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Roundup: Optional Practice, Gostisbehere, Phantoms Win in OT, CHL Prospects |
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OPTIONAL PRACTICE BEFORE ROAD TRIP
The Flyers held an optional practice on Wednesday before departing for back-to-back games in St, Louis on Thursday and Dallas on Friday. A dozen skaters participated along with goaltenders Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth. Among the participants were Vincent Lecavalier (after one of the strangest maintenance days in memory) and Radko Gudas, who will return to the Fyers' lineup on Thursday after serving the final game of his three-game NHL suspension.
In each of the last two years, the Flyers and Blues have played to a 0-0 tie in St. Louis through 65 minutes of regulation and overtime before St. Louis prevailed via shootout. Ray Emery was the goaltender in the 2014 game, while Steve Mason was in net last season.
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NO NEED TO FRET OVER FITTING GOSTISBEHERE ON CAP
A newspaper column on Wednesday raised the issue of whether the Flyers will be forced to return Shayne Gostisbehere to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms when Mark Streit is eventually activated from the long-term injured reserve (LTIR) list. The reality is that won't be all that difficult to fit Gostisbehere under the salary cap ceiling, and it's a no-brainer to do so based on the way he's played.
The Flyers will have a few options at their disposal. In fact, the move does not even necessarily have to include making a trade or putting an injured player onto LTIR.
For example, Scott Laughton ($863,333 cap hit) is waiver exempt because he is still in his entry-level contract. The second-year pro, who has been receiving limited ice time of late and whose performances in recent weeks tailed off to some degree before a solid game on Tuesday against the New York Islanders, is a candidate to be sent to the AHL barring another roster move. Right now, if the choice comes down to Ghost or Laughton, it's a pretty easy call as to which one is playing a bigger and more important role on the club even if it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Alternatively, the Flyers could also waive a player and assign him to the AHL if he clears in order to free up enough cap space to carry Gostisbehere. They cannot do so with Vincent Lecavalier (without his permission) but a player who lacks a no-movement clause in his contract does not have the ability to block such a move. For example, R.J. Umberger has a modified no-trade clause but not a no-movement clause.
Beyond that, there are players on the roster whom are tradable; it's just a matter of the Flyers not wanting to trade from a position of weakness under a salary-cap crunch. Lastly, between now and the time Streit is ready to be cleared, there is no telling how the team's injury outlook will change the perspective.
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PHANTOMS RALLY TO BEAT BEARS IN OT, 3-2
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms recovered from a two-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime and then defeat the Hershey Bears by a 3-2 score at the PPL Center in Allentown on Wednesday night. The win brought the Phantoms (12-12-1-0) back to the .500 mark for the season, while Hershey (12-6-1-5) sustained its first OT loss of the season.
The Phantoms dominated the first period but found themselves trailing 1-0 despite an 11-7 shot advantage and an overall control of most of the territorial play. Lehigh Valley did not get much going in the middle period, in large part because they took eight minutes worth of penalties in the second period. The Phantoms then controlled most of the remainder of the game.
Scott Gordon's club still trailed by a pair midway through the third period before goals off the rush by Petr Straka (15th of the season) and Danick Martel (ninth) knotted the score at 2-2 with 2:59 left in the third period. Both goals were top-shelf snipes, with Straka finding the short-side top corner and Martel going high to the blocker side from the middle of the slot.
At 3:45 of the 3-on-3 overtime, Cousins received a nice pass from Taylor Leier, and skated over the middle to find some shooting daylight. Cousins said after the game that his initial thought was to pass back to Leier but the defender took away the pass, so Cousins skated to an open space and, in his words, "closed my eyes and shot." The puck went in cleanly over the blocker side.
Cousins fell an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick. In the first period, the smallish forward took exception to a high hit by diminutive Hershey forward Nathan Walker, and the two went two-to-toe in a very spirited fight. Leier and Martel were the other two Phantoms to enjoy a multi-point game. Martel got a secondary assist on Straka's goal, while Leier had nice primary assists to set up both Martel's game-tying goal and Cousins' game winner.
