The Philadelphia Flyers will be looking to continue winning ways against the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice, after beating the San Joe Sharks in a tight 3-2 game.
The Philadelphia Flyers will be looking to continue winning ways against the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice, after beating the San Joe Sharks in a tight 3-2 game.
They remain at the Wells Fargo Center, and head coach John Tortorella will serve the second of his two-game suspension.
Benefits of the Defensive Dynamics
With so many adjustments having to be made on the backline, assistant coach Brad Shaw explained the thinking behind pairing up some young guys and veterans on defense, pointing out the benefits of having two players with such different experience levels play together,
"It helps on the bench between shifts," he said. "There's usually a lot of communication, usually the older guy doing most of the talking, which is good. I think it allows them to ask questions and grow without having to hear from a coach all the time. [Coaches] can say it a hundred times, but if your teammate says it once, it usually resonates a little bit more. There's a value there."
The young defensemen (of which the Flyers have plenty) have had to take on the challenge of filling those gaps in the roster left by "injuries and departures," which can be a difficult task—especially for players like Ronnie Attard, who don't have much experience playing on the NHL level.
"I think [Attard] is a real 'trying to please' kind of guy," Shaw said. "I think he could be a little more comfortable in his own skin. I think when he's positionally sound and has good stick and good body positioning, he gets to play offense.
"When he gets ahead of himself—like most young guys—he's not quite as effective. We've talked about one or two real keys that will help him, we haven't really strayed from that. For the most part, he's come in and played really well. That's not easy. There's a little bit of added pressure, but I think it's great for these young guys."
Fixing the Penalty Kill
The Flyers have consistently had one of the best penalty kills in the league this season but, as evidenced against the Sharks, it's taken a bit of a dip in form.
"One of the hardest things to do on the penalty kill is to stay aggressive once you've been scored on. It's just human nature that you get back on your heels a little bit," Shaw said. "We've given a few goals up lately; I think that more pucks have gotten to the net with some of the injuries and departures on defense."
With a team that's been dealing with particularly relentless chaos since January, some of the finer details of an aspect of the game like the power play can get lost in the shuffle.
"I think the little things that go into getting on that roll that we were on—when they mesh together, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts," Shaw said. "We're paying a price way higher than some of the mistakes we've made. We've done a fantastic job—up until this latest stretch—of not having to pick the puck up out of our net.
"We have to find other ways to have success. I think the biggest thing is trust what we've been doing—getting back to pressuring, getting back to working as groups of four guys, getting pucks 200 feet and trying to help build a little bit of frustration on the power play."
All About the Mental Toughness
It's been said players and coaches over and over again, but the mental toughness of this Flyers team is one of their most important qualities as they take on a demanding schedule to close out the regular season.
"It's a long 82 games," Shaw said. "[There's a lot of] highs and lows for a hockey player. The guys that are great at it are really mentally strong and can have the focus and the resilience. I'm not sure we talk about that enough, how mentally tough these athletes are and how mentally tough they have to be to get through the rigors of not just the physical, but the whole mental side of an 82-game schedule."
Flyers Projected Lines:
Forwards:
Gurianov - Couturier - Brink
Tippett - Laughton - Konecny
Farabee - Frost - Foerster
Cates - Poehling - Hathaway
Defense:
York - Sanheim
Staal - Attard
Zamula -Johnson
Starting Goalie:
Ersson
Maple Leafs Projected Lines:
Forwards:
Bertuzzi - Matthews - Jarnkrok
Domi - Tavares - Nylander
Knies - Kampf - McMann
Holmberg - Dewar - Reaves
Defense:
Rielly - Lybushkin
Edmundson - Liljegren
Brodie - McCabe
Starting Goalie:
Samsonov