Tortorella: Swagger Matters
Flyers head coach John Tortorella was in a relaxed and talkative mood on Thursday, prior to the team's game in Boston. "Torts" was not focused on the game being in his hometown or that it was a milestone night for him as he became the first American-born head coach in NHL history to be behind the bench for 1,400 games. Rather, he wanted to talk about importance of his Flyers team show the right mindset as it tries to work its way out ifs current winless streak and, in the bigger picture, works to re-establish an identity as a team that competes hard regardless of the in-game score or final outcome.
"You don't want to lose your belief when you have some struggles. That's part of our job. I think we need to be a real simple hockey team here tonight. I say simple but I also mean be ourselves. I like some of the personality we have within our club," Tortorella said. "I think we've shown some that this year in terms of growing into becoming that type of the team they'll talk about coming into their building. That's important tonight as you play one of the best teams in the league."
He added, "It's so important that we have some swagger. Boston is the best team in the league right now versus a team that's struggling a little bit and had a couple tough years prior to this. I think we need to always work on our swagger and our attitude."
Boston ultimately ran its current winning streak to five games and remained undefeated on home ice (10-0-0) for the season. The Flyers, who have neither the top-end talent nor the depth of the Bruins, put up a pretty good battle although they struggled to generate many scoring chances once the Bruins got settled into their game. But the scoreless first period was rather evenly played and the Flyers were able to remain within a goal on the scoreboard heading into the third period despite Boston starting to take over the game in the middle stanza. The Bruins finally pulled away in the third period.
Although Tortorella felt his team's performance against the Bruins was a bit too sporadic and limited ability to make plays ultimately stood out, he was not unhappy with the work ethic the team poured into the game. It was a matter of sustained execution, not of effort.
"At times, we were good. At times we were patient and did a good job. At times, they're going to have their opportunities. Some good, some struggles," Tortorella said.
Hours earlier, Tortorella stressed that one of the team's ongoing challenges is to establish a genuine self-belief and measure of swagger. He said that it's a big-picture issue that went beyond whatever would transpire against the Bruins on that particular night. He was asked how he could instill self-confidence in his players, especially younger players who might not currently be playing instinctively and confidently.
""I can't give it to them. I don't have it in my pockets.... It's something we'll talk about before we go out. It's something that's a goal of ours as an organization, at least as a coaching staff," Tortorella said. "It's easy to have that when you're winning. When you're not, [you might be inclined to] back off. But it comes from conversation. It comes from showing tape. It comes from looking at good things, when there's some confident play. That's how you build that.....I think that's not instinctive to us right now, not even close. But that's kind of the end goal, of how we're trying to go about this."
Special teams swoon torpedoed Flyers' chances
One thing that has been easy to overlook -- and not without some justification because the Flyers have not only been losing over the past five games, it's been by multi-goal margins most nights -- is that the Flyers' five on five process actually started trending better than it was going when the club got off to a 7-3-2 start through the first 12 games. The Flyers started to generate lengthier and higher-quality puck possession than they had when they were winning games despite being pretty thoroughly outplayed.
Unfortunately, while areas such as the forecheck have shown improvement, other parts of the game regressed with disastrous consequences. The penalty kill is at the forefront of the team's five-game winless streak especially over the last four games. Going into this past weekend, the Flyers ranked 4th in the NHL in PK success rate at a shade below 84 percent. Unfortunately, after going an abysmal 4-for-11 over the last four games, the team has plummeted to 28th (75.9 percent) in the league.
For a team that has to scratch out most every goal, it's going to be fatal most every time when the penalty kill struggles to such a dramatic degree.
The power play wasn't much better this past weekend, especially against Dallas when Philly went 0-for-6 with a shorthanded goal allowed. The Flyers at least have since notched a power play goal in back-to-back games: 1-for-2 in Columbus and 1-for-4 against the Bruins. However, that's only been enough to rebound to 17.9 percent (ranked 27th league) for the season after being at or near the 20 percent mark in the season's first month.
Injury Bug Bites Again
Every team deals with injuries over the course of the season. The Flyers aren't going to get any sympathy for their injury plight from other teams. The Columbus Blue Jackets, for example, were down by eight regular starters due to pre-existing or new injuries by the time Tuesday's game against the Flyers ended. Thursday's opponent, Boston, was missing Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy at the start of the season before both recently returned. The Flyers, however, have been one of the teams that seems to have suffered the most over the last few seasons from injuries to key players. The 2022-23 campaign has been no exception.