The Phantoms received another strong game in goal by second-year pro Anthony Stolarz. He did not face a lot of shots (21 overall) but had to make three or four spectacular saves with the game on the line for his club. Hershey counterpart Dan Ellis stopped 28 of 31 in a losing cause.
Hershey's two goals were scored by defensemen Connor Carrick (power play) and Mike Moore. The Carrick goal was a left circle one timer than squeezed between Stolarz's pads and trickled over the goal line at 6:09 of the first period. The goal ended a Lehigh Valley streak of 16 straight successful penalty kills. In the second period, the Phantoms had a bad defensive coverage breakdown, allowing Moore to pinch into the right slot, take a feed from Travis Boyd and score from point blank range.
As the game moved along, Stolarz made several dazzling saves to give his team a chance to win. He saved his team what could have been a back-breaking shorthanded goal for Hershey on a bang-bang chance in front off a direct giveaway by Robert Hägg trying to pass the puck out from behind the net. In another sequence, Stolarz made a point-blank glove save and then knocked a Bear to the ice as he ventured into the blue paint of the crease. Stolarz made two saves in OT.
Stolarz said that his regular work with Flyers goaltending development coach Brady Robinson has played a major role in his rapidly accelerated development thus far in his second pro season.
"Brady has been huge for me," Stolarz said. "We clicked right from training camp, and I'm seeing results in my game. He's helped me with my patience and with my angles. I think I have more composure back there. I'm not flopping as much as I did last year. I'm just letting the play come to me."
Both Robinson and Flyers goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh are big proponents of head tracking. That is something Stolarz has worked regularly on with Robinson since training camp and even going back to the Flyers development camp in July. Stolarz said that it is another area where he feels he is seeing positive results.
"Last year, there were a lot of plays where they'd send it out to the high slot from behind the net, and I'd be kind of guessing where to go, like if it's lefty or righty," Stolarz said. "You don't want to be centered to his body, you want to be centered to his stick. That was a main focus in training camp. If you have a chance, just take a look. If you go cross-crease, just take a look back to see where guys are at. I think I'm tracking better and it's helped me for sure."
Another player who has come a long way in the first two-plus months of the season is Mark Alt. On Wednesday, the third-year pro played yet another strong all-around game, continuing his emergence as a reliable and calming presence on the blueline. Alt finished plus-three on the night to improve his team-best total to plus-16 in 24 games.
Gordon said that he thinks Alt's plus-minus numbers are an accurate representation of how he has played, adding that he thinks the player has surprised everyone with how steadily he's advanced his game so far ths season. After a promising rookie year in 2013-14 under Terry Murray, Alt had an injury-plagued and inconsistent second year.
"Out of all the guys on the back end, I think he's improved the most," Gordon said.
Rookie defenseman Samuel Morin had an up-and-down game on Thursday. On the negative side, the Flyers' 2013 first-round pick took a couple of bad penalties and twice ended up caught on the wrong side of the puck for high-end scoring chances for Hershey. On the positive end, Morin made several good interceptions of passes, used his reach and long strides for a needed clear on a penalty kill, registered a couple solid checks and finished strong over the latter part of the game. Morin got the secondary assist on Martel's game-tying goal.
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PROSPECT UPDATES
Four of the Flyers' most prominent prospects at the major junior level enjoyed strong games on Wednesday night.
* WHL: 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim had a power play goal, an assist and was plus-one while teammate Radel Fazleev had two assists and a minus-one in the Calgary Hitmen's 4-3 win in regulation over the host Regina Pats.
* WHL: 2015 first-round pick Ivan Provorov did not get on the scoresheet but was plus-four in the Brandon Wheat Kings' 6-5 win over Moose Jaw. Over his last three games, Provorov is plus-nine and has three points (one goal, two assists).
* OHL: In a losing cause against Kingston, Travis Konecny had a goal, an assist and thre shots on goal for the Ottawa 67s. Kingston prevailed, 4-3.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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