Winning playoff games, not scoring, is Travis Konecny’s main focus as Flyers face Isles
Travis Konecny, the Flyers' leading scorer in the regular season, has yet to turn on the red light in the playoffs, but says his focus is on wins, not goals. The Flyers are 7-2 in the postseason.
Flyers right winger Travis Konecny is pressing.
You can see it in his body language, see it as he looks to the rafters after firing a shot wide or being denied by the goaltender, see it in the way he sometimes slams his stick as he retreats to the bench.
Oh, he’s still hustling, still supplying energy, still getting into opponents’ faces.
But he’s just not scoring.
That, he said, is secondary. Winning playoff games is his main focus.
Konecny, 23, who is plus-4 in the postseason, will be trying to help trigger a fast start Monday when the top-seeded Flyers open their Eastern Conference semifinal against the sixth-seeded New York Islanders in Toronto.
“A win’s a win in the playoffs, the way I look at it,” Konecny said Sunday when asked if the Flyers’ postseason success has lessened the frustration he feels from not scoring. “As long as we’re doing well, if I’m not on the scoreboard, it doesn’t really matter. I’m trying to contribute in other ways. There’s lots of ways to win a hockey game. It doesn’t just involve points and scoring. I’m aware I’ve got to step up a little bit more. We’ll just move forward now and focus on the next series.”
Konecny led the Flyers in goals (24) and points (61) in the regular season, but has yet to turn on the red light and has just three points in nine postseason games this summer. He had one point in the six-game series against Montreal.
“I think Travis is one of those players that has another level that he needs to get to,” general manager Chuck Fletcher said. “In terms of using his speed to create and getting more pucks to the net, I think he’s getting better, but there’s still another level he can get to. That line produced a lot of chances for us the last few games, so I think they’re starting to get going. Again, we’re going to need everybody, not just TK, but everybody to up their level as the stakes get higher.”
In nine postseason games, the Flyers are 7-2 despite not getting any goals from Konecny, Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, and James van Riemsdyk.
The Flyers scored just 11 goals (1.8 per game) against Montreal and were bailed out by Carter Hart and the defense.
“I do believe we have another level, another gear we can get to,” said coach Alain Vigneault, echoing Fletcher. “Most of it has to do with our execution, our plays, and our ability to make plays with the puck. We have some real skill players, some real good players on our team. I understand going through the process, the pressure that comes with wanting to win. We were able to win that first round playing hard hockey, good hockey.”
He paused.
“Still when you analyze it, I really believe there’s another level we can attain if our top-end guys execute the way we have seen them execute throughout the year,” he said. “I don’t want to get into specific names, but there are a few guys that need to get that execution, those plays that you need to make under pressure, those plays that you need to make to get the puck out of our end quicker, those plays that you need to make through that neutral zone, and those plays in the offensive zone that a skilled player can make.”
This figures to be a grinding, low-scoring matchup. Both teams have a defense-first mentality. Both have gotten great goaltending in the postseason.
“It’s going to be a greasy series,” Vigneault said.
Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen, who will return to the lineup after serving a one-game, NHL-imposed suspension, agreed.
“The Islanders under Barry Trotz are going to be very fundamentally sound, defensively,” he said .”They’re going to play hard. I think for us, it’s going to be [important to] make sure we’re on the same page and how we want to attack. They’re going to clog up their blue line, so we’re going to have to be on the same page --whether we want to chip pucks to support and speed, or set up our forecheck, be able to create some space and speed so we can attack them on the line.”
Keeping mistakes to a minimum is vital, Niskanen said, because the Islanders can “feast on turnovers if we turn it over in the neutral zone. That’s going to be a big part of it, I think.”