Travis Konecny not worried about matching Auston Matthews' 4-goal debut

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — All Auston Matthews did on Wednesday night in his NHL rookie debut for Toronto was score four goals.

In a losing cause to Ottawa.

No player in league history has ever had such a dramatic scoring debut — rookie or veteran.

Which kind of sets the bar fairly high for Travis Konecny, who will make his rookie debut for the Flyers on Friday night against the L.A. Kings.

“That was impressive, I mean that’s unheard of,” Konecny, who at 19 is the same age as Matthews, said Thursday at practice. “It was a good job by him.

“I watched the highlights. Guys around the league were tweeting about it. I saw one tweet, ‘Welcome to our beer league.’”

Yep, that tweet came from Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.

Matthews embarrassed some of the Ottawa Senators with his fancy footwork on the ice, literally dancing around players to get to the net.

Flyers general manager Ron Hextall labeled Matthews’ debut as “pretty incredible.”

Hextall also said he didn’t feel it necessary to advise Konecny or even fellow rookie, Ivan Provorov on defense, to ignore what they saw on TV and just concentrate on their own play.

“Those kids are pretty smart,” he said. “They’ve shown that in the preseason. I feel pretty comfortable with their understanding where they’re at.”

That was echoed by Flyers coach Dave Hakstol.

“That’s a high bar and impressive night by a pretty impressive young player,” Hakstol said. “I think everybody goes out and does what they can do.

“Everybody around the hockey world was pretty impressed with what Auston Matthews did. I don’t think it has an effect on anybody [here]. Everybody in our room needs to go out and do what he needs to do.”

While Konecny doesn’t have quite the arsenal of moves that Matthews possesses, he does have a few of his own. You wonder what he was thinking watching someone else his own age light it up.

“Well, first of all, obviously some of those things he was pulling off were nice to see,” Konecny said.

“At the same time, I’m not really worried about it. I got my own game to worry about. He’s a different player, really skilled and I am just trying to keep things simple.”

Flyers captain Claude Giroux was asked what he expects of Konecny in his first game.

“If he does that, it would be great,” Giroux smiled.

Konecny said only one Flyer — he couldn’t recall who — teased him about trying to duplicate Matthews’ feat.

Some of Konecny’s relatives will be attending Friday’s game from Ontario but his parents won’t arrive until the Flyers' home opener against Anaheim next week.

Loose pucks
Hakstol was noncommittal on whether Steve Mason or Michal Neuvirth will start against the Kings. This is a back-to-back situation, so both will play this weekend. The Flyers are in Arizona on Saturday. L.A. is banged up and goalie Jonathan Quick was injured on Wednesday (possible knee) and was to get an MRI on Thursday. Jeff Zatkoff will replaced him in net. Marian Gaborik (foot) is also out, as is Tanner Pearson (suspension).

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