Quick Hits: October 31, 2022
1) Following an off-day on Sunday, the Flyers will resume practice on Monday at the FTC in Voorhees in preparation for a very tough set of back-to-back road games to start a three-game road trip. The daily schedule for the next nine days is as follows:
MON OCT 31: Practice at FTC (11 a.m. ET) TUE NOV 1: Flyers @ NYR, Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m. ET) WED NOV 2: Flyers @ TOR, Scotiabank Arena (7:00 p.m. ET) THU NOV 3: Day off (in Toronto) FRI NOV 4: Practice at Scotiabank Arena, Toronto (11 a.m. ET), p.m. travel to Ottawa SAT NOV 5: Flyers @ OTT, Canadian Tire Centre (7:00 p.m. ET), return to Philadelphia SUN NOV 6: Day off (home) MON NOV 7: Practice at FTC (11 a.m. ET) TUE NOV 8: Flyers vs. STL, Wells Fargo Center (7:00 p.m. ET)
2) Flyers Daily (Oct 31)
The Mondays with Meltzer episode of Jason Mytetus' Flyers Daily is now available for listening. This season, the Flyers are off to a 5-2-1 start through eight games. They had an identical record through eight games in both 2020-21 and 2021-22; two seasons that went off the rails after strong starts record-wise. In Monday's episode, Jason and I discuss the following subjects:
* How are the first eight games this season similar to those of the previous two seasons? Do these similarities/differences portend well, poorly or somewhere in between for making the upcoming weeks winning ones?
* Sean Couturier's second surgery on his back in less than a calendar year? What should the level of concern be for the team?
* Can Carter Hart sustain his outstanding start to the season? What have been the stand-out observations about his six starts to date?
* In three straight games, John Tortorella has shortened his bench for extensive stretches of game. In the first, he sat Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny from the latter second period to the end of the game. In the second and third, some of the younger players on the team -- Wade Allison, Morgan Frost and Egor Zamula against Florida; Frost, Allison (despite a goal and an assist) and the debuting Kieffer Bellows against Carolina with Zamula a healthy scratch). What are Jason's and my takes on the sets of decisions and, in the bigger picture, the head coach's handling of these players as well as the likes of Tanner Laczynski? (A little spoiler here: It is not uncommon for Tortorella to test his players in general and young players in particularly by seemingly nitpicking and being impatient with them to see who shows the mental toughness to work through it).
To listen:click here.
3) In relation to the player usage plan, it was pretty clear-cut two days before the Carolina game that Torts' plan was to once again shorten his bench and to give massive ice time reliance on his core veteran forwards and top three defensemen.
First, he'd just said after the Florida game that his plan even beforehand was to go with three forward lines because he felt it gave Philly the best chance to win the game. Carolina is another top team in the East, so it was unlikely that the thought process would change for that game.
Second, the fact that both Friday's practice and Saturday's morning skate were optional made clear ahead of time that the likes of Kevin Hayes (22:05 TOI), Travis Konecny (22:15 TOI), Scott Laughton (23:59 TOI), Joel Farabee (19:45 TOI) and the one young forward Tortorella ttruly trusts at present, Noah Cates (18:00 TOI) were about to see ice times against Carolina more typical for the upper end of the forward lineup in a playoff game rather than an October match.
4) The Flyers "fourth" line -- Lukas Sedlak centering Nicolas Deslauriers and one of Allison or Zack MacEwen -- has been deployed as the de facto third line for the last few games. They've played well in this stretch and even provided the bonus of a goal (MacEwen deflection of a Nick Seeler point shot) against Florida and two goals (Deslauriers and Allison) against Carolina.
Thus far, Sedlak has been a nice addition to the Flyers since being claimed off waivers from Colorado. He skates and checks well (including on the forecheck) and has a bit of skill as well. Both of his assists in the Carolina game primaries on very nice centering passes from behind the net.
It's unlikely that most of these players will often be able to continue their offensive contributions of the last couple games, given their roles, ice times and respective strengths and weaknesses to their games at the NHL level. Even so, it's always nice to get a boost from unexpected places in the lineup.
5) Allison was not very excited by his goal and assist in the Carolina game in just 6:14 of ice time. After the game, head coach Tortorella was very sparing in his praise of the player, saying that it was a positive that he'd made a good play down low to win a puck battle that ultimately led to Deslauriers' first goal as a Flyers. Allison drove to the net in his own goal, and Sedlak delivered him the puck.
