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Quick Hits: Chicago Prep, Lines, Morin, and More

October 23, 2019, 6:34 AM ET [248 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Quick Hits: October 23, 2019

1) On Tuesday, the Flyers divided practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees into four small-group sessions with a focus on individual skills. The session was run by Flyers skills coach Angelo Ricci and the assistant coaching staff. Head coach Alain Vigneault was not on the ice. Vigneault has penciled in these "hockey school" days periodically, as the schedule permits, going back to his years in Vancouver. For more, click here.

2) While the second group was on the ice, Vigneault met with the media to discuss the purpose and benefit of the small-group work; which he said generated positive feedback from his players both in Vancouver and with the New York Rangers. Flyers players also enjoyed the session as a personally focused way to stay sharp yet simultaneously get a break from regular practice (which will resume on Wednesday morning at 11:15 a.m. before the team departs for Chicago to play the Blackhawks on Thursday evening).

3) Vigneault then turned his attention to various matters pertaining to the team's performance to date and the preparations to play the Blackhawks. Some of the main topics:

* Throughout camp and the early season, Vigneault has been frequently experimenting with a wide variety of line combinations. Coming off Monday's 6-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, look for the same lineup and combos to start Thursday's game in Chicago.

* One line that is now pretty much a fixture in Vigneault's mind -- both at five-on-five and on the power play -- is the trio of Sean Couturier centering Travis Konecny and Oskar Lindblom. The line was highly effective in the team's first three games of the season but then was separated for the games against Edmonton and Dallas in favor of reuniting team captain Claude Giroux with Couturier and Konecny.

This was done largely in order to try to spread the wealth a bit with James van Riemsdyk, Giroux and Jakub Voracek off to slow starts from an offensive production standpoint. For the Vegas game, those three were put together as a line, with Giroux moving over from left wing to center while Lindblom was back with Couturier and Konecny.

* Vigneault praised the play of three of the team's four lines in the Vegas game. He noted that he liked the 200-foot game of the trio of Kevin Hayes centering Scott Laughton (who moved from center to left wing) and debuting rookie Joel Farabee. He also liked how the trio of rookie center Mikhail Vorobyev, left wing Michael Raffl (who had been centering the fourth line) and veteran Chris Stewart looked together against Vegas.

The one line that the head coach did not praise was the JVR-Giroux-Voracek unit. Although they created some chances, Vigneault was not happy with the shift-in and shift-out performance. In a calm tone of voice, the head coach said, "“They have to figure it out... You've got three experienced guys that have been around that should know the right way to play and have to play [like] it."

* Vigneault said that he'd like to get defenseman Samuel Morin into a game but the defenseman will have to remain patient as the coach is not currently inclined to scratch any of the six defensemen playing above him. It's hard not to feel for Morin, an unbeat, exuberant and positive-focused young man who simply ran into horrific luck with injuries at the precise time in his development cycle when he'd gotten to the brink of getting an opportunity to stake down an NHL job.

Due to recurring core muscle issues in the fall of 2017 through spring of 2018, a torn ACL suffered in the first period of his third game of the playoffs, ACL reconstruction surgery and rehab that lasted three-quarters of the 2018-19 season and then seven healthy scratches to start the current season, Morin has only played in a total of 27 regular season and playoff games -- finishing 24 of them, and have to leave 3 due to injury -- in two calendar years. Seven of the games (two in 2017-18 and five last season) were in the NHL, while the other 20 were with Lehigh Valley.

Now 24, Morin is fully healthy but has missed so much hockey over the last two years that it's hard to know what he actually is as a candidate to play regularly in the NHL. He was still something of a work in progress before all the injuries but had made major strides. After all the setbacks and lost time, he's in an unenviable situation.

Something else that works against Morin to a certain degree is that he exclusively plays the left side on any defense pair. That can be worked around by pairing him with a right-handed D or a fellow left-handed shooter who is comfortable on his off-side but if there's a right D opening, it could go instead to waiver exempt Phantoms third-year defenseman Phil Myers, who is also awaiting his break to get back to the NHL with the Flyers.

While he's eligible (with his consent) to go to the Phantoms for a 14-day conditioning assignment, Morin can't stay there without clearing waivers. That, however, is probably what's best for him; to get in about 20 AHL games, and show that he's not just healthy but is playing consistently within his strengths.

The Flyers are reluctant to waive Morin because there is a risk that another organization will take on the 6-foot-6+ defenseman as a reclamation project and how they can make a Jamie Oleksiak type out of him if he stays healthy. With all of the resources the Flyers have been invested in his development and the fact that it's still not too late for him to make a career for himself, the Flyers have kept him on the NHL roster. At the same time, there isn't enough body of work the last two years to have confidence in dressing the player in the NHL starting six barring injuries elsewhere in the lineup.

Morin's sunny off-ice personality -- almost always smiling, enthusiastic and optimistic -- remains the same but he has to be feeling some frustration even if he understands the situation. One thing that works in his favor, though, is that he exudes work ethic. During training camp this September, on a day where all non-injured players had the day off (with the exception of Konecny, who had just arrived at camp one day earlier after signing his new contract), Morin worked out with Ricci. He does so almost daily in addition to taking the requisite extra skating and participation in every optional practice, which is pretty much expected of any player who is not in the starting lineup.

At some point soon, something has to give. Whether it's getting his permission to assign him to the Phantoms for a conditioning stint and then making a decision on waivers or keeping him with the big team, Morin deserves a chance to play somewhere. If he gets waived and claimed, at least he won't be stuck in limbo.

4) The NHL, as expected, made a change in scoring on the Flyers' third goal in Monday's game against Vegas. Michael Raffl, who said postgame that the puck never deflected off him and the goal should be credited to Ivan Provorov instead, got his wish. Provorov is now credited with his second goal of the season, while Raffl gains an assist but drops from three goals to two. The secondary assist given to Mikhail Vorobyev now reads as the primary assist in the official scoring.

5) During Monday's game, the Flyers Alumni Association presented its yearly checks to Snider Hockey ($175,000) and BLOCS ($20,000) from the funds raised via the annual Flyers Alumni Golf Invitational. In addition to event sponsors and participants, including George Fill of David and Fill Financial, Inc., CDW, and Snider Hockey's Scott Tharp, Flyers Alumni in attendance included Alumni Association president Brad Marsh, Bob Kelly, Jim Watson, Dave Schultz, Chris Therien and Brian Propp.

On the same night, WCRE (represented by Jason Wolf and Propp) presented a $7,000 check to support the community and charity work that the Flyers Alumni do each each year. Every September, WCRE holds a celebrity hockey game featuring Flyers Alumni and local business leaders with proceeds going to numerous charities and community organizations.

6) Today in Flyers History: On Oct. 23, 1983, the Flyers reunited the Sutter twins as they traded with the Pittsburgh Penguins to obtain Rich Sutter. The Flyers also received a 1984 2nd Rounder (Greg Smyth) and a 1984 3rd Rounder (David McLay). In return, the Flyers sent Ron Flockhart, Mark Taylor, Andy Brickley, a 1984 1st Rounder (Roger Belanger) and a 1984 3rd Rounder (later flipped to the Vancouver Canucks and used on the selection of Mike Stevens). One year earlier, the Flyers selected future captain Ron Sutter in the first round of the NHL while the Penguins took his twin brother, Rich.
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