VOORHEES, N.J. — Very few clubs in the NHL bring a complete game to the ice every night. The best they can hope for is that they're at least competitive in all areas.
During the month of January, the Flyers were anything but complete. Frankly, they were a mess defensively. In 13 games, they went 5-6-2 and yielded a whopping 44 goals in 13 games — an average of 3.38 a night.
As such, coach Dave Hakstol’s focus in February has been to get the team upright on the defensive side of the puck.
Forget that the Flyers are 2-2-1 this month. The more important stat is they have given up just 10 goals in five games. Sure, they’ve only scored seven, but they have made some key strides to shore up their team defense and give themselves a chance to win games.
No coach wants to take his team on a long road trip when it’s a mess defensively. Most times, offense will come, but defense doesn’t come on its own. It has to be practiced and instilled within a game plan every night, even if offense is lacking.
And offense has been lacking for the Flyers in February. They are fine on their side of the puck but hurting badly for goals, though they do have a defensive foundation to take on the road against teams in the West they only see twice a year.
“That has to be there and obviously, both sides of the game has to be there, but in general you have to be a good, sound defensive team to start with,” Hakstol said. “Quite honestly, that is where a lot of your offense is generated from. We’ve done that. We’ve worked at that. We got away from it for a stretch but we worked real hard to regain that stability over the last few weeks. Doesn’t mean everything is perfect, but the commitment is there.”
NHL
That commitment to defense, plus the solid play of goalie Michal Neuvirth (3-1-1 with 1.20 goals-against average and .946 save percentage since Jan. 26), is what the Flyers will bring this week on their three-game road trip to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
“We’re not giving teams a whole lot,” Brayden Schenn said. “We go into games and we’re frustrating teams. We’ve played some good teams lately and haven’t given up a whole lot of goals or chances. This time of year, you have to bear down defensively. As a group, we’ve done a pretty good job of it. If we turn defense into offense, we’ll start winning a lot of hockey games.”
If the Flyers are going to get themselves into the playoffs, they will need to pick up the goal scoring slack while maintaining their tight defensive play that has given them a chance every night.
It’s not pretty hockey — it’s boring most games — yet it’s effective.
“This [homestand] was a good time for us to figure out our defensive game,” Andrew MacDonald said. “Our defensive game, for quite a while, was pretty loose. But we were able to score goals and hide the flaws.”
Hakstol would tell you that's exactly what happened during the 10-game winning streak when the Flyers scored 36 goals.
“Eventually, we knew it would come to a head,” MacDonald said.
It did.
Hakstol’s scheme changes, including a one-man forecheck, less defensive pinching, better high slot coverage and more awareness during puck battles near the blue line, have led to more structure on the defensive end just in time for this road trip.
“Us being able to shore up defensively, I think it really helps us,” MacDonald said. “If we continue to play with that type of structure, we should be all right.”
Loose pucks
Hakstol made no changes to his lines or defensive combinations in practice.
While defenseman Michael Del Zotto (leg/bone bruise) would like to play on Wednesday in Calgary, Hakstol made it clear that he’s more than satisfied with his defense right now. Barring a bad outing against the Flames, Del Zotto might not play in Edmonton, either.
The Flyers will have a quick practice on Tuesday before leaving on their charter for Calgary.
Neuvirth remains the starter in net.