PHILADELPHIA – Some of the Flyers were bound to have pre-trade deadline jitters during Thursday night’s game against Utah and Trevor Zegras probably had the best advice for those worryworts.
“Just try to block out all the noise,” Zegras said after the morning skate, “and focus on, I guess, what you are doing.”
The NHL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Friday and there’s no way to really predict what Flyers GM Daniel Briere plans to do because his team right now is on the bubble of playoff contention.
Privately, the Flyers went into the game against the Mammoth a pretty confident group. Playing well might give management second thoughts about making moves.
“I mean, we got a pretty tight knit group, so it’s fun being at the rink,” Zegras said. “And I think we’ve got some good momentum, some good mojo going.”
One player who might have been feeling the nerves a bit more than the others was defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who has been the subject of numerous trade rumors.
Ristolainen has made it known he would like to stay here but he has no real control over the situation. He’s been playing real well of late but that just makes him a more attractive trade candidate.
His most recent blue line partner, Travis Sanheim, is one player who hopes the towering Finn stays put.
The two Olympians have created some fairly good chemistry over the past couple games.
“We’re familiar with each other,” said Sanheim, who previously had been paired with Cam York for much of the past two seasons. “We’ve played together before. We both played at the Olympics (Sanheim for Canada, Ristolainen for Finland) with the style we needed to play over there.
“It’s benefitted us coming back. We work well off each other, we’re hard to play against and we’re a good breakout pair. I think the last game (at Toronto on Monday) was the best I’ve seen him break out pucks. I didn’t have to do a lot, he was breaking them out by himself.”
Some of those breakouts caused coach Rick Tocchet to say Ristolainen was wheeling pucks “like Bobby Orr.”
“He’s been fun to play with,” Sanheim said. “Real easy to work with him.”
As for the trade deadline in regards to Ristolainen, Sanheim shrugged.
“You know, he doesn’t say a whole lot, but I think just his mindset and how he approaches things,” Sanheim said. “And I think a lot of guys can learn from him and, and how he handles certain situations.
“I think he’s been through this before and it’s nothing new for him.”
>Center of attention
Tocchet has been experimenting with Carl Grundstrom, a natural wing, at center. The results have been mixed so far but, in all fairness, it’s a difficult position to pick up.
“It’s a tough situation,” Tocchet said. “I think he’s done a nice job. It’s hard. Face-offs are something that you’re putting someone there who’s never played center before. It’s just because of circumstances (center Rodrigo Abols has been injured). He’s doing a good job.”
Grundstrom does have eight goals in 31 games and that’s not too bad for a guy who’s mostly been playing on the fourth line.
So for now, Grundstrom probably stays at center.
“We’re hanging in there with that,” Tocchet said. “He wanted to stay in the lineup and try center. That’s the world we live in now.”
>Konecny still out
Travis Konecny missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. He did some skating in the morning. There’s no definitive word if he will be ready for Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh.
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