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Quick Hits for Dec. 1: WJC, Gostisbehere, Friedman, TIFH and More

December 1, 2020, 6:37 AM ET [97 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Quick Hits: December 1, 2020

1) USA Hockey announced on Monday its preliminary roster for the 2020 World Junior Championships. As expected, returning roster candidates Cam York and Bobby Brink are both on the list for the American side. For more, click here.

2) Shayne Gostisbehere has arrived in Voorhees to work out daily at the Flyers training complex at the Skate Zone, per Inquirer beat writer Sam Carchidi. He joins the likes of Ivan Provorov, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Samuel Morin, Carsen Twarynski and Tanner Laczynski for the on-ice and off-ice sessions.

It does not appear likely that Gostisbehere will be traded before the eventual start of a 2020-21 season. That leaves the question: Where does Gostisbehere stand on coaches' Alain Vigneault and Mike Yeo's depth chart ahead of the season? Could the Flyers work both Gostisbehere and recently signed defenseman Erik Gustafsson into the same starting lineup? They don't play quite the same styles but they occupy similar roles in a lineup.

Gustafsson indicated that, because he's played mostly on the right side of his defense pairings at the NHL level, he feels more comfortable at right defense. However, if asked to play the left side, the left-handed shooter feels he could adapt to the left side again. New teammate Travis Sanheim, also a lefty, is fairly similar in that he's played both left and right defense in the NHL; but it his case, mostly played left defense in 2019-20.

As a player who typically gets a heavy allotment of offensive zone starts (58.6 percent for his career, roughly 56 percent between Chicago and Calgary in 2019-20), the Flyers will have to manage his minutes in similar fashion to the usage of Shayne Gostisbehere (60.6 percent o-zone starts for his career, 57.1 percent in 2019-20) or, before that, Mark Streit (54.0 percent o-zone for his NHL career, 54.8 percent for his Flyers career).

Streit spent a couple of seasons paired with Nicklas Grossmann; a strictly defensive defenseman in the old-school meaning of the term. What was interesting about their usage together in 2013-14 was that Streit had well over 55 percent of his 5-on-5 shift starts in the offensive zone while Grossmann had 55.4 percent of his own in the D-zone. This was accomplished in year one by Craig Berube and John Paddock because Kimmo Timonen often stayed out to start the shift and then give way to Streit as the play moved up ice.

Likewise, the Flyers sometimes used Timonen and Streit together if there was an offensive zone faceoff start. In year two, with Timonen out due to a blood clot, the zone starts were kept more straight up, so Grossmann wound up starting 51.1 percent of his starts in the offensive zone (the only time in his career he started more than half his shifts up ice).

Applying that idea to the 2020-21 team, it is possible that Vigneault and Mike Yeo could extend Ivan Provorov's duties similarly to how Timonen was extended to adjust zone starts for the offensive minded Streit and the much more stay-at-home Grossmann. If Gustafsson ends up being paired with Robert Hägg (career 56.5 percent defensive zone starts, 51.2 percent D-zone in 2019-20) as his primary partner, this might be a way to accommodate the differing zone-start deployments. It also speaks volumes for just how valuable having a two-way player like Provorov or Timonen is to a defense corps beyond just their regular pairing.

If, however, Sanheim (50.2 offensive-zone starts for his career, 49.4 percent) ends up as Gustafsson's partner -- this is presuming Phil Myers moves up to play with Provorov -- the coaches can simply go straight up with Sanheim regardless of where the shift starts. Given that Gustafsson has been a 20-minute a game player over the last two seasons (as Streit was for most of his Flyers stint), the most straightforward default blueline arrangement for the current group of Flyers defensemen might be as follows;

Provorov - Myers
Sanheim - Gustafsson
Hägg or Gostisbehere - Braun

Right now, Mark Friedman is once again relegated to No. 8 on the defensive depth chart. General manager Chuck Fletcher has said that he believes Friedman is ready to push for more playing time in the NHL; which is tough to do as a No. 8 (even assuming eight defensemen would be carried rather than seven).

3) In a close vote in our poll over whether Scott Hartnell deserves an eventual spot in the Flyers Hall of Fame, 52 percent (353) of the 675 participants opined that Hartnell belongs in the team's Hall. Meanwhile, 47.7 percent (322) voted no. The topic spurred some good debate on both sides. Hartnell will be the topic of the final "Case for..." article in the Flyers Hall of Fame series on the team's official website. Yesterday, in the penultimate article in the series, we looked at the case for "Mr. Playoffs", Danny Briere: Click here.

4) Next up on Flyers Daily and the team website ahead of camp will be a series of interviews and articles on Flyers goalies through the years, from the early days until the current duo of Carter Hart and Brian Elliott. Rather than simply focusing on the legendary Bernie Parent, who is universally regarded as the top goaltender in franchise history, the intent here is to look at the bigger picture over the years and profile some other names.

5) Happy birthday wishes go out to current Flyers winger/center Michael Raffl. The Austrian veteran turns 32 today. Raffl is entering his eighth year with the Flyers, making him one of the longest-tenured role players in the franchise's last 25 years of history. Not bad for a guy who, apart from a very brief (two-game) American Hockey League stint, jumped directly from Swedish minor-league hockey in Allsvenskan with Leksand to the National Hockey League shortly before his 25th birthday.

6) Today in Flyers History: December 1, 1974

n one of the most lopsided games in franchise history, the defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers whipped the woeful Kansas City Scouts by a 10-0 count at the Spectrum on December 1, 1974.

Ross Lonsberry and Bill Barber scored two goals apiece, while Bobby Clarke racked up a shorthanded goal and two assists. Philly also got goals by Gary Dornhoefer, Bill Clement, Andre "Moose" Dupont, Orest Kindrachuk, and Dave "the Hammer" Schultz.

Bernie Parent was scarcely tested in earning a 22-save shutout. The Flyer compiled a 47-22 shot advantage for the game as KC goalie Pete McDuffe absorbed all 10 goals that Philly scored. The Flyers led 5-0 after the first period and 9-0 at the second intermission.

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