PHILADELPHIA – If the Flyers make the playoffs this season, they might be able to look back to this rare two-game home set with Tampa as a valuable learning experience.
The Flyers went into Monday night’s game at Xfinity Mobile Arena seeking a little revenge after Saturday night’s 7-2 beatdown also in south Philly.
Rodrigo Abols, aware the Flyers had lost only back-to-back regulation-time games once this year, said his team can pick up some stuff from the encounters with one of the NHL’s best teams.
“I think in this situation, if we’re looking to make the playoffs, we wouldn’t want to play anyone else other than Tampa now to prove that we’re a top team,” Abols said after the morning skate at XMA. “And then we want to be in the playoffs.
“And if we do want to be there, then we’ve got to learn how to handle these situations when you’re trying to make that point. It’s a little bit of a benefit that it’s against the exact same team as opposed to whoever’s next up on the schedule there.”
Coach Rick Tocchet said there are several benefits to playing the same team on the same sheet of ice in such a short timeframe.
“I think every game has a story. Then you analyze it,” he said after the morning skate. “You play the same team at home again, it’s almost like a playoff thing. You get them back again.
“You look at the (last) game, the last 35, 40 minutes. We actually played a half-decent game. It wasn’t lopsided. And then they took over.”
Tocchet mentioned the Flyers worked on their breakouts in between the two games. He also said execution would be key in Monday night’s finale. In the previous game, the Flyers had two chances right in the slot and, with the score 2-1 Tampa, if they had scored there, the outcome might have been a little different.
“They’re a high execution team,” Tocchet said. “They probably need one or two two-on-ones. We probably need four or five. That’s the difference in the game sometimes.”
>Power play a work in progress
Even though the Flyers’ power play continues to struggle statistically (ranked 30th at 15.6 percent), the coach does see some improvement in certain areas.
“It was better (one for two on Saturday),” Tocchet said. “We’re missing reads. A couple times they were out of position and we never capitalized on them. That’s the frustrating part for us. I don’t care if it was a fluke goal or not, maybe it loosened some guys up.”
>Konecny welcomed back
Travis Konecny returned to action. His absence from Saturday’s game certainly did not help the Flyers’ cause. He’s currently second on the team in points with 38 points and second in plus-minus at plus-14.
“When he’s out, the lines get scrambled around,” Tocchet said. The coach added that when that happens against a team like Tampa, it’s hard to take advantage of line matchups when the home team has the last change.
>Barkey gets instruction
Rookie Denver Barkey, called up from the AHL last month, started his Flyers’ stint in fine fashion with two assists in his first game. Since then, things have fallen off a bit and he entered Monday night action at minus-3. Coincidentally, he was a minus-3 against Tampa Bay on Saturday.
His coach is keeping an eye on things.
“I think with the rookie thing you can hit walls,” Tocchet said. “Is this the time he’s hitting the wall? We talked after the (Saturday) game. We’re going to keep an eye on him. The last couple games, his game has slipped a bit. It’s hard for a young guy. I think we just have to monitor him.
“What I like about him, he knows when he makes a mistake. You don’t have to explain it. That’s why his hockey IQ is up.”
>Guarding against Kucherov
The Flyers went into Saturday’s game knowing Nikita Kucherov is one of the most dangerous offensive players in the league. And yet Kucherov still came away with two goals/four points in the 7-2 win.
Any adjustments the Flyers could make to counter this threat?
“First goal, where is he?” Tocchet said, mindful the Flyers left him wide open at the far post. “We should have been aware of that. When we have the puck, we have to make plays. . .we have to make them play defense. We just can’t slap pucks around. We have to play offense, too.”
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