Friday Forecheck: The Bigger Picture
Flyers Contributor Bill Meltzer examines the team's four-game win streak, as well as the prevalence of the young players on the score sheet
This season, the Flyers have become a hard-working and more resilient club than they were in the recent past. Over the last month or so, they've started to have more of the 25-and-younger contingent take a bigger slice of the playing time pie chart and turn a little more of their potential into performance. Philly has put together a streak of eight straight games in which they've scored three or more goals.
Ultimately, these things matter more than victories over San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Arizona. The game schedule is about to get much tougher and busier over the next week. The offense that has been flowing teamwide of late will hit an ebb again; but hopefully with some of the players who've recently stepped up continuing to chip in with some consistency even if the team as a whole isn't having four-goal or five-plus goal nights on a regular basis as the caliber of opposition increases again.
Konecny and Company
Travis Konecny has posted at least one point in 10 of his last 11 games, 14 of the last 16 games, and 20 of the last 23 games. Most recently, he has recorded points in seven straight games (8g, 6a, 14 points).
All season long, Konecny has been a model of consistency. He's even taken on penalty killing responsibilities this season and has emerged -- in combination with Scott Laughton -- as a shorthanded scoring threat.
TK hasn't been the only Flyer who has been scoring with regularity of late, but his run has been the most dramatic and the most reliable on a full-season basis thus far.
Tippett was held off the scoresheet in the Anaheim game but had a couple of scoring opportunities.Against the Coyotes, he assisted on a James van Riemsdyk goal. The 23-year-old has four goals, three assists and seven points in the last seven games. In the last 12 games, Tippett has posted 10 points (5g, 5a) and generally played well in all three zones, especially in the LA game.
Tippett's five-on-five linemates have also seen their production surge of late. Veteran left winger van Riemsdyk has posted 11 points (4g, 7a) in the last 12 games. In the same 12-game span, center Frost has produced 13 points (5g, 8a).
Two-way veteran forward Laughton has been red hot recently from an offensive standpoint. He has 11 points (6g, 5a) in the last 10 games. "Laughts" also leads the team on the season with three shorthanded tallies to date, all scored on the same forehand-to-backhand move that teammates have dubbed "the Paralyzer".
Defenseman Tony DeAngelo, in his last six games, has compiled nine points (3g, 6a). He saw his four-game point streak end in Anaheim but made it points in five of six games after his assist on a set-play PPG the player himself cooked up during the first intermission of the Arizona game. For the season, DeAngelo leads all Flyers defensemen in scoring with 23 points (7g, 16a) in 34 games played.
Rookie center Noah Cates, who broke a 20-game goalless drought in scoring the game-winner in Los Angeles on a shorthanded tally, has posted a modest four goals for the season. However, he's made his fair share of plays of late and is up to a dozen assists on the season with four helpers having come over the last six games.
York has also been contributing to the team's recent offensive improvement. In 13 games since his recall from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantom, York has posted eight points (1g, 7a). York. who has also shown steadier defensive play than last year, especially around the net, celebrated his 22nd birthday on Jan. 5.
The early-game goal scored by Joel Farabee against the Ducks was a potential slump-buster. He followed it up with another goal in the Arizona game.
Last but not least, it should be noted that Wade Allison showed hints during the California trip of getting back on track after his return from missing 18 games with an oblique strain and hip pointer. Allison (4g, 1a, 5 points in 21 games played) does not have a point to show for the six games since his return but he was more noticeably involved in the forecheck and a couple of potential scoring chances near the net during snippets of the three games in California trip. Against Arizona, he broke through for a goal on a play in which he followed up his own rebound.
Teammates Thrilled for Hayes
On Wednesday, the NHL named 32 players to the 2023 All-Star Game. Kevin Hayes was selected to represent the Flyers on the Metro Division squad.
Hayes is second overall in scoring on the Flyers with 35 points (10g, 25a) assists despite his offensive downturn in recent weeks and some defensive struggles at times this season. Over his last two games, however, Hayes has five points after a two-assist game in Anaheim and a power play goal and two helpers against the Coyotes.
While Konecny has been the Flyers' single most consistent producer this season, it's not as if Hayes didn't merit All-Star consideration for his overall body of work in terms of point production. Carter Hart also merited consideration. However, from a personal objective standpoint, the All-Star berth meant more to Hayes than to just about any other NHL player selected for the event. It was something that his late brother, Jimmy, specifically wished for him after his NHL career was over.
