Quick Hits: November 30, 2018
1) The Flyers (10-12-2) will practice at the Skate Zone on Friday at 11:30 a.m. ET. It will be the team's third and final practice day ahead of traveling to western Pennsylvania to play the Pittsburgh Penguins (10-9-5) at PPG Paints Arena. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
2) Former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, who has received a slew of interview requests since his abrupt dismissal on Monday, will talk to the media at 11 a.m. on Friday. The interview, which was arranged in conjunction by Flyers publicist Zack Hill, will take place offsite near the Skate Zone.
3) The Arizona Coyotes claimed Cal Pickard off waivers from the Flyers. One of Pickard's two exceptional starts -- the other was his 30-save shutout of the Rangers in the Black Friday matinee -- was his performance in Glendale on the front end of the Flyers' home-and-home with the Coyotes. Overall, though, Pickard struggled to provide Philly with adequate goaltending. He departed with a 4-2-2 record, 4.01 GAA, .863 save percentage and the shutout of the Rangers to his credit in 11 appearances.
4) Jordan Weal has had issues for much of the season with taking minor penalties for stick infractions, many of which have been in the offensive zone. In Tuesday's game against Ottawa, he was called for a cross-check behind the net in the attacking zone. That was Weal's eighth minor in the 20 games he has dressed.
In many cases, small players use their stick as an "equalizer", and some are prone to taking bad penalties as a result. Danny Briere, for one, was no stranger to stick infractions (some of which were of the vicious variety that got him suspended a couple times). But Danny would also score 30 goals a year and/or score in bushels in the playoffs plus was a galvanizing locker room presence.
Weal is a skilled player with good work habits but he's no Briere in his offensive ability. The 26-year-old Weal has 19 goals and 40 points in 126 NHL games (three goals and seven points in 20 games this season). In other words, Weal's penalty issues need to end. He also needs to do a better job of not trying to beat the same defender multiple times play a more direct game that gets him inside the dots. Defensively, Weal always gives an honest effort but he gets into physical mismatches at times when he plays center rather than wing. Briere did, too, but again, Weal isn't as good as Danny.
5) Asked earlier this week about the severe dip in Oskar Lindblom's ice time (5:18 in the Ottawa game), Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said the left winger's play had dipped of late and he wanted to see greater consistency from the player.
Dale Weise, whose energetic north-south play this season has vaulted him in the lineup after being a frequent healthy scratch or the 12th forward in games he dressed, took over Lindblom's spot on the Nolan Patrick line in the Black Friday game against the Rangers. Previously, Weise was skating on the third line until James van Riemsdyk returned to the lineup. One game later, Weise moved up to the second line.
With all due respect to Weise, who has consistently played well on both sides of the puck season and played with physicality, it is hard to justify him playing that high in the five-on-five rotation on a regular basis. Playing up that high in the lineup means that at least some offensive production is needed from a player.
Fred Shero once said of Bob "the Hound" Kelly, "If he scores 20 goals a season, it means I'm using him wrong." The same principle applies to Weise. He can be effective without scoring. However, if you are down one goal late in the third period and Weise is being asked to be part of the desperation offensive push, it's probably not the right usage.
Even with a surge in the rate of his scoring chances and playing with more skilled linemates, Weise's breakaway tally in the Arizona game is his only one of the season and he has two points in the last 10 games. His actual play has been much better than his stats would suggest (zero points in the last eight games, minus-seven), which are more a reflection of team play. If he keeps up what he's been doing, some pucks will start going in the net for him. However, if Dale Weise is getting deployed in such a way where you need goals from him, it's probably not the right spot in the lineup for more than a very limited basis.
As for Lindblom, there have been some recent struggles on the offensive side of the puck after a five-game point streak and posting points in six of seven games. He had a secondary assist on the Radko Gudas goal in Tuesday's game against Ottawa for his lone point in the last six games. Lindblom is usually reliably solid without the puck but his core game of late has been a bit inconsistent. The same could be said of Patrick (zero points in the last seven games, one goal and no assists in the last nine). That's how it often goes with young players.
