As has been well established, the Flyers have drastically less playoff experience collectively than their state rivals in the Penguins. However, Philadelphia have younger players, ideally with much more gas in the tank as each game progresses than the likes of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin. On the other hand, Philadelphia head coach Rick Tocchet said that youngsters like Porter Martone, Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, and Denver Barkey have to realize the playoffs are a slightly different animal when it comes to being disciplined.
Playoff officiating is like tossing a dart in the dark. One never knows where it will go. Sometimes the referees hurl the whistles into the stands, with the two teams perfecting the clutch-and-grab style playoff hockey was in the early 2000s and before. Football style tackles are ignored, head shots are not called, and the already high level of intensity ramps up more. However, depending on the referees, the first scrum could result in costly penalty for one team.
And as Tocchet said on Friday afternoon, Philadelphia’s youth have to turn the other cheek without backing down. It’s a very fine line, but one they’ll have to navigate to succeed in this opening round. Tocchet pointed to the 6-3 loss to Detroit on April 9 as a bit of an eye-opener for the club by taking needless, selfish penalties. If Philadelphia is half as undisciplined in any game this series as they were against the Red Wings on that night, the series will be short. And the summer will be long.
“I think actually to be honest with you the Detroit game gave us a little dose of (being) undisciplined in a high stakes game,” Tocchet said. “We were undisciplined, we gave them power plays when we shouldn’t have, getting into scrums, ripping helmets off, things like that. I’m not saying we deserved the penalties, or things like that. I’m not blaming the players. But sometimes you’re going to have to take a punch in the mouth. You can’t get frustrated, and you’re going to have to walk the other way.”
Philadelphia had some ups and downs in terms of discipline all season, but appeared to have turned the other cheek most of the time down the stretch. Six of their final 12 games saw the Flyers take two or fewer penalties per game. Granted, there will be some outliers from time to time. Tocchet is just hoping there are no such games the next 10 days to two weeks.
On the other hand, he realizes not taking penalties doesn’t necessarily mean cowering or being bullied by a club whose players have delivered their share of cheap shots over their careers, Malkin with far too may to list here. The Penguin winger’s stick to the head of Rasmus Dahlin earlier this season, which resulted in a five-game suspension, brought back memories of earlier antics.
“Now I’m not saying back off, I’m not saying we don’t protect that crease at both ends,” the coach said. “Hold your ground, look them in the eye, I’m all for that. But the scrum stuff for me, I’m not a big scrum guy. I mean I used to back in the day, but it was more for intimidation. You can’t intimidate much now because the refs now, they’re not going to look. They’re just going to pick a guy out, and we don’t want to be that guy because it happened in Detroit. I think that’s a lesson we learned when we played Detroit. I hope.”
Tocchet wants the youngsters to play within themselves
Another topic discussed Friday was how some rookies or younger players believe the playoffs means changing your game or trying to do too much. It’s that thought process which often leaves those same players frustrated and ineffective at the end of each game. Tocchet said while the Penguins obviously have much more experience, he’s hoping the Flyers don’t change their style or gameplan just because every shift has more weight to it this time of year.
“I mean that was one of my messages yesterday, whoever you are, be that guy,” he said. “Don’t change because the stakes are higher. I mean they’ve got, what, 1100 games of (playoff experience), we’ve got about 200. So do we have to change because of that? No. We’ve been playing playoff games for a month now, a lot of high stake games, but I haven’t really see the team change in terms of the personalities. They’re still hooting and hollering and having fun in the room before the game. I think it’s important for me and the coaching staff to relax these guys before the game.”
Tocchet also said he looks at each player as an individual, so one approach towards a certain player might not work as well when conversing with another Flyer. He believes he can sense when some have a few more butterflies in their stomachs than other.
“I can tell that some guys are going to have that nervous energy, so I think we’re going to have to help them more because of the experience,” he said. “But my only message to them is be who you are. Have some fun with it. Obviously the focus level and the details are higher, I get that. But as a person, be the same guy you are.”
“I’m not a big fan of sitting a guy down and talking to him for an half hour like a father-son speech,” Tocchet said later to a follow-up question on the same topic. “It’s more like grabbing a coffee, ‘Hey, come here.’ And it’s a couple of minutes. I find younger players like it better. I think the retention value is better. So there’s more quality and in less time. And it seems that they preach it to each other. That’s what I feel among the young guys, they’re talking to each other., which is nice as a coach when you have a young group that’s doing that.”
The youngsters surprised Tocchet this season
Without calling out any particular player, Tocchet said the youngsters who were added to the club this season surprised him in more ways than one. The discussion about injecting some youth into the lineup between Tocchet, Flyers general manager Danny Briere, and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones happened throughout the season. But it’s clear now the likes of Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and most recently Porter Martone exceeded expectations.
“I don’t remember how many months ago but I was talking to Danny and Jonesy, we were talking,” Tocchet recalled. “I said, it didn’t even mind what place we were in — even if you’re in first place, it doesn’t matter — I don’t believe that they got to stay down and marinate the whole time. It’s okay for them to come for a game or two, and go through a practice or go through a game. You know, what does it take? They go back and say, ‘Man I got to do something better, I got to step up, discipline or whatever it is.’ I think that’s important.
“But when they came up, I was like, ‘Hey these guys are good little players, good players.’ And then they stayed up. I think we always had a plan for them to get in a game or two, I didn’t think all of these guys were going to stay. I wouldn’t have said that no.”
With Bump having nine points in 17 games, Barkey with 17 points in just over half a season (43 games), and Martone with 10 points in nine games, it’s clearly their contributions and impact didn’t go unnoticed. The hope is those players along with the likes of Michkov, Tyson Foerster, and Trevor Zegras, continue to make positive impacts. The youth are going to have to roll with the punches, or simply take a few, to get under Pittsburgh’s skin without crossing that very fine line.
