (31-14-6) return to action on Friday, visiting the Springfield Thunderbirds (22-27-2). Springfield was a doormat early this season but upgraded the roster and have been much improved. They already caught the Phantoms asleep at the switch once, blowing the Phantoms out in a game in Lehigh Valley. This time around, the Phantoms have to keep their feet moving and match the opponent's work ethic.
7) The Phantoms are four points ahead of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins (30-13-4) but, by virtue of the AHL's system of keeping the standings based on points per percentage, the Pens are still in first place in the Atlantic Division. Holding two games in hand, which will eventually even out, WB/S has a .681 points percentage to the Phantoms' .667. Eastern and Western Conference teams do not play the same number of games each season, which is why points percentage is the standard, but all Eastern Conference teams play 76 total games. In the West, the majority of teams also play 76 games except for six of the eight Pacific Division teams (68-game schedule).
8) Happy birthday wishes go out to current Flyers forward Taylor Leier (born Feb. 15, 1994). He shares a birthday with Flyers Hall of Fame left wing Brian Propp (1959) and living legend Jaromir Jagr (1972).
9) On Saturday, the Flyers Alumni team will play the Bruins Alumni at Cross Insurance Arena (the former Cumberland County Civic Center) in Portland, Maine. Participating players include Eric Lindros and Danny Briere on the Flyers Alumni side and the likes of Joe Mullen, Terry O'Reilly, Rick Middleton and Ken Linseman on the Bruins side. Paul Holmgren will coach the Flyers Alumni while Reggie Lemelin will coach the Bruins. There will also be a special meet-and-greet event (separate ticket required) with the Alumni from both teams. For more information,
visit the Maine Mariners official website.
FLYERS CHL PROSPECTS: INSIDE THE NUMBERS
1) Old reputations often die hard. For decades, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League had a reputation -- deservedly so, to a large extent -- as an unstructured league where players racked up eye-popping offensive numbers that only could translate to the pros for a very select few players. Nowadays, though, goals are hard to come by in the Q.
In present-day CHL hockey, Western Hockey League is by far the high-scoring league of the three CHL circuits. The Ontario Hockey League is in the middle and the least scoring is done in the QMJHL.
Entering Thursday, there are 22 Western League players who've posted 70-plus points this season. Two players have already topped 100 points and two more could hit the mark by the end of this weekend. Two players have already hit the 50-goal milestone, seven players have scored 40-plus goals and 23 have scored 30 or more goals.
By comparison, three players in the Quebec League have scored 70 or more points. Blaineville-Boisbriand overager Alex Barré-Boulet's 99 points leads the league by a mile (Columbus Blue Jackets' prospect Vitalii Abramov is 2nd with 73 points). Four goalies have GAAs of 2.60 or lower and three have save percentages of .919 or higher. Barré-Boulet's 47 goals lead the league by 10 over the next-closest player and seven players to date have scored 30-plus goals.
Over in the Ontario League, Flyers prospect Morgan Frost leads the league with 90 points. Eight players in the league have 70-plus points. Only one player (Barrie Colts overager Aaron Luchuk) has hit the 40-goal mark to date and 13 have scored 30-plus goals.
2) Viewed within any context, Flyers goaltending prospect Carter Hart is having a spectacular final year of junior hockey between his World Junior Championship gold medal and regular collection leaguewide Goalie of the Week and Goalie of the Month honors. In the context of the leaguewide scoring numbers, though, his performance has been even more impressive. In fact, when you compare what Hart has done -- coming back off a bout of mono, mind you -- to the rest of the goalies in the Western League, his numbers are otherworldly.
Hart leads the WHL with a 1.53 GAA, .952 save percentage and seven shutouts. The next-closest goalies on the leaderboard respectively have a 2.78 GAA (Portland's Cole Kehler), a .915 save percentage (Vancouver's David Tendek) and five shutouts (Swift Current's Stuart Skinner). Side note: Hart's next shutout, assuming he gets another one by the end of the regular season, will set a new career record for the Western League.
3) Likewise, what Frost has been doing in the Ontario League is remarkable. Keep in mind that he's still just 18 (he won't turn 19 until May 14) and a draft-plus-one player and that, while he plays on a stacked Sault Ste, Marie Greyhounds team, he actually increased his production while some of his teammates, including linemate Boris Katchouk, were playing at the WJC.
I've said this before about Frost. When people look at the offensive numbers, see a few handpicked highlight clips and read that he won the Fastest Skater competitions with and without the puck at the CHL Top Prospects showcase last year, it's easy to get the wrong impression about what type of player he is. He's normally much more surgical than showy, including with his speed.
