The Philadelphia Flyers managed to get a point in the second half of a back-to-back on Thursday night in New Jersey. They were lucky to have Joseph Woll in net, as the goalie helped the Flyers steal a point on the road.
It was a better effort on Thursday than the night before, but the bar was on the floor after a historic beatdown in their home opener against the Penguins. After getting outshot 38-19 by the Penguins, the Flyers were once again primarily playing in their own zone against the Devils, yielding 44 shots on goal in New Jersey.
There were numerous turnovers and failed clears that allowed the Devils to reload in the offensive zone, and when the Flyers did get the puck out, all they could do was dump it in to get a fresh line on the ice. It was rare to see the Flyers get more than a one-and-done chance in the offensive zone or even really establish any pressure.
It was a shortened training camp, but that’s not an excuse for the Flyers. Rick Tocchet and the rest of the coaching staff need to find answers, and they have none right now.
“I have no idea. We just talked as coaches; we’re going to have to change some practices,” Tocchet said after Thursday’s loss. “We need more skill work. Unfortunately, we’ve only had five or six practices, but I don’t know. I don’t know. We are choppy with the puck. I agree.”
There were some positives, but not nearly enough in another poor performance by the Flyers.
“We chipped away, got the point, but we got a lot of work to do,” Tocchet said. “We have to up our skill level. We got to make some plays. Deception. Stepping inside. Things like that, offensively. And some guys are squeezing it, too. It’s only our second game. I don’t know why we’re squeezing it. We got to relax.”
If these were two games in the middle of the season, maybe you could overlook them. But they are the first two games of the season, perhaps leading to the players squeezing it, as Tocchet mentioned.
Blame falls on everyone in the organization at this point in the season. The Flyers looked unprepared to play a hockey game on Wednesday night, and weren’t much better against the Devils.
The players are searching for solutions, too.
“I wish I knew the answer. We’ve been leaving our goalies out to dry these first two games,” Christian Dvorak said after the overtime loss. “We just got to execute better, maybe just play simple hockey, and we could just build from there. We just got to be better, myself included; we all got to be better.”
Flyers’ growing pains in Tocchet’s new systems?
The team has looked out of sync in these first two games of the season, which could be due to some system changes on the ice. It’d certainly explain why they’re disconnected on the ice if they’re learning new systems on the fly.
“I’m not sure. If it keeps happening, I guess we got bigger issues, so we need to clean it up,” Travis Sanheim said on Thursday night. “Need to get back to playing the way that we know we can, and we know that works. I’m not sure why we’re kind of straying away from that when it’s worked in the past. So just need to get back to our game.”
It’s an interesting quote from Sanheim, who was the lone member of the leadership group to speak to the media on Thursday. On one hand, he could be saying that the problems are simply the players not playing up to their potential. But if we want to read into it a bit more, could he be taking a shot at Tocchet implementing changing systems despite having success last season?
If we want to go down that route, Dvorak also had a comment that could be colored in that light.
“We’re off to the slow start that we are. By the time you get the puck, you’re tired, you’re at the end of a shift, and you have to, instead of trying to make a play, get the puck deep and put the next line in a good spot,” he said. “I think if we do that, that’ll help us moving forward. I think we’re just trying to make too many plays in the neutral zone. Our forecheck was a strength last year. I think we got to get back to doing that.“
It’ll be something to keep in mind, at the very least, as the Flyers look to find their game in the days and weeks ahead.
They’ll return home for a matchup against the reigning Stanley Cup champions on Saturday night before embarking on a three-game road trip. If we’re looking for a positive, the Hurricanes will be on the second half of a back-to-back after playing a big, heavy Capitals team on Friday night.