"It could've been a couple guys in this room. It's nice to be nominated as an All-Star. It's a cool situation for me because, not to get emotional, but it's the only thing my brother since he stopped playing hockey, wanted me to accomplish. I never honestly thought it would happen, but it did. It's cool. I know my family is very excited and his son, Beau, will be with me the whole time. It will be an extra special experience," Hayes said after the Coyotes game.
To a man, all of Hayes' Flyers teammates are thrilled that he's getting the chance to play in his first All-Star Game. From Konecny's standpoint, even if he does not end getting one of the remaining slots (which still seems quite possible despite not being the initial honoree), it will be well worth it to see Hayes get the opportunity.
"t's awesome. Kevin's been great in this league for a long time and has done a lot of great things. He deserves to be there. He's been carrying a lot of the offense for most of this year and doing a lot of good things. Everyone's happy for him. He's a good guy in the locker room, so you know he's gonna be loved when he's there too. Gonna be fun to see what he's doing and what events he's doing," Konecny said.
"I's pretty special for him. I'm sure he's gonna have his brother's kids there too, enjoying it and being a part of that. It's gonna be an awesome experience for him, and like I said, we are all really proud of him."
On the Realities and Implications of "Tanking"
Would it be exciting if the Flyers were somehow able to draft Connor Bedard this summer? Of course it would. As witnessed by the 23 points (9g, 14a) the 17-year-old racked up in seven games at the just-completed 2022-23 World Junior Championships (traditionally a tourney dominated by 19-year-olds in their draft-plus-two year), Bedard is a spectacular talent.
As far as the notion of "tank for Bedard" goes from a Flyers' standpoint, however, there would be a lot of negative implications. This is for many reasons:
1. Under today's lottery system, which is designed to discourage tanking, even the team at the bottom of the NHL standings needs no small amount of sheer luck to win the first or second Entry Draft selection in the lottery. This year's Draft has a lot of high-quality prospects on the top end. Connor Bedard is a spectacular young offensive talent but, even if you don't land the first pick, there are several other prospects with impact player potential within a few years of the 2023 Draft;
2. No matter which player your team ends up drafting -- even a bonafide franchise player ala Connor McDavid -- it's not going to instantly catapult a team from the bottom to contendership. If the player lives up to everything he's hyped to be, he still needs a capable surrounding cast. The thinner the rest of the roster is, the longer and more uncertain the process is of trying to build a contender.
3. For the Flyers to sink to into the bottom four or five spots in the NHL this season --the range where they'd have the highest odds of being able to draft Bedard or projected second overall pick Adam Fantilli -- a whole lot of things would have to wrong; things that would not bode well for the organization no matter whom it drafts or runs things at the top. They'd have to start again from scratch and it would be an even longer and more painstaking process than what's happened since 2014-15.
4. Rooting for the Flyers to drop to the bottom means rooting for the forward steps that the 25-and-under players on the roster to backslide. Carter Hart (and rookie Samuel Ersson) would have to fail. Twenty-five-year-old Travis Konecny's All-Star caliber first half would have to give way to a second-half swoon. The progression over the course of this season shown by the likes of Owen Tippett, Cam York and Morgan Frost would have to stagnate or regress. It would mean Joel Farabee's frustrating first half would have to play out in a similar second half. The injury bug would probably have to start biting the team again with regularity.Personally, I can't root for such a thing.
5. The Flyers once-vaunted farm system has been taken to task for struggling to develop at the pro level prospects who had considerable success in their first couple years. The criticism is merited to a degree, although context needs to be applied. The bottom line is this, however: If there really is a systemic"drafting problem" (not drafting sufficiently talented players capable of translating junior or early AHL success to the NHL level), that portends poorly not only for the aforementioned young players now in the NHL but also for the likes of Tyson Foerster, Cutter Gauthier, Emil Andrae, and Elliot Desnoyers to eventually develop into the types of contributing pros the Flyers think they can become. However, I do not believe this to be the case. It wasn't a drafting issue, it was lagging development. Actually, I think the patient and incremental development process -- and the bit of tough love at the NHL -- that has been in place for the last two seasons is now showing promise of eventually paying dividends. It's too early to say the developmental course has been corrected but there are signs of hope.
