Quick Hits: Jan. 11, 2022
1) With Tuesday's scheduled home game against the first-place Carolina Hurricanes postponed, the Flyers had an unexpected extra day of practice in Voorhees. They'll also practice tomorrow before leaving for Boston for Thursday's game at TD Garden.
Tuesday's practice was focused largely on tweaks to systems -- primarily dealing with checking assignments as five-man units, so that the puck support is more consistent -- that Yeo has been wanting to work on but there were insufficient off-days to work on. The day started with a video session to highlight what was going to be worked on and why.
Yeo said afterwards that there have been limited chances, especially since the Christmas break, to do systems work. When there have been practice days, it's been in between compacted series of multiple games. The extra off-day this week allowed for additional system work. Wednesday's practice will also include some systems tweaks but will ultimately look more like a typical run-up to a game night the next evening.
2) Rasmus Ristolainen has entered COVID-19 protocol per Yeo. Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny remain in protocol, along with Justin Braun (who entered on Monday). Yeo said that there's a chance Konecny and/or Provorov could exit protocol tomorrow.
Travis Sanheim, who exited protocol on Monday and participated in all but the final drill of practice, said after Tuesday's practice that Monday was a bit of a conditioning struggle after five days off-ice. However, he was more or less asymptomatic while he had COVID. Sanheim said Tuesday's practice was better from a conditioning standpoint and the additional day was a blessing in disguise because it gave everyone currently or recently in protocol an extra day to get well.
If the Flyers had played Tuesday's game, the defense corps would have consisted of the following players: Sanheim (with only one on-ice post-COVID), Cam York, Nick Seeler, Egor Zamula, Keith Yandle and Kevin Connauton.
3) Flyers captain Claude Giroux exited COVID protocol on Tuesday and joined the team on the ice for practice. Afterwards, he said -- much the same as Sanheim -- that jumping right back into practice at full speed after a week off the ice was tough. But each successive day will be easier. Giroux, who quarantined in his basement, to avoid exposing his wife and two small children said it was no fun to watch his teammates struggling with a depleted roster and being unable to help. (The Pittsburgh game in particular would have been a very tall order even with a relatively full Flyers lineup). Giroux, who was asymptomatic, said that he rode his stationary bike at home once he got back from Anaheim and tried to move around. His wife brought him food and tended to their kids.
4) The Flyers announced on Tuesday that Patrick Brown has been placed on IR and will miss roughly four weeks with an MCL sprain. The injury occurred in Saturday's game against the Sharks. Brown was slow to get up after a collision, although he went off under his own powe after trainer Sal Raffa came onto the ice to tend to him.
4) Below are the line combinations from Wednesday. Note that Morgan Frost was the extra forward even with a depleted lineup.
86 Joel Farabee - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson 25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes -20 Gerry Mayhew 23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 71 Max Willman 82 Connor Bunnaman - 59 Jackson Cates - 17 Zack MacEwen 48 Morgan Frost
6 Travis Sanheim - 54 Egor Zamula 45 Cam York - 24 Nick Seeler 3 Keith Yandle - 8 Kevin Connauton
79 Carter Hart 35 Martin Jones
5). Prior to Thursday's game against Pittsburgh, Mike Yeo said that the silver lining to the severely depleted lineup was that presented opportunities for certain players to step up. It was clear, without names being mentioned, that Morgan Frost was one such player. Frost had a rather uneven performance against the Penguins, although he did get a primary assist on an Oskar Lindblom goal in garbage time in the third period.
On Saturday against San Jose, the Frost line was essentially used as the fourth line, getting bypassed a few times at 5-on-5 and getting less priority in the rotation than Brown's line. That was one telltale sign that the coach wasn't thrilled with Frost's recent play, including within that game. However, the coach did entrust Frost with a shift at the start of the 3-on-3 overtime and, after the Flyers coughed up a 2-on-1 and lost the game, directly absolved Frost as a non-culprit in the ultimate goal.
