VOORHEES, N.J. – Don’t look now but the Flyers are about to embark on another one of those no-fun back-to-back-games situations.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal if the Flyers weren’t 1-7-1 in the second half of the scheduling challenge.
After Wednesday night’s game at New Jersey, the Flyers return to the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night to take on the New York Islanders.
Seeing as how every point is precious at this point in the season, the Flyers can’t afford to ignore that aforementioned glaring statistic.
Besides that, head coach John Tortorella practically insists on using his No. 1 goaltender Samuel Ersson (when he’s healthy) in the first half of the back-to-backs and, until recently, either Ivan Fedotov or Aleksei Kolosov on the back end.
Most of the Flyers personnel questioned about this at Tuesday’s optional practice at the Flyers Training Center said physical fatigue was not the main issue.
And associate head coach Brad Shaw, filling in for Tortorella at the media session, said it goes beyond that.
“I think it’s more mental fatigue than physical fatigue,” Shaw offered. “I think that’s part of our job as a staff to make sure they’re on high alert on the second night of the back-to-backs and see if we can play not a harder game but a smarter game.
“Stay away from the bigger mistakes that tend to give you trouble and end up on the scoresheet.”
Travel really hasn’t been that big of a deal either. In last week’s back-to-back, the Flyers played at the Rangers on Thursday and the Islanders on Friday. That’s only a 30-minute busride between venues and they lost both games by a combined score of 9-2.
“It’s sort of like the game we played in Jersey (a 3-1 win on Jan. 18),” Shaw said. “It was the type of game that’s pretty much going to have success against every team in pretty much every scenario. Lots of what we did that afternoon we need to do on a regular basis.”
Nick Seeler, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton all echoed much of what their coach had to say.
“Obviously we know we need to be better in back-to-backs, especially the back end,” Seeler said. “If we get a win, we’ll start getting confidence. I don’t think it’s an energy factor. I think we’ve played some solid games on the second end of the back-to-backs. We haven’t gotten the results and we need to start finding that.”
Last season the Flyers went 5-5-2 in the second half of back-to-backs and this season’s team has essentially the same personnel, so what gives?
“I don’t know,” said Couturier, who returned to practice after missing Monday night’s game with a brief illness. “Last year we were just finding ways to win. Right now we’re not. We still show up and compete hard. It’s not like we’re out of it and getting crushed in every back-to-back. Most of the time they’re tight games, we show up and fight hard. Just can’t seem to find a way to win those games.”
Laughton returned from a three-game leave (personal family matter) and registered a goal and an assist in a 4-2 home win over the Devils on Monday night.
“We need to be better,” he said. “Bring the energy every night. You need to play the same way, whether the team has played the night before or not. In second games, sometimes you’re into the game more. Just show up and find a way.”
>Praise for the penalty kill
The Flyers’ penalty kill has been up and down this season but currently it’s on an upswing. As of Tuesday morning, the Flyers were ranked 19th at 78.5 percent.
One of the team’s biggest kills in recent games took place on Monday night when the shorthanded crew stopped the Devils on a four-minute double-minor taken by Rasmus Ristolainen early in the game.
“I think the first seven or eight times they came into our zone, the possession only lasted about 10 seconds,” Shaw said. “A real tribute to how well we’re not only holding the blue line but checking as a group and reading off one another.”
>Short shots
Among the notables getting a maintenance day off from Tuesday’s practice included Ersson. . .Tortorella is scheduled to coach in his 1,600th NHL game on Thursday night. He will pass Ken Hitchcock on Wednesday night and move into seventh place on the NHL’s all-time games coached list.
