January 20, 2016
There are many cool things about being the Philadelphia Flyers head coach (the pay is pretty good, for instance), but you would have to put the chance to take part in the rivalry with the Pittsburgh Penguins near the top of the list. In the last decade, few matchups have provided the type of theater that Flyers-Pens has.
If Dave Hakstol is being honest, the first-year NHL coach hasn’t thought too much about his first Keystone State battle on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Instead, he said that he spent Wednesday looking back to the Flyers’ lackluster effort Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Obviously coming off our performance last night, forget about the final score, I haven’t thought too much about anything else,” Hakstol said. “I haven’t thought too much about anything else other than our team, what we’re doing, and what we need to do to get ourselves back to a good performance tomorrow.”
The Flyers, who had earned points in their previous six games, were worse than the 3-2 final would indicate. As they try to get back on track, recent history is certainly on their side. While Hakstol was leading the University of North Dakota to Frozen Fours, the Flyers have pretty much owned their bitter rivals, particularly in Pittsburgh.
Every time I hear this stat, it seems made-up: Since the Consol Energy Center opened in October 2010 with a 3-2 Flyers victory, the Orange and Black are 13-2-1 in the Penguins’ barn. The Flyers head coach knows the two teams’ recent history, even if he says he doesn’t really care about it. Just a few days ago, Hakstol was answering questions about the Flyers’ recent futility in Detroit.
“That side of it didn’t really affect my approach anyway, and the stats that go the other way don’t either,” Hakstol said. “But yeah, I’m aware of all the stats that go with it.”
Hakstol has emphasized that the Flyers played poorly against Toronto, so the major question heading into Pittsburgh is if there will be any changes to the lineup against the Penguins. In particular, will we see 23-year-old forward Jordan Weal, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings two weeks ago in the Vinny Lecavalier trade, get his first action as a Flyer?
At Skate Zone in Voorhees on Wednesday, Weal centered the second line between Michael Raffl and Brayden Schenn. The real mystery that came about from Flyers practice is whether Sean Couturier is injured. According to Weal, it sounds like he is.
“That line has been playing really good for us and Coots is still 50/50 here I think, but just going to get ready like I’m playing,” Weal said. “If I get in, just going to go out there and work hard.”
Hakstol later shot that idea down, saying there wasn’t an incident towards the end of the Maple Leafs game where Couturier injured himself.
“Just a maintenance day for Coots and Ghost, but yeah absolutely, Jordan needs to be ready and prepared to play regardless of that,” Hakstol said.
Was Weal saying too much or simply just misinformed? I guess tomorrow could provide the answer, but losing Couturier would be a major blow. The 23-year-old center, who has submitted some of his best performances against Pittsburgh in the past, is playing perhaps the best two-way hockey of his career.
Regardless of whether or not Couturier plays, Hakstol said that Weal could very well be thrown into the fire on Thursday.
“I think there’s a decent chance that he’ll play, but I’ll decide tomorrow,” Hakstol said. “Last night after the game, I said
‘Talk to me about it today’ and so he we are today and I’m saying tomorrow.”
“I think there’s a decent chance we’re going to change something up, I’ll put it that way. Whether or not it’s that lineup decision, there’s a decent chance we’re going to change something up coming off of yesterday.”
A candidate to be scratched in favor of Weal is possibly R.J. Umberger, whose goalless drought reached the 47-game mark in 5:59 of ice time against Toronto.
Weally RJ? pic.twitter.com/j0f0joea1w
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) January 20, 2016
After missing a couple of golden scoring chances (one is shown above) and being on the ice for the Leafs’ first two goals, Umberger didn’t get any ice time in the third period. The same goes for linemate Scott Laughton, which wasn’t an accident.
“Without getting into real particulars, [I was] looking to change some things up, change the rhythm up a little bit,” Hakstol said. “And those were the two guys out. There could have been others, but those were the two guys out.”
Hakstol believes Weal can play center or on the wing. And for Weal, who played in Pittsburgh last month with the Kings, there wouldn’t be a much better place to start his Flyers career than against the Penguins. With the two teams separated by only a point in the standings, even better.
“It should be a lot of fun,” Weal said. “Those are the best games to play, exciting and hardnosed. That’s why we play hockey.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