After Monday's practice, I directly asked Yeo about his assessment of Frost's games since the break. Yeo gave the following, detailed response and said he planned to show Frost some video on specific things to work on:
Watch LIVE as interim head coach Mike Yeo meets with the media from @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/2AWo8PvNWL
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 10, 2022
After the head coach spoke, Frost and Kevin Hayes met with the media. At one point, Hayes defended Frost and said that the young player -- who was self-critical and admitted that his offensive confidence has dipped of late -- was being too hard on himself.
Flyers forwards Kevin Hayes and Morgan Frost meet with the media from the @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/Oip0DInq0X
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 10, 2022
After Tuesday's session, with Frost seemingly relegated to likely healthy scratch status for Thursday, Yeo was asked to speak a bit further on the subject. The coach reiterated the basic message from the previous day and elaborated in other aspects. He said that he's noticed Frost has taken to heart some of the coaching advice he's gotten -- working hard to be a more effective checker, initiating physical play more frequently when he has the chance, etc. -- but that greater consistency (not just a good play here and a strong period there) was needed.
One day earlier, Yeo stated that he has a strong belief in the player that he thinks Frost can and will become -- more so than the player himself seems to believe right now, according to Yeo. But he wants to see Frost consistently do certain things better. The specifics were left unsaid but are not a mystery: He wants to see Frost used his natural speed and push the pace rather than, when the going gets tough, reverting to slowing down. Playing a deliberate game worked fine in the OHL but his most ineffective games (both in the AHL and NHL) have come when he slows down and plays at a glide or standstill. He also still has room to improve in 50-50 battles.
Frost himself readily owns up to knowing what adjustments he needs to adhere to consistently. But knowing and doing are two separate things, especially when a young player's confidence gets down.
Yeo's follow-up comments from Tuesday are included in this video:
Watch LIVE as interim head coach Mike Yeo meets with the media from the @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/lRlVI84dKk
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 11, 2022
Over on my own Twitter feed, I commented extensively on this subject. I agree with Yeo's message but not his apparent method here. First of all, I don't think that a young player learns more from sitting than from playing. I'd rather Frost be given the chance to work through it some more on the ice. He's only played about 85 combined pro games between the AHL and NHL due to his lost 2020-21 season from early season shoulder surgery and the pandemic-related shortening of the 2019-20 campaign as well. More patience is in order for the 22-year-old at this point, in my opinion.
Secondly, demoting Frost out of the top 12 sets up a mixed-message scenario. The organization wants to see him produce offensively, of course, because it's his main area of upside. However, they also want to see him improve in physical involvement and other off-puck details. The mantra coaches love is that doing the little things better will keep you in the lineup even if the offensive volume hasn't been where the player wants it to be.
With moving Frost to extra forward status (at least temporarily), the message becomes "I notice the work and the improvement in the other areas we've talked about, but you haven't been creating a lot of scoring chances lately, so I'm sitting you."
Again, I don't think Yeo's read was wrong on where Frost's game is right now. He needs to play quicker. He needs more puck touches. He needs to go to where the puck is heading and not to where it is at that split second -- basically, the issue with Frost's preseason. He blending in OK but can and needs to be a difference maker. Here and there, he's done that. But it needs to become something he does more regularly.
But the only way to do that is to actually PLAY, not to watch others play. I'm not a big believer iin the "reset game" philosophy. I think it's more likely to have the player looking over his shoulder than it is to restore lowered self-confidence.
6) Today is the 46th anniversary of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers dismantling the mighty Red Army (CSKA) team, 4-1, at the Spectrum. A few years ago, I wrote a retrospective article for the Flyers' website that the team's social media team tweeted out anew today to commemorate the anniversary: Click here.
7) Part 2 of the State of the Flyers podcast I did with Jason Myrtetus for Flyers Daily is now available for download: Click here. Part 2 runs 28 minutes.
ICMYI, the 34-minute first part is available here.