Already missing Sean Couturier (for at least three or four more months), Cam Atkinson (still out indefinitely), James van Riemsdyk (for roughly three or four more weeks), Ryan Ellis (likely for the entire season after he played just times in 2021-22), and prospect Bobby Brink (now doing his rehab with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and aiming to play by the end of December or early January), the Flyers recently lost power forward Wade Allison for approximately three weeks.
On Thursday in Boston, the Flyers saw Travis Konecny go down in the second period with what appeared to be a right hand injury. Konecny's hand got bent backwards at an odd angle as he skated past the Bruins' David Pastrnak. Even if the Flyers were otherwise fairly healthy, losing Konecny for any extended period of time would be a tough blow to the lineup. The Flyers' leading scorer is off to a tremendous start to the season and has been one of the few consistent offensive producers on nearly a game-in-and-game-out basis.
Through the season's first 17 games, Konecny has compiled 19 points (7g, 12a). He brought a seven-game point streak into Thursday's match in Boston but saw it go by the wayside in his abbreviated outing before having to exit the game with his injury.
On the flip side, the Flyers welcomed veteran checking forward Patrick Brown back into the lineup in Boston for the first time since he underwent offseason back surgery. Activated from injured reserve on Thursday morning,the 30-year-old dressed as the fourth-line right wing against the Bruins. He can play center or wing as needed, and has been a regular penalty killer in his career. Against the Bruins, Brown skated 11:51 over 19 shifts. He took seven right-circle faceoffs (winning three), blocked a shot and was credited with four hits.
Thirty-four-year-old veteran NHL center/winger Artem Anisimov attended training camp with the Flyers this September on a tryout basis but suffered a broken foot in the first period of the preseason opener. Anisimov, who played under Tortorella in New York and is highly respected by the coach as a two-way player who can also contribute in a secondary power play role, recently signed a professional tryout agreement in the AHL with the Phantoms.
It will be up to Anisimov, who has frequently dealt with injuries in recent years, to show he can remain healthy and still has enough in his legs to handle the pace of play in the NHL. He will play in two AHL games this weekend for the Phantoms. Lehigh Valley is playing three games in three nights but Anisimov won't be asked to play the entire gauntlet right off the bat.
Improvement needed at the dot
The Flyers have struggled in many areas for the better part of the last decade. One area that has not typically been a problem, however, has been in the faceoff circle. Thanks largely to having two of the NHL's most dominant faceoff men of the current era -- Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier -- Philly grew accustomed to annually ranking near the top of the league in faceoff winning percentage.
Times are different now, with franchise icon Giroux gone and Couturier sidelined for most of the last calendar year. The Flyers entered the Boston game at a mediocre 45 percent of the season. Philadelphia surprisingly held its own at the dot (30 wins, 30 losses) in 60 draws against the No. 2 ranked Bruins on Thursday.
Oddly enough, just five days earlier, the Flyers had their roughest single game on faceoffs since the NHL started to officially track faceoff wins and losses as a recognized statistic. Philly won just 15 of 58 faceoffs (26 percent) against Dallas.
Faceoffs are not the responsibility of the centers, although it's whomever is the middle for the puck drop that gets the win or loss added to his record. A significant percentage of draws are not able to be won cleanly by either team, and a 50-50 battle ensues in which the wingers have to help out.
Here's the thing about faceoffs: Most draws are non-factors in the outcome of a game but can suddenly end up being critical if an offensive zone or defensive zone draw gets won or lost cleanly and a goal results moments later. Additionally, while the first possession after the drop of the puck is desirable, it mostly matters ONLY if the puck possession can be maintained more than momentarily. Tortorella is like most NHL coaches in his perspective on draws: he's concerned if too many draws are being lost cleanly or if players seem confused about what to do immediately after a particular draw is won or lost. Beyond that, it's a situational consideration.
Before Brown returned to the Flyers lineup, the team almost exclusively had left-handed shooters taking faceoffs (unless the center got tossed). That meant that half of all draws had to be taken on most pivots' weaker side. Among all Flyers players who've taken at least 50 faceoffs this season, Scott Laughton leads the team in faceoff winning percentage at 47.9 percent (263 faceoffs taken). He's followed by Kevin Hayes at 47.4 percent (264 draws), Lukas Sedlac at 44.9 percent (69 faceoffs), Morgan Frost at 44.4 percent (144 faceoffs) and Noah Cates at 37.0 percent (200 draws). Frost led the team during the preseason at 60.4 percent but it has not carried over consistently since the regular season started.
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