Kyle Phillippi
The Flyers Report will be a weekly segment by Kyle Phillippi, the About.com Philadelphia Flyers beat writer. You can follow him at @Kyle_Phillippi on Twitter. The piece will go over some of the week’s biggest news, some key stats and trends to know and a quick look at what’s to come.
As of Friday evening, the Philadelphia Flyers are 17-15-7 (41 points) and are just four points behind the New Jersey Devils for a playoff spot.
Now onto the report:
Ghost down
Every Flyers fan let out a collective gasp when word started trickling out that rookie sensation Shayne Gostisbehere had headed back to the locker room with an apparent injury. The strange thing was, though, it was hard to tell when and where he suffered the discomfort, but he was seen skating off the ice a bit gingerly early in the second period.
He logged a tick over seven minutes and finished as a plus-one before exiting the Flyers eventual 4-3 win over Minnesota.
As for the status of Ghost, he will be out for Saturday’s matinee with the New York Islanders. The team would not release any more than that, calling the issue a lower-body injury. Brandon Manning is expected to be in his place in the lineup.
Gostisbehere has been one of the team’s top players, so any extended time without him will hurt this team as they look to continue climbing up the standings in pursuit of playoff positioning. His exciting start to the season after being called up has launched him into the Calder Memorial Trophy conversation, which is awarded to the top rookie.
I went into this a little bit in an article this week, taking a look at how he stacks up against some of his fellow first-year skaters:
“As it stands now, Gostisbehere ranks 10th in goals, eighth in assists and eighth in points among first-year players. All of this despite playing in far fewer contests… At the rate he’s going, the 22-year-old is on pace for 48 points with 21 goals and 27 assists this season. Even further, his 82-game pace puts him at 62 points on 26 goals and 36 assists.”
To read the full story and to see the comparison chart, give this link a click.
Hextall finds a suitor
By now, you most likely have been overwhelmed with stories breaking down the Luke Schenn and Vinny Lecavalier trade to Los Angeles. To put it short: the Flyers really won the deal.
But what else would you expect from general manager Ron Hextall, who has built an impressive resume in regards to his trades.
There’s a ton of reasons this move benefits the club, most of which have to do with the salary implications. Aside from that, though, I picked out a few things the GM said during his conference call with the media the night of the deal.
One quote that stood out:
“Luke understood where we were at as a franchise and understood that we had numbers. He knew he was an UDFA and I think he had a sense that this possibly was coming.”
You can check out some of the other key points Hextall brought up over at this link.
Going for 3 in a row
The Flyers are streaking.
After a disappointing west coast trip that left the club with zero points in three contests, the team came back home and bounced back with a 4-3 win over Montreal that was followed with another 4-3 win, this one in overtime, at Minnesota.
Following a practice earlier in the week, Wayne Simmonds talked about the sense of urgency the team has now, especially with 10 straight conference games coming up. Basically, the Flyers are in must-win mode from here on through January.
Since Simmonds made those remarks, the team is 2-0.
Trends to know
- Brayden Schenn has been red hot as of late with six points (2 G, 2 A) in his last three games.
- Sean Couturier is in a zone right now with 10 points (5 G, 5 A) over his last nine games.
- Matt Read peppered the goalie in Minnesota with a career-high six shots on net, something he has done four other times. The goals, though, aren’t coming for the forward as he hasn’t scored since December 10.
Stats to know
- Michael Del Zotto scored twice, including game-winner, in the win over Minnesota. The pair of goals doubled his season total of one.
- The Flyers lead the league with 15 overtime appearances. They have gone 8-7 in the extra period.
- After being a healthy scratch, Evgeny Medvedev responded with his best game, arguably, in the NHL with a season-best plus-3 rating on Thursday.
- Going back to their win at home over Montreal, the victory bumps their streak to 8-0-1 in their past nine games versus the Canadians at the Wells Fargo Center dating back to the 2010-11 season.
Quotes to know
Dave Hakstol on Steve Mason in the OT versus Minnesota: “I thought in the overtime our best player was our goaltender. We didn’t have the puck very much in the first three minutes of that OT, but that’s a little bit the nature of the 3- on 3, you’re going to need a save or two.”
Del Zotto on playing a man-down when Gostisbehere left the game with an injury: “You get into a rotation where you’re playing with two guys. It’s nice to get a little extra ice time. You feel more into the game. No one’s ever complaining about that.”
Wayne Simmonds following practice on the then-losing streak: “We got to stop it and we got to stop it now.”
What’s ahead
The Flyers have a 1 p.m. matinee with the New York Islanders on Saturday. They then get three days off before a home contest with Boston and will wrap the week off with their third straight home affair, this one with the New York Rangers in town on Saturday.