Quick Hits: October 8, 2022
1) The Flyers have an off-day from training camp on Saturday. Friday's session featured systems, up-tempo skating (including 2-on-0 breakaways) and suicides (own goal line to opposite blueline with even the goalies doing it) near the end. After practice, John Tortorella said that any player who is still in camp and had not been waived or otherwise cut from the roster is someone who has had a good camp in the coach's eye on a day-by-day basis.
He said that he thought everyone practiced especially well on both Thursday and Friday and has no complaints in regard to effort and diligence. He noted on Thursday, however, that there are still areas of sloppiness that need to be addressed.
2) The Flyers made two roster cuts on Friday. Veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton and veteran goalie Nick Grosenick were waived for purposes on AHL assignment. Tortorella said that Connauton, whom he briefly coached in Columbus, had done everything asked of him throughout camp and still believes can contribute some games to the NHL club when a depth callup is needed.
Coming into camp, Connauton already understood that he'd been re-signed primarily for the purpose of adding experience and leadership to the Phantoms' largely young blueline corps plus veteran recall depth if NHL opportunity arises. The 32-year-old Connauton is on a two-year, two-way contract that would pay $750,000 at the NHL level in 2022-23 and $775,000 in 2023-24. At the AHL level, he'll make $450,000 (a very respectable salary for the American League).
3) Tortorella said the number 5 and number 6 spots on the opening night blueline depth chart are still up for grabs among veterans Justin Braun and Nick Seeler and young defensemen Egor Zamula and Ronnie Attard. Essentially, there are three jobs available (number 5, number 6 and number 7) for four players. However, Tortorella does not want either of the young defensemen to be in the number 7 spot where they could go several weeks at a time without playing. He'd rather Attard and/or Zamula get regular playing time with the Phantoms than be the NHL number 7. The proximity of Allentown to Philadelphia makes it a quick-turnaround recall.
The prediction here is that, although Braun is "officially" competing for a job, he's pretty much a lock for the third pair. That would mean Seeler (who is used to being in the No. 7 role and appeared in 43 games last season for the Flyers) is competing with Attard and Zamula for a starting six spot on opening night but would slot as the number 7 again if one of the younger D gets the top-six spot.
4) Artem Anisimov (lower-body injury from a blocked shot in the preseason opener) has not skated since the injury. The veteran center remains on the camp roster on a PTO. Tortorella said that Anisimov is still dealing with the issue and trying to work his way back.
The coach said the player would NOT be immediately released from the tryout once he's medically cleared. He said that Anisimov's head for the game and versatility as a player remained strong. What Tortorella still needed to find out was whether the player had enough left in his legs to still play at the NHL pace.
As such, the plan right now seems to be to keep Anisimov around on his PTO into the season -- under the CBA, he can practice with the team and do most of the other things a roster player does except get paid and eligible to dress in regular season games. The player has to agree it, too, or can ask to be released. But Anisimov very much wants to see through his likely final shot at landing an NHL contract to resume his 771-game NHL.
A season ago, Anisimov had a PTO in training camp with the Colorado Avalanche but did not make the team and was released. He returned to Russia to play in the KHL. The previous year, while still with the Ottawa Senators, Anisimov dealt with injuries (as he frequently has in his latter career) and ended up on the Taxi Squad after he was able to play.
On Friday, Tortorella said that he's not going to close the book on his former Rangers player without giving him a fair opportunity to show if he can still help an NHL team. Tortorella expressed confidence that Anisimov could still, once he rehabs and is cleared, end up playing games for the Flyers in 2022-23.
There are no promises or guarantees of such. But Tortorella pledged a fair opportunity.
5) With the exception of upper-lineup veterans, Tortorella never calls anyone a lock for the team. That has been a consistent throughout this camp. Not even Noah Cates has been called a lock yet.
Tortorella has invariably praised Noah's hockey smarts, versatility, competitiveness and maturity. Nonetheless, the praise is balanced off by Tortorella saying "if he's in our lineup".
In would be a shock if the younger Cates brother is not a regular in the Flyers' lineup. He's been the most consistent two-way forward (veteran or young player) in camp, day after day.
On Friday, Tortorella was asked to assess Morgan Frost's camp. The coach said that Frost has had a strong camp, is a smart player who thinks the game well and his skill level in making plays with the puck jumps out. He added that what he watches with Frost is play without the puck and that if Frost keeps "giving me something there, I'll let him play offensively".
