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Quick Hits: Previewing the Week, 4th line, Phantoms, and more |
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Quick Hits: November 12, 2019
1) On the heels of playing four games in six nights, and claiming road shootout victories in Toronto and Boston over the weekend, the Philadelphia Flyers had a complete off-day on Monday. This morning, starting with an 11:30 a.m. practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, it will be time for the Flyers to refocus and get ready for what will be another tough week both in terms of quick turnarounds and quality of opposition at the front and back ends of a 3-in-4.
On Wednesday, the Flyers will host the Metropolitan Division leading Washington Capitals (10-0-2 over their last 12 games, league-best 13-2-4 record overall) at the Wells Fargo Center. The Capitals present some of the toughest matchups in the NHL because they can beat teams with skill and finesse or they can overpower teams but outmuscling them in the trenches. The Caps' 77 goals lead the second highest-scoring team in the league, Nashville, by a whopping 12 goals. After scoring seven goals (six in regulation, one in OT) through the first three games, the Capitals have not been held to fewer than 3 goals in any of their last 16 games.
On Thursday afternoon, perhaps after a light practice in the morning, the Flyers will depart for Ottawa. On Friday, the Flyers must avoid a "trap game" performance as they visit the Ottawa Senators (6-10-1).The Sens have shown modest defensive improvement compared to a season ago (3.47 GAA vs. 3.67 GAA) but the team has had problems putting the puck in the net (2.76 G/PG, ranked 21st).
Afterwards, it's right back to Philadelphia to play the New York Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. For the second straight year, Barry Trotz's Isles sport the lowest GAA in the NHL (2.19) and they hammered the Flyers two Saturdays ago in Uniondale in a game that was not as close as the 5-3 final score suggests.
2) The Flyers' 10-5-2 start to the season is a three-point improvement through 17 games compared to the team's record at the same juncture of last season. That doesn't sound like much but, if the pace were to be sustained over the remaining 80 percent of the season, it would be roughly a 15-point improvement by the end.
The reality is that it's still far too early in the season to get excited over the Flyers' record compared to a year ago at the same juncture. Where the real signs of encouragement lie is in the underlying process. Here's a look at the key and underlying numbers from this season versus last at the same juncture.
2018-19 (Through 17 games)
Goals per game: 3.29 (ranked 6th)
Goals against average: 3.53 (ranked 29th)
Power play: 13.8 percent (ranked 28th)
Penalty kill: 70.5 percent (ranked 30th)
Special Teams Index; 84.3 (ranked 30th)
Team Corsi: 49.16 (ranked 20th per NHL.com. other stat sources vary)
2019-20 (Through 17 games)
Goals per game: 3.12 (ranked 13th)
Goals against average: 2.94 (ranked 14th)
Power play: 21.5 percent (ranked 11th)
Penalty kill: 85.4 percent (ranked 7th)
Special teams index: 106.9
Team Corsi: 54.1 percent (ranked 2nd per NHL.com. other stat sources vary)
3) One of the more hopeful developments in the last few games was the play of the Flyers' fourth line in the wins over Toronto (in particular) and Boston. The trio of Andy Andreoff, Michael Raffl and Tyler Pitlick brought a lot of puck pressure on the forecheck -- both in the offensive zone and the neutral zone -- as well as cycling ability down low.
Prior to his callup from Lehigh Valley, Andreoff had been a big on-ice help as a linemate to rookie Morgan Frost. He was doing a lot of the unglamourous work on Frost's line, winning a lot of puck battles and creating operating room for the playmaking center. At the AHL level, Andreoff can also contribute offensively (3g, 7pts in 10 games, 26 goals last season for Manchester). In the NHL, Andreoff is strictly a fourth liner but has thus far done most everything a coach would want from a winger in his spot.
Pitlick, who missed almost all of training camp, started out this season very slowly for the Flyers and was scratched a few times in favor of Chris Stewart. More recently, he's started to look a lot more like the player he was in Dallas -- tenacious on the forecheck, an above-average north-south skater. I am still a bit concerned about his shooting, as he is still showing the effects of having had two surgeries on the same wrist within the 2019 calendar year. While in Dallas, pre-wrist injury, Pitlick showed some finishing ability (relative to his lineup spot). The rest of Pitlick's game seems to coming around well now.
Raffl, who will turn 31 on Dec. 1, remains one of the NHL's more versatile supporting cast players. For the long-term, after Scott Laughton returns from surgery on a broken finger (the timetable that was given after the injury portends a late-November return), Raffl may go back to left wing if Laughton switches back to center rather than the third-line left wing spot.
4) When Laughton is ready to come off the long-term injured reserve list, the Flyers will have to do some salary cap rejiggering, as they are currently using LTIR allowance to ice the current roster. There is virtually zero chance that Phil Myers, who has been playing excellent all-around hockey of late on top of scoring goals in three straight games, goes back down. With the way Andreoff has played in the couple games since his callup, he's going to stay put as well if the veteran keeps it up.
The obvious moves to enable the Flyers to do that would be to place Sam Morin (ACL tear, out for the season) and Nolan Patrick (migraine syndrome, remains out indefinitely) on LTIR. There is also the theoretical possibility of waiving 13th forward Stewart, but the other steps seem more likely at present.
5) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (6-2-5) have a busy slate of their own this week; a road 3-in-4 that will see the team visit the Springfield Thunderbirds (9-6-0) on Wednesday and then the Binghamton Devils (5-7-3) on both Friday and Saturday nights.
The Phantoms named versatile forward Kyle Criscuolo their Player of the Week for last week. He was arguably the team's most energetic and consistent forward over a 2-0-1 week for the team, including two goals and three points in a nationally televised home win over the WB/S Penguins last Wednesday, among a stretch of four points (3g, 1a) in four games.
Mikhail Vorobyev, after a one-game recall to the Flyers, had back-to-back strong games against Hershey. In particular, he was very good in Saturday's overtime home win. Linemate German Rubtsov was not at his best this weekend but was better in Sunday's game.
The Phantoms clearly missed Mark Friedman (who was injured in Saturday's game) in the rematch in Hershey on Sunday; missed his mobility, missed his competitiveness and missed what has become a pretty underrated two-way presence at the American Hockey League level.
6) Today in Flyers history: On Nov. 12, 1998, the Flyers traded Shjon Podein to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Keith Jones.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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