Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Voracek hopes for cleaner effort
VOORHEES, N.J. >> Superstition is as much a part of NHL hockey as contradiction is to American politics.
Czech Republic citizen Jake Voracek, who doesn’t shy away from a conversation about American politics, also holds firm to the practice of superstition.
During those too-infrequent moments of playoff hockey with the Flyers, Voracek has subscribed to the popular player belief that beards are lucky objects of hockey manhood. Pretty easy for him, since his ginger facial locks seem to form a solid base after a couple of hours.
But Voracek has also been prone in the past to an opposite act of superstition — cutting or shaving his beard during bad times in the regular season.
Stale off a five-day mandated (by another dumb league-players union agreement) break in the schedule, Voracek’s bare chin was emblematic of the position in which the Flyers found themselves as they resumed the season with a rare late-afternoon practice Friday. They can’t help but clearly remember having lost their last two games by a cumulative score of 11-3, and having lost four of their last five games and nine of their last 11. Oh, and about the streak with that reddishorange beard...
“Been a year, year-anda-half,” Voracek said with a clearly visible half-smile. “That’s not very good.”
Nor has the season turnaround been very pretty. The Flyers were coming off a 10game win streak when they finally lost a game in Dallas on Dec. 17. That was the start of what’s ballooned to a 3-8-3 slide entering Saturday’s season resumption game against the New Jersey Devils at Wells Fargo Center.
See the necessity of finding that lucky (and no doubt rusty) razor now?
“I think sometimes it’s better to have a break when you’re losing than when you’re winning,” Voracek said. “You kind of lose the momentum or you can gain momentum off the break. So I think that’s our case. We have to have good jump tomorrow. It’s going to be kind of sluggish with the puck in the beginning, but I’m sure after a while it’s going to be there and everybody’s going to be excited to be back.”
That would include goalie Steve Mason, who was so hot during that winning streak, and lately has looked like a tired, put-upon veteran behind a group of teammates who just can’t seem to get out of their own way in the defensive zone.
Why would Mason be excited for this game? Because at least at the start of things, he’s going to be sitting on the bench behind Michal Neuvirth.
New Jersey is the only club Mason hasn’t beaten in his career. He’s 0-8 with a 3.80 goals-against average and less-than pedestrian .856 saves percentage against the Devils . ... Maybe he gets distracted by their ugly uniforms?
Mason doesn’t want to talk about that. But in general terms...
“They’ve been playing well,” Mason said of a Devils club that had won three in a row — all on the road — heading into a Friday night home meeting with Montreal. “They’re not coming off a break, so for us it’ll be a good test. They’re always difficult games against them.”
As for why the Flyers have been so dull and dimwitted on the ice for the past month after playing so well for a period of weeks, Voracek said they might be “overthinking stuff. So you’re half a step slower, because you’re thinking.”
Added Brayden Schenn: “Obviously we didn’t want to be in this situation after that 10-game winning streak, but it is what it is. There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to focus on the future.
“We’re in a dogfight,” Schenn said. “We’re in a battle with a lot of teams here for those wildcard spots and there’s still a lot of hockey left to play.”
Yup. Plenty of time to grow another facial hedge.
••• Five complete days off after two depressing losses capping a long stretch of uninspired play ... and still Ron Hextall doesn’t make a move?
During the Flyers’ mandated break, it seemed more than possible that a trade or at least a player promotion from the Phantoms might be an action called for by the general manager. But Hextall hovered below the radar and did nothing. His players may have appreciated that.
“Yeah, just because things are going bad it doesn’t mean you have to jump ship right away,” Shayne Gostisbehere said. “It’s about us. It’s how we prepare; how we go out there and mentally prepare and focus and put in 60 minutes.”