Weal’s festiness pleases Hakstol

PHILADELPHIA >> Jordan Weal’s first NHL assignment of the season didn’t yield any points, but then, he plays for the Flyers. So Weal should be satisfied that head coach Dave Hakstol was satisfied with the performance of the Phantoms Phenom, who was second in the AHL in scoring, was the AHL Player of the Month in January ... and was finally called up Friday to take the place of the injured Travis Konecny.

“It was a little different than last year, because I played 43 games already this year and I was in the season groove, I guess you could say,” said Weal, who usually sat out after being acquired from the Kings last season in the Vinny Lecavalier deal.

“Compared to last year, when I was kind of sitting around a lot and couldn’t get my mojo going, it was nice to kind of jump right into it,” added Weal, who dressed for just four Flyers games last season. “My game’s already there. It’s just playing hockey now.”

Weal was at left wing on a second line with center Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek. They were in attack mode much of the game, with Voracek getting a team-high seven shots on goal. Weal’s job was more of digging out pucks for Voracek and Couturier.

“I think he played a good hockey game,” Hakstol said. “I like what he did on our own half of the ice. I thought he was clean playing against a team that’s really good on the wall. It’s tough coming out ... of your own end. I thought he did a really good job there. With the puck, I thought he was confident. He was quick. He held it and made plays. The goal we scored five-on-five (by Ivan Provorov), he was part of that. The whole line was, but he was a good part of that.”

“We were making plays down low and working the cycle really well,” Weal said. “I thought the biggest thing was we didn’t spend any time in the D-zone. We were breaking out well, we were backchecking hard and creating turnovers and going back the other way.”

Weal had scored 47 points for the Phantoms this season, primarily out of the center spot. He likely will stay on left wing for the Flyers during Konecny’s absence.

“I’m not taking anything for granted; it’s just day by day, playing as hard as I can,” Weal said. “When he comes back, when that time comes around, hopefully I can stick around. For now, I’ve just got to go play my butt off every night and see how it goes.”

NOTES >> The Flyers outshot the Sharks 14-4 in the first period, and 35-24 for the game. The Flyers also had 40 more shots that were either missed or blocked. They came into the game with a shooting percentage of 6.46 ... or 27th in the league.