It should be noted, however, that apart from a secondary assist earlier in the Ottawa game while playing on the fourth line, Lindblom was in the middle of a prime scoring chance for the fourth line with the Flyers leading 3-1 in the third period. The very next line rotation, with the Flyers still ahead by two goals, the defensively reliable Lindblom got skipped in favor a double-shift for Jakub Voracek.
The game in which Lindblom's five-game point streak was broken (the Flyers home win over Chicago) was actually a pretty solid one for him. As with the rest of the team, he wasn't very good in the first two periods of the Nov. 13 against Florida. In the third period, however, it was Lindblom who nicely set up Voracek for the goal that got the Flyers back within 2-1. Later in the third period, Lindblom rang a shot off the goal post with a chance to tie the game. He was also on the set up end of another Voracek chance shortly therafter.
The next game was against the Devils at the Wells Fargo Center. Notably, this was James van Riemsdyk's first game back in the lineup after a long absence due to injury. Again, the Flyers entered the third period trailing (1-0). Lindblom had been quiet offensively for two periods but his eight points in seven games heading in probably would have kept a more veteran player on the second line. Instead, with JVR back, van Riemsdyk moved up to the Patrick line in the third period, Weise bumped up to the Jordan Weal line and Lindblom (who hit the post again during the period) was moved down to the fourth line.
Lindblom returned to the Patrick line to start the Tampa Bay game, but the bench again made an in-game switch to drop him to the fourth line. One game later, the Flyers had their road debacle in Buffalo. By this point, Lindblom saw fewer and fewer shifts on the upper end of the Flyers' line rotation. One game later, Weise got the full promotion to the second line. The Toronto game was a disaster for every Flyer not named Anthony Stolarz.
Notably in the Ottawa game, the Thomas Chabot goal that tied the game in the first period was accidentally deflected by Lindblom. He barely saw the ice after that; similar to how he got yanked off the penalty kill after deflecting a puck to Evander Kane in the home opener blowout loss to San Jose.
Also notably, during the course of Lindblom's point streak, he twice hobbled off the ice after taking pucks off his foot. He's never been the swiftest of skaters but he's looked noticeably slow at times in recent games. Also, since I made note of Weal's stick infraction issues, it should be noted that Lindblom took a careless high sticking penalty in the Rangers game.
It will be interesting on Saturday to see which Flyers forward will be a healthy scratch -- Jori Lehterठ(a regular scratch of late) or Lindblom. No matter what a coach says (not just Dave Hakstol, any coach), ice time says a lot about where a player stands. The guy with the lowest ice time the previous game is usually the first to sit the next time there's a change in the lineup.
Additionally, coaches who know their jobs are in jeopardy often lean more heavily on veterans. Hakstol tends to be a vet-oriented coach as a matter of course.
6) Over on the Flyers official website, there is a Flyers European prospect update. The Flyers could have as many as four of their European prospects participating in the World Junior Championships. Olle Lycksell and Adam Ginning have strong chances of making Team Sweden, with goalie Samuel Ersson (having an excellent season at the minor league level) a possibility as well. Goalie prospect Kirill Ustimenko is a possibility for Russia, as he has been one of the top goalies in Russia's junior league (the MHL) for two seasons.
7) AHL: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-6-2, 5th place in the Atlantic Division) start a 3-in-3 Canadian road trip on Friday night. First up is a visit to play the Laval Rocket (8-12-2). From there, the Phantoms will play the Belleville Senators (9-11-1) on Saturday. On Sunday, the Phantoms face the Toronto Marlies (8-7-4), who swept Scott Gordon's club in the Eastern Conference Final last season on the way to winning the Calder Cup.
8) OHL: Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost had a pair of primary assists (shorthanded and even strength) but his recently struggling Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds team fell to the Windsor Spitfires, 3-2, on Thursday evening. The OHL's Player of the Week last week, Frost has three goals, nine assists and 12 points in his last five games.