Tortorella said, "if he's in our lineup, he'll probably play with better players than he's been with during [portions of] camp." (Frost has played some with the likes of James van Riemsdyk, Travis Konecny, Noah Cates, Owen Tippett and Wade Allison during camp but he's also played with Adam Brooks, Hayden Hodson and Zack MacEwen on a full-game basis).
By praising a player but still couching his NHL roster spot as not yet being locked up, Tortorella is basically saying "Keep up what you're doing, and you'll play. Just don't get too comfortable and slack off."
5) Frost said after Friday's practice that he is someone who appreciates feedback from his coaches. He wants to know what he needs to correct and how he can improve. Tortorella is a coach who gives instant and very straightforward feedback.
On Friday, as the players were doing their end-of-practice stretches, Tortorella stopped by Frost and was instructing him. The same happened the previous day when Frost was on the defensive side of an offensive/defensive role playing drill. He blew the whistle in between the first and second reps, went over to demonstrate something to Frost, who nodded vigorously. After the second rep, Tortorella gave Frost a tap with the stick.
Frost also said that he's looking forward to working closely with forwards/power play coach Rocky Thompson. While Tortorella is very direct and to the point, he gives his assistant coaches a lot of leeway to fill in the blanks. Both Thompson and defense/penalty kill coach Brad Shaw are very detail-oriented instructors and Tortorella has said that the assistants have carte blanche to work with players as they see fit.
6) Thompson is someone who, at a casual glance, seems to be almost 180 degrees opposite as coach from how he was as a player. It's not just because the long, wild hair he sported as an NHL/AHL enforcer was replaced years ago with a conservative, close-cropped hairstyle. The colorful, gap-toothed player with the muscle-flexing bit on the ice who kept everyone loose on the locker room became a meticulous pro coach who combines analytics, video study and hands-on instruction to players.
In episode 2 of "The Standard", Thompson said that he hasn't really changed all that much apart from his physical appearance. He made it to the pros (most AHL with various NHL stints) because of his tireless work ethic, understanding his role and constantly striving to improve. He tries to bring the same as a coach. Thompson said that he still likes to joke around but, when the time comes to get serious and get to work, he does so and expects the same from players.
The bespectacled Shaw, who has 38 years of pro hockey experience as a player (including a 377-game NHL playing career) with the last 27 years spent in coaching (17 years at the NHL level), presents a professorial manner. What he shares in common with the other members of the staff is a tireless work ethic, a love for the game by which it takes very little prompting to talk hockey, and as someone who is extremely detail-oriented. Shaw, in fact, ranks among the most universally respected coaches in hockey. He's been an assistant coach for the vast majority of his coaching career because he's so good at the micro details, whereas a head coach is macro-focused.
Tortorella has said that earnest effort and coachability are things he wants. He doesn't expect machine-like, mistake-free reps. Especially at this juncture of his coaching career, Tortorella focuses on players' mental toughness and receptiveness to critique as much, if not more, than the Xs-and-Os. The veteran head coach said that this is one of the ways he's evolved as a coach. As a young coach, Tortorella used to keep a notebook and tried to "program" players on what to do over the entire 200-foot surface. He does not do so anymore because he doesn't feel it's effective.
This is the content in which Tortorella made his now oft-repeated comment on Thursday that "today's athletes have the attention span of an amoeba" and that he'd be "spoon feeding" his players with take-away information on the non-negotiables. If a player learns and adheres on the non-negotiables, the coach will give the player a lot more leeway to be creative in offensive situations. Right after he was hired, Tortorella said that players who carry themselves like pros and take his two-way-street expectation to heart will stay in his good graces.
Tortorella has said that, as much as he pushes players, he wants them know that his door is always open. He welcomes players to ask questions or voice concerns. He's learned over the years that developing a personal relationship with players as human beings is every bit as important as the hockey side, although it's all business at the rink and the on-ice expectations do not change. He also trusts his assistants to get to know the players closely and understands that being hands-off on the player/assistant coach relationship both empowers the assistants and ultimately enhances overall communications.
7) This is a story about how the coach/player relationship has evolved over the years.
Former Flyers head coach Terry Murray believed in keeping a bit of day-to-day distance with his players. Fundamentally, though, he rooted hard for his players to succeed even after he no longer coached them. Dean Lombardi said to the late Jay Greenberg in one of the interview sessions "Flyers at 50" that part of what made Murray such a good coach is that he didn't bog himself down in ego or hubris.