Beyond that, Tortorella said he's still not happy with Allison's overall game; that there are still too many east-west attempts made by a power forward that Tortorella believes should be almost exclusively a north-south style player. After Saturday's game, Allison said that he's trying to play the way Tortorella wants.
In a nutshell, Thompson said that he's seen "good moments for sure" from the player and said that Frost has a high skill level with outstanding natural speed but that he doesn't use his speed nearly well enough and needs to make better use of that gift. He challenged Frost to use his legs better over the middle -- a post-interview example is the scoring chance Frost had in the third period against Carolina, where he did just that -- to really focus on being first to the puck more often and then come out with the puck before he gets into muscle-on-muscle battles he is less likely to win.
All of this is familiar territory for the player and something he's well aware of the need to put into practice in games. What I found interesting is that, unprompted, Thompson said that a positive of Frost's game so far is that "he's battled pretty well in our own zone." The assistant coach then gave an example from the San Jose game with Frost in a tough matchup against Tomas Hertl.
On Friday, conversely, Tortorella was asked what Frost (who has come up empty recently on two breakaways, two doorstep chances and Sunday's one prime chance from mid-slot over the middle) can do to get more ice time apart from scoring more. Tortorella said that Frost needs to show better play when he doesn't have the puck; a seeming contradiction not only to Thompson's take on the first six games of the season but also to Tortorella's own statement made three weeks ago that "I think he's a pretty good player away from the puck as one of the areas he feels is generally a strength.
Personally, I think Thompson's assessment and critique is more fair and more accurate. Frost also needs to do better on faceoffs (after leading the team with a 60-plus percent winning percentage in the preseason, he's struggled on draws in the regular season so far) and on entry attempts on the power play. Those are especially true being on PP2 because there isn't much time to work with in the first place.
In terms of off-puck play, though, Frost is on the positive side of the takeways vs. giveaways ratio (identical to Noah Cates' ratio, actually, through Games 1-7 although Cates passed him in the Carolina game) and, for a player never known for being very physical, has pushed himself to be more so (12 credited hits in eight games). He's not known as a shot-blocker but his blocks relative to ice time (3.29 per 60) are higher than Scott Laughton (2.33 per 60) or Joel Farabee (2.24), and those are players who do have reps for putting themselves in harm's way to block a shot.
Tortorella has made crystal clear that he does not care about most stats and relies very heavily on his own eye test and gut feeling. That's fine, and a coach's prerogative. But sometimes numbers such as the above can be used to illustrate -- if not effective or lack thereof -- that a player is making a concerted effort to improve areas that coaches have challenged him to improve.
As with Allison, Frost needs to realize that at least part of what Tortorella is doing here is testing him. Mike Yeo or Scott Gordon or even Alain Vigneault might have noted the breakaways/ close range chances and said, "Keep getting those and the pucks will start to go in." Public encouragement is not Tortorella's way. His way is "If scoring is your role, five scoring chances over five games don't impress me at all. I'll be impressed if and when they start going in." He's also not one to note micro-area improvements, as an assistant coach or longtime AHL head coach might. The coach has been around long enough to know, however, it's those micro-improvements if built upon that add up to better results.
In the last Florida game in particular, Frost was clearly pressing in his two third period shifts after sitting for a full period of game action. On the first -- a 4-on-4 shift opportunity -- he went for the puck in a D-zone checking situation and took a stick-slashing penalty that was too obvious not to call. Later, he got a brief PP shift, losing a draw (which was cleared immediately down the ice) and then failing on an entry. He didn't see the ice again; and it was justified at that point.
Tortorella in that instance could have blasted Frost after the game. In this instance, though, he didn't differentiate between Frost or Allison in saying that when a player sits for a long time in a game, it's hard to fairly assess the next shift (the implication being that they often try to do too much to impress and wind up doing the opposite). Tortorella did say he had no problem with Allison's performance specific to the Florida game and some good things showed up in the game video the coaches showed players on Friday. He skewered Frost, however.
Tortorella is all about the bottom line and his takeaway message to both Allison and Frost -- expressed directly after the Florida game -- is "keep working and earn the ice time."