While plus-minus is a flawed stat in many cases, in other cases it can tell you a lot. Frost is a plus-52 this season in 54 games. The next-closest player in the Ontario League is Katchouk at plus-38. Frost's hockey sense is off the charts. For a player who makes so many plays, he turns over relatively few pucks. He protects the puck very well, despite lacking muscle, and can thread the needle through the narrowest of gaps or saucer a pass over a defender's stick to lay flat for an open teammate at a very high level. His play without the puck has improved by leaps and bounds, too. While he's not a natural goal scorer, he's opportunistic.
Actually, for awhile in the last few games, Frost's line with Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh got away from doing the things that have made them so successful. There were too many low-percentage plays as a line, a bit of defensive zone cheating from the wingers and not enough of the extended puck-control shifts that set up power plays and wear down opposing teams.
Last night on the road against the Saginaw Spirit, Greyhounds coach Drew Bannister moved Raddysh to a different line and put rookie Ryan Roth (who had been with Frost and Katchouk quite a bit prior to the WJC and the Raddysh acquisition) on Frost's right wing.
The Greyhounds trailed 3-1 after two periods and 4-2 in the third. Then Frost started a sequence ending with Katchouk scoring to cut the gap to 4-3. The very next shift, Sault Ste. Marie scored again to tie the game.
Shortly thereafter, Raddysh (who scored a first-period goal and later assisted on a 5-on-3 power play goal by defenseman Rasmus Sandin early in the third period) took a shift with Frost and Katchouk. The trio generated three separate scoring chances while keeping Saginaw hemmed in deep.
Two shifts later, with Roth back on the top line, the Greyhounds took a 5-4 lead with 6:21 left in the game. Katchouk fired a shot on net that trickled past goalie Evan Cormier into the blue paint and inched toward the goal line. From the side of the net, Frost jammed the puck the rest of the way to ensure it went in. The goal was his 33rd of the season.
The Spirit re-tied the game at 16:12 (the Frost line was not out on the ice) and sent the game to OT. In the overtime frame, the trio of Frost, Katchouk and defenseman Jordan Sambrook had a 3-on-1 rush but narrowly missed scoring. The game went to a shootout, which Saginaw won, 2-0. Neither Katchouk nor Frost had a shootout opportunity as Jack Kopacka and Raddysh were unable to score on their attempts and both Saginaw shooters scored on theirs.
With his two points last night, Frost became the first OHL player this season to hit the 90-point mark. He has to get 10 points in the final 13 games to reach 100 points. He leads the league with 57 assists, is sixth in goals with 33, and he tops the league with his plus-52. On faceoffs, Frost is a respectable 52.1 percent on the year.
To break Frost's numbers down a little further, you will see that he's been very consistent throughout the year in his all-around play. His offensive output, though, went from solid if unspectacular early for a draft-plus-one player to excellent for even a draft-plus-two guy.
First 13 GP: 4 G, 10 A, 14 PTS, +12
Last 41 GP: 29 G, 47 A, 76 PTS, +40
Within the last 41 games, Frost rattled off a 20-game point streak (16 G, 27 A, 43 PTS). After a single pointless game, he had points in nine straight games (5 G, 12 A, 17 PTS). His next pointless game was an awful one for his entire team including his line but it should be noted that Frost was initially credited with a primary assist on a first period power play goal and the assist was removed on an intermission scoring change after replays showed his attempted tap pass actually went off a opposing player before he could touch it. Last night, he had a two-point third period to spur the Greyhounds' comeback and earned third-star honors.
Narrowing it down to the last 32 games, Frost was credited with at least one point in 30 games (22 G, 40 A, 64 PTS); an even 2.00 points per game average in that span. Although Travis Konecny came on like gangbusters (31 GP, 23 G, 33 A, 56 PTS, +21) following his trade from Ottawa to Sarnia in 2015-16, Frost is actually ahead of that pace. In fact, the last Flyers prospect to match or exceed a two-point-per-game average for a span of 30-plus games was Claude Giroux as both a draft-plus-one and draft-plus-two player for the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques in both 2005-06 and 2006-07.
4) As noted atop this section of the blog, 13 players in OHL have scored 30-plus goals to date this season. Among those, seven are players taken in the 2017 NHL Draft and the rest are draft-plus-two or overagers. Impressively, three of 2017 draftees who've already hit the mark include Flyers prospects: Frost (33), second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe (31) and fourth-round pick Matthew Strome (30). Additionally, last night, Owen Sound's Maksim Sushko scored his league-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the season and 26th overall.
5) QMJHL: Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov returned to the Acadie-Bathurst lineup against Moncton on Wednesday after a five-game absence due to injury. He had a first period assist but was later booted from the game early in the third period on a checking-from-behind major. The Titan still won the game, 5-1.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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