"If Murph had a negative assessment of a player, and the player proved him wrong, no one was happier for the guy than Terry. He could admit when he was wrong. That's a weakness of a lot of people in our sport, not being able to admit you misjudged a player. But he wasn't wrong often. Murph had a great mind for the game, and he really loved to teach. When we were in LA, Terry was so proud of our players as he saw things starting to come together. And he saw it before pretty much anyone else that we were getting on the right track. We had to do right by him and get him a Cup ring when we won, although Darryl [Sutter] was behind the bench by that point," Lombardi said.
Although players may not have always thought so at the time, many Flyers Alumni who played under Murray later said that Murray was the best "teaching coach" they ever had at the professional level. They also came to understand that Murray's perceived aloofness was simply him not wanting his player to feel like they were constantly under a microscope. He also very much cared about his players as human beings and showed that when it most mattered.
On the day of Game One of the 1996 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Mikael Renberg's fiancee was in labor with a baby girl. At the hospital, Renberg was going through stretches and warmups to prepare to head to the rink (he later recounted that the nurses at the hospital looked at him like he was crazy). Renberg called Murray and told him that he wasn't sure when the baby would be delivered but that he'd make it the Spectrum for game time if at all possible.
"Mikael, don't worry about it," Murray said. "Stay there, and watch your daughter be born. That's more important. Years from now, you wouldn't remember the hockey game, but you'll always remember your child's birth. You'll never regret it."
Renberg stayed for the birth of baby Emmy, missing Game 1 of the series. Upon his return to practice before Game 2, his teammates and coach congratulated him and then, in true hockey fashion, the other players teased him for buying cheap cigars to hand out.
Murray's own playing days were in the era in which the usual coaching expectation was that a player would prioritize a playoff game over attending the birth of their child. As a coach, he wasn't going to do that on one of his own players. Even as late as the mid-1990s, not every NHL coach would have advised his player to put his family first.
8) Phantoms Update: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms opened their preseason schedule on Friday night with a 2-0 road loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Phantoms were outshot for the game by a 36-16 margin for the game. The bright spot was rookie goaltender Nolan Maier. A standout as an invite player to the Flyers' Rookie Camp, the 21-year-old former Saskatoon Blades netminder earned an AHL contract before being assigned to the Phantoms' training camp.
The Phantoms were outshot, 9-0, over the first 15 minutes of the game and 28-8 over the first 40 minutes. Maier held the Baby Pens to a slam-dunk power play goal by Mitch Reinke at 16:00 of the second period after single-handedly keeping the game scoreless for nearly 36 minutes.
Jonathan Lemieux, who was also an invite player at the Flyers' Rookie Camp, played the third period in net against the Pens on Friday. The 21-year-old now-former QMJHL netminder for three teams, stopped nine of 10 shots. Nathan Légaré made it 2-0 in favor of W-B/S with 2:34 remaining in regulation. Drake Caggiula, signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins as a free agent this summer after NHL stints with four other clubs, assisted on both W-B/S tallies.
Apart from Maier, the biggest bright spot for the Phantoms on Friday was the play of rookie Elliot Desnoyers. He generated three shots on goal, was involved in most of the scant quality scoring chances the Phantoms' mustered and was sound on both sides of the puck. Desnoyers was called for the game's first penalty but later created a power play for his side on a breakaway opportunity.
Overall, the Phantoms had relatively few prospective regulars in the lineup on Friday. Much of the lineup consisted of tryout players and/or players who are viable ECHL candidates for the Reading Royals but face an uphill battle to appear in the ECHL this season. Among the modest number of projected Phantoms regulars and semi-regulars to play in the opener were Isaac Ratcliffe, Zayde Wisdom, Linus Sandin, Wyatte Wylie, and Charlie Gerard.
The Phantoms will host the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown on Saturday evening (7:05 p.m. EDT).
9) Today in Flyers History: October 8, 2011
Newcomer Ilya Bryzgalov outdueled the legendary Martin Brodeur as the Flyers skated to a 3-0 road shutout win over the New Jersey Devils. The first three games of Bryzgalov's soon-to-be tumultuous Flyers career saw him outplay Tim Thomas, Brodeur and Roberto Luongo in succession as the Flyers got off to a 3-0 start.
In this game, Claude Giroux scored for Philly, while rookie Matt Read (first NHL goal on the way to a 24-goal rookie campaign) and newcomer Wayne Simmonds both tallied their respective first goals in a Flyers uniform.
10) Oct. 8 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Art Stratton (1935), Larry Wright (1951).
11) Oct. 8 in memoriam: Darryl Edestrand (Nov. 6, 1945 - Oct. 8, 2017).