Pressure Is on Flyers Sophomores Read, Schenn, and Couturier

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One of the major storylines for the Flyers entering this
season was that one or multiple of the club’s second-year players could enjoy a
breakout year. So far, Matt Read, Brayden Schenn, and Sean Couturier have had
relatively quiet campaigns, at least as far as the scoreboard is concerned.

In Read’s case, that might seem like a bit of a stretch considering
he leads the team in points with seven, but only because he started picking up
his scoring over the weekend, earning three of his four assists in their past
two tilts. The three goals on his stat sheet all came in the same night however
– a hat trick against the beat-up, last-place Florida Panthers.

After leading Flyers rookies and finishing fourth in the
clubhouse with 24 tallies a season ago, it’s relatively disappointing to see Read
shut out in eight of nine games up to this point. He’s had some opportunities
and is playing generally sound hockey, so maybe it’s only a matter of time
until Read beats down the door. He’s still only knocking on it for now.

Schenn is another who padded his totals with a goal and a
helper over the weekend, giving the fifth-overall pick of the ’09 draft a
whopping four points on the season. Considering he began the season on the top
line alongside Claude Giroux, there was some expectation he could have a fast
start.

The notion that Schenn might find some early success was
propped up in part by the fact that he continues to lead the Adirondack Phantoms
in scoring this season – he’s been gone for almost a month already. Schenn
stood among the AHL leaders during his time in the minors as well, with exactly
one point per game off of 13 goals and 20 assists.

Schenn is doing some damage with his hitting at least, where
he’s second on the Flyers behind brother Luke with 24. Philadelphia still ranks
near the bottom in goals per game though – locked in a four-way tie for 22nd
with a 2.33 average – so a little scoring touch is what they could really use
right now.

Schenn’s running partner at Adirondack, Couturier, has been
the worst off of the bunch statistically speaking. Cooter posted 10 goals and
18 helpers in 31 games in the AHL, and is coming off an impressive rookie year
in the NHL with 13 and 14, but he’s been sporadic thus far in ’13 with four
points off of two and two.

The 20 year old may technically be on a scoring pace that
would exceed the one he set last season, which sounds like improvement, but he’s
also a -4 this year and has been invisible at times. Couturier hasn’t been
hitting or blocking many shots, either, and it’s not like Philly’s 24th ranked
penalty killing unit has been dominant when he’s on the ice or anything.

We think Couturier will figure it out, and he’s already looking
better over the last two games, and good things will probably happen for Read and
Schenn the way they’ve skated. At the moment however, there is a ton riding on
one or all three of these guys to step up and fill some big holes.

The Flyers let a lot of scoring ability walk in the offseason
when Jaromir Jagr joined the Dallas Stars through free agency, and with Scott
Hartnell’s lengthy absence from the lineup due to a foot injury, there is
suddenly a lot of pressure on these young players to perform. If this squad is
going to find a solution to their scoring woes over the next month, one of these kids
might need to get hot.

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