Quick Hits: Oct. 12, 2022
1) The Flyers held their final practice in preparation for the regular season opener at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils. Cam Atkinson was on the ice for practice and did some light skating, puck handling and shooting but did not take line rushes or subsequent reps.
After practice, head coach John Tortorella confirmed that Atkinson will miss opening night. He is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Tortorella said that the player has not had a setback but is not ready yet to play.
With Atkinson unavailable for the opener, Hayden Hodgson will be in the lineup for opening night.
Watch live as Flyers head coach John Tortorella meets with the media from @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/sbk7kmKZ3T
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 12, 2022
3) Rasmus Ristolainen left practice early in Wednesday's session. He did not return. Tortorella had no update on the player after practice. Ristolainen missed a couple of preseason games and practices in camp with a day-to-day with an undisclosed issue but subsequently rejoined.
4) Even before Ristolainen's abrupt departure from Wednesday's practice, the plan for opening night appeared to be for Egor Zamula to be in the lineup against the Devils. He was paired with Justin Braun on Wednesday. If Ristolainen misses the opener, one of Ronnie Attard or veteran Nick Seeler will slot into the lineup.
5) The latter portion of training camp saw the team work on the power play over several days in addition to doing 5-on-5 drills. Kevin Hayes, who is on the first unit said that he thinks to addition of Tony DeAngelo to run play atop the zone, will be a help. So, too, will having James van Riemsdyk as a netfront fixture.
The bottom line, Hayes said, is that the power play has nowhere to go but up from last season. The 2021-22 season was the officially the worst success rate in franchise history since the NHL starting to track power play data as a recognized stat. By unofficial boxscore research, only the inaugural 1967-68 season saw the Flyers finish with a lower success rate than 2021-22.
Morgan Frost, who is on the second unit, said that his unit was working the puck around well in recent drills (and had put some in the net) but that there were still areas to clean up in order to improve during the season.
Overall, PP2 fared better in practice drills than the first unit did in recent days:
PP1: DeAngelo, Farabee, Hayes, Konecny, JVR (netfront) PP2: Provorov, Cates, Frost, Tippett, Laughton (netfront)
Wade Allison, Egor Zamula and Travis Sanheim have also had some power play reps in camp.
6) Frost was part of the Flyers opening night roster for the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. It was kind of a disjointed camp for the team and the American Hockey League season was delayed and greatly curtailed in length. Frost made the NHL roster but opened the season as the 13th forward for then-coach Alain Vigneault's club. In the second game of the regular season, Sean Couturier went down with a costochondral (rib) separation.
Couturier's injury gave Frost a chance to play. The first game went fine but Frost, too, went down to an injury in the second period of his second game. He wound up needing shoulder surgery and missing the rest of the season.
Frost acknowledged on Wednesday that, even though he was part of a previous opening-night Flyers roster, this time it feels much more real. He has a golden opportunity on his plate to establish himself once and for all as an NHL regular and is coming off his strongest training camp thus far as a pro.
7) Wednesday's lineup combinations at 5-on-5 were as follows:
Laughton - Hayes - Konecny Farabee - Cates - Tippett JVR - Frost - Allison Deslauriers - Laczynski - Hodgson
Provorov - DeAngelo Sanheim - Ristolainen/Attard Zamula - Braun Seeler- Attard
Hart [Ersson]
Extra forward: Cam Atkinson (limited participant)
8) Prior to practice, Chuck Fletcher met with the media to provide injury updates and discuss the opening night roster:
9) The fourth and final episode of "The Standard" docuseries will go live on YouTube this evening.
10) The season preview edition of the Broadcasters' Roundtable podcast went live on Wednesday afternoon.
Watch live as Flyers head coach John Tortorella meets with the media from @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/sbk7kmKZ3T
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 12, 2022