Flyers ‘keep applying pressure’ in the NHL playoff race despite their hapless special teams
The Flyers are 8-2-1 in their last 11 games and are only five points out of a playoff spot. But if they are to continue their push, their power play and penalty kill must improve.
LOS ANGELES ― They say it never rains in Southern California, and it was just sunshine for the Flyers.
There could have been demons and fears, as the Orange and Black went on a six-game nosedive following their last win against the Anaheim Ducks in January. Instead, they not only beat Cutter Gauthier and the Ducks in overtime on Wednesday but also bested a rested Los Angeles Kings squad the following night despite having a depleted lineup.
“[We] could have folded,” said forward Noah Cates after Thursday’s 4-3 shootout win, noting that they were without forwards Sean Couturier, Denver Barkey, and Luke Glendening due to injury. “It could have fallen on a back-to-back, but we stayed with it. We knew they were two huge points, and we got it done. So it’s awesome, huge testament to this group, and we’re having a ton of fun.”
» READ MORE: Depleted Flyers muscle out a 4-3 shootout win at the Los Angeles Kings
Why yes, the Flyers are having fun. And why not when you’ve won eight of 11 and are on a six-game heater on the road.
But how they’re doing it will make your head spin.
After posting the NHL’s fourth-worst points percentage from Jan. 7 to Feb. 25 (.313), the Flyers have the third-best points percentage since (.773). And they’re doing it despite potting just 2.36 goals per game, tied for the third-fewest during that span. It’s actually lower than the 2.44 goals they averaged from that Jan. 7 spell — which, by the way, felt like it started with a Scott Laughton short-handed heartbreaking goal for the Leafs — but what has helped balance things out is excellent goaltending and the fact they’ve allowed 2.36 goals against per game, which is the fourth-best in the NHL.
During that 16-game stretch prior? The Flyers allowed 4.06 goals against , the second-worst mark. My, my, how the tables have turned.
“You can just see the chemistry they have as pairings right now,” forward Travis Konecny said postgame in LA of the defensemen. “They were coming at those guys a lot in the first period, and they hung in there as a D corps — and I give a lot of kudos to them."
The defensive pairings are now Travis Sanheim-Rasmus Ristolainen, Cam York-Jamie Drysdale, and Nick Seeler, with either Noah Juulsen or Emil Andrae. All the pairings are in lockstep, and while there will of course be a miscue here or there, like the opening goal that Quinton Byfield scored, they are getting into more lanes, stepping up on opponents, clearing more pucks efficiently from the front of the net, and no longer leaving the weak side open.
And they’re also playing down the middle.
Down three forwards on Thursday, Andrae was forced into playing some center — and held his own. With centers Couturier (upper-body injury) and Glendening (lower-body injury), and winger Barkey down (upper-body injury), coach Rick Tocchet needed some help.
It was a move reminiscent of the time Mark Recchi and Sami Kapanen switched to defense for coach Ken Hitchcock in 2003-04. Tocchet said of the puck-moving blueliner, “Well, I just loved it, because I said I need you [at] center. He goes, ‘All right, whatever you need.’”
And that’s what this team has always been about. It is a next man up mentality. It’s going to bat for each other, as noted by the moment Matvei Michkov took a hard hit to the head by Drew Doughty and his teammates swarmed the rugged blueliner.
They also put their bodies on the line, blocking 22 shots on Thursday after blocking 20 on Wednesday in Anaheim. Against the Kings, Garnet Hathaway blocked three shots, including one less than three minutes into the game by Adrian Kempe that stung him. Nick Seeler blocked two straight shots later in the first period by Taylor Ward, and Jamie Drysdale got in the way of a Brian Dumoulin shot.
But what needs to change if the Flyers have any chance of making a true playoff push, is improved special teams. Since Feb. 26, the power play is ranked 30th (8.8%), and the penalty kill is 72.2%. These aren’t new phenomena, but special teams can make or break you.
The power play is atrocious. There really isn’t any other way to describe it. Although they’ve gone 8-2-1 lately, they’ve scored only three times on 36 man advantages. That is second-worst to the Calgary Flames; however, the one positive — the Detroit Red Wings, who the Flyers are battling for a playoff spot and have three games against in the last 14, have scored only four.
“The movement’s been pretty good, but there’s execution plays that we just have to make,” Tocchet said before the Flyers went 0-for-6 in California.
“There’s our three to their two, you’ve got to make an execution play out of it. Somehow, we seem to hit a skate or we mismanage the puck, and they send it down. That happens twice in a power play, you’re knocking off 40 seconds. You’ve got to make those execution plays. And I know people are tired of hearing about it, but execution is everything in the power play, and we’re not right now.”
» READ MORE: The Flyers’ power play is last in the NHL again. Here are three suggestions for how they can fix it.
Thursday night, against the NHL’s 31st-ranked penalty kill, they had two shot attempts that missed the net. The Kings had two shots that Sam Ersson had to stop.
As for the penalty kill, it has been better, but it still allowed two power-play goals over the last two games. And when you have games against four of the NHL’s top 10 on the man advantage — Dallas Stars (29.3%), Montreal Canadiens (24.4%), Boston Bruins (23.7%), and New Jersey Devils (22.9%) — things need to change.
Regardless of what happens — and, by the way, they do need regulation wins for tiebreaker purposes — it could be a fun 14 games. Entering Friday, the Flyers are five points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who jumped the New York Islanders for the third seed in the Metropolitan Division. They remained six points — with a game in hand — back of the Bruins and Red Wings in the wild-card race.
Like two years ago, they’re in the thick of it, and while the day may come when Flyer fans are going to mourn them, they’ll still look back and see how far they’ve gone.
“It’s up to them [the teams ahead of us]. If they keep winning games, good for them,” said Travis Konecny on Thursday night, “but we’re going to keep applying pressure and let them know that if they slip, we’ll be right there.”