Hakstol’s to benefit line shuffling works of Raffl and Flyers
PHILADELPHIA » At first it was the overtime and shootout disappointments coming far too often, then it devolved into loss after loss until the streak hit 10. By then the Flyers were a mess, and that was with goalie Brian Elliott consistently playing pretty well.
Most other facets of their game had been grounded, especially an offense that was essentially one top line of a worthy attack, three mediocre or worse checking lines and a powerless power play. By the time they left for a three-game road trip in western Canada, optimism was offered only in escaping their fans at Wells Fargo Center, where they had posted six straight home losses.
What happened afterward wasn’t really predictable, though you could say the offense was due and the relief felt by merely getting on the road probably translated into better overall play on the ice.
But there was something else at the heart of the Flyers’ mini-renaissance that produced wins in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, then another back home over the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night; four consecutive victories over four mostly solid Canadian teams with a total of 17 Flyers goals scored along the way.
That being the moves engineered by head coach Dave Hakstol, the guy who had been ushered out onto that road trip to the beat of fan chants demanding his dismissal.
His reaction was nothing earth shattering, not even a stick broken over a locker room bench. Hakstol rarely rolls that way. His team’s play from mid-November into early December had not been so poor as it had been weak-willed. Mistakes coming too often, but when they did, the detrimental effect was multiplied by loss of confidence.
If you want to say that’s the hallmark of a young team, so be it. But there were several examples of tentative play shown by veterans who should know better in those situations, which really moved Hakstol to act.
His usual reaction is hard to discern, the public frown perhaps furrowing a little deeper on occasion, but nothing much else to spell his frustration as a coach. Instead, Hakstol let his moves do the talking for him, and a few relatively minor line changes wound up speaking volumes for his team.
While it seemed the first line should be untouchable, Hakstol moved right wing Jake Voracek to the second line and brought Wayne Simmonds up top. This accomplished two things — it kept the dynamic combination of Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux together, while bringing the physical Simmonds into play to give Couturier and Giroux more room to operate.
What’s more, Voracek brought a bolt of offensive power to second-line center Valtteri Filppula. But the most significant change was on the left side of that line, as previous fourth-line grinder Michael Raffl was elevated to the second line and asked to keep remembering how to score.
Raffl, once a 20-goal scorer for the Flyers, didn’t score a goal this year or so much as garner an assist in the first 21 games this season. When he finally struck on a breakaway Nov. 22 against the Islanders, it was his first in 42 games dating last season.
“We knew he can contribute and can help offensively,” Hakstol said. “He was pretty frustrated early on by not being able to find the back of the net. So his continued good play has created different opportunities with him and with the line he’s with now. With (Filppula) and Jake, he’s going to get some of those scoring opportunities.”
Clearly, Hakstol had to do something when his club’s losing streak reached 10 with a lifeless home loss to the Boston Bruins Dec. 2. Moving Raffl next to Filppula and Voracek was only one of the moves Hakstol orchestrated, and it was his most effective.
Despite his oh-so late ascension into the scoring column, the move to the second line really released Raffl. He scored game-winning goals in all three games on the road trip, added an assist against the Leafs and then assisted on Filppula’s to second-period goal Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres for a fifth consecutive game with at least one point for Raffl.
As it happened, his assist against the Sabres came in his 300th career game.
“Yeah, if you asked me a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of it,” Raffl, an undrafted player out of Austria when the Flyers signed him four years ago, said of playing that many games. “It’s part of my life now. I think it’s awesome and I’m very proud of that.”
It may have seemed that he went a relative eternity between points before this hot streak, but Raffl maintained he was still taking pride in what he had been doing then.
“I was trying to not change my game too much, to be honest,” Raffl said. “I know the points weren’t there ... I was struggling offensively, but I still thought I was playing very well. I was trying to help the team win one way or the other.
“Now it’s clicking and I’m trying to ride the wave. It’s more that, for sure.”
Raffl can thank the personnel shuffle by Hakstol and his assistants for the chance to get back into the scoring column on more than an annual basis. It might turn out to breathe new life into his career, too, since (just turned) 29-year-old forwards who don’t produce in this league don’t usually have such bright futures.
But Raffl is experienced enough to know that there is also another side to the scoring coin.
“There’s 20 guys on every team,” he said. “Not everybody can have the same role. If you’re on the fourth line and you get that role, you have to take pride and help the team to win in that kind of role, you know? You can’t complain just because your production is going down, you have to keep working and wait for your opportunity.” fun like