7) The one young player that Tortorella is being patient with, because the overall details of his game have been very sound from Day 1, has been Noah Cates.
I don't think Tortorella did Cates any favors in terms of his offensive game and forechecking prowess with the experiment of moving the player to center. Cates played fine from a checking standpoint -- body and stick usually in strong position, not overplaying or chasing or puck-watching.
Cates has since been moved back to his more accustomed left wing spot, for the dual purpose of seeing if he can get going offensively (especially via his forechecking prowess as the F1 creating more opportunities) and also to lessen some of the faceoff burden on Cates with Laughton doing quite well on draws (52.6 percent won) and the rookie Cates scuffling in that area (35.7 percent).
While still at center, Cates scored a fantastic goal off his forechecking work in the game against Tampa Bay. It was the game-winner, in fact. Since that time, he has not recorded a point and has just two shots on goal. Over the first eight games, he has five shots on net and the tally against Tampa represents his lone point. He plays PP2 (where there's usually 30 or fewer seconds with which to work, and where shifts often start deep in the D-zone after a clear by the opposing PKers). He's still been very good off-puck.
At a certain point, though, Tortorella will home in on the fact that Cates has gotten top-six ice time all season, played with some of the better forwards on the team (including reuniting with Owen Tippett since the player's return from injury and regularly playing with Laughton for the majority of the season to date). Points should eventually come again with more regularity ala late last season with Tippett and Frost.
Personally, I am too worried by the lack of points per se. But the shot on goal volume HAS to pick up. As a team, the Flyers pretty much collectively have awful puck possession numbers, and I don't expect Cates to work miracles in that area, especially as a rookie. But once in the O-zone, he has to start attempting more shots. He's not missing the net or getting blocked a lot. He's simply not getting the attempts in any volume. That aspect has to pick up. He has to shoot more when the opportunity is there.
Defensively, though, Cates has been the real deal regardless of what his underlying numbers suggest. In the last Florida game in particular, I thought he turned in some outstanding work in stick-on-puck plays and in neutralizing (or lifting the stick and stealing the puck) opponents' sticks.
8) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms went 0-3-0 on their weekend set of three games in three nights. On Sunday, the Phantoms played a competitive opening 40 minutes despite a 2-1 deficit but fell apart in the third period on the way to a 4-1 road loss to the Hershey Bears.
Once again, penalty killing contributed greatly to the Phantoms' undoing. On Saturday in Allentown, the Bridgeport Islanders' power play torched the Phantoms for four PPGs (4-for-4 on the night in man advantage opportunities, in fact). On Sunday, Hershey scored on its first power play and went on to go 2-for-5. Lehigh Valley (2-4-1) has allowed at least one one opposing power play goal in all seven games played to date.
Compounding the problem: the Phantoms are taking too many needless penalties overall. They've been penalized 34 times in seven games and the PK clocks in at 61.8 percent to rank last in the 32-team league.
Samuel Ersson, for the most part has played better in goal than his pedestrian early stats (3.28 GAA, .898 save percentage) suggest. On Sunday, for example, he made a host of big saves in keeping the Phantoms within a goal after two period. Most of the 13 goals he's allowed over the season to date have been on plays where he was screened, the puck deflected, an instance where he was pretty clearly interfered with but the goal stood or the goal was scored from prime shooting range.
However, a valid criticism of Ersson's play so far is that he's tended to fade a bit late in games. Whether that's a matter of fully rebuilding stamina after missing the vast majority of last season and undergoing surgery, the fact remains that he hasn't come up with some stops after the second period that he'd been making earlier in a couple of his outings so far. Overall, though, he's been a bright spot.
On Sunday, a late first-period Jackson Cates rebound goal (1st goal of the season) on a self-created shot by Olle Lycksell stood as the lone Phantoms' goal.
8) During the third period of Sunday's Phantoms game, defenseman Cam York skated to the left corner to retrieve a dump-in. As he arrived, he seemed a little off-balance as he took a routine bump from Mason Morelli. York's leg buckled as it went into the lower part of the boards. He immediately crumpled to the ice holding his left knee or lower leg. York was unable to put any weight on his left leg and required assistance to leave the ice before disappearing down the tunnel.
When there is an update on the player, I will post it on Twitter and HockeyBuzz. Hopefully it's not a serious injury but it didn't look good on Sunday's game stream.