Not easy getting rest in shortened season
Getting rest during playoff push not easy in condensed season
Load management, that dubious term coined by the Sixers and synonymous with Joel Embiid, has infiltrated the Flyers.
Coach Alain Vigneault indicated Friday he’s in constant communication with the Flyers’ sports science people, and their input is important during the
NHL’s condensed 56-game season. Of course, there’s not much the Flyers can do when COVID outbreaks result in postponements creating more back-toback games.
“They tell us that when we’re in red, players are more susceptible to injury, that fatigue is going to show on the ice,” Vigneault said of the sports science staff. “Everybody in our league this year has been in red 90 percent of the time. We were in red the whole month of March. It’s something that I’ve never seen before and it’s going to come up again. On Monday we’re starting five (games) in seven (days). So, it’s very hard, impossible to control the loads.”
The Flyers enter their next challenging stretch of schedule pretty much out of the red, as it will be three days between games when they take on the New York Islanders Saturday at Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders entered action Friday tied for the Eastern Conference lead with the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, all with 50 points.
Vigneault is counting on cancer-survivor Oskar Lindblom and Ryan Patrick to return to the lineup, the duo slowed by the demands of the season.
To his credit, Lindblom declined to blame the inconsistencies in his play on the coronavirus challenges by proving so on the ice.
“I feel great one day and another day you feel like you haven’t played hockey for a while,” said Lindblom, who has 10 points in 24 games. “You just have to battle through and try to be strong mentally and do your work and hopefully feel good. That’s the only thing I can do.”
The Flyers also appear to be leaning toward activating center-forward Tanner Laczynski, up from Lehigh Valley. The 23-yearold Laczynski (6-1, 190), who has registered six goals and four assists in 14 games with the Phantoms, has a fan in general manager Chuck Fletcher.
“Today was my first time that I’ve seen him live,” Vigneault said. “I liked what I saw. He seemed like he had a pretty good skills set. And Chuck tells me that he’s a very dependable player. He plays both ends of the rink.”
With 21 games remaining, the Flyers (17-14-4, 38 points) need every able body to avoid missing the postseason.
Entering action Friday, the Flyers were tied for fifth in the East with the New York Rangers (17-15-4-38). Both are three points off the pace of the Boston Bruins (18-10-5-41), who occupy the fourth and final playoff spot in the East.
Joel Farabee, who leads the Flyers with 14 goals, seconded what Ivan Provorov said earlier in the week, when they rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Buffalo Sabres in overtime. That is to say, the Flyers need to start games as if they’re already behind.
“I think personally, in my opinion, we just have to come out a little harder in the first period,” Farabee said. “We’ve got to want that first goal a bit more. I think if we do that, I feel when we’re in the lead we’re dictating the pace and that’s when we’re playing our best. So, hopefully on this road trip we can get ahead early.”
The Flyers are 11-4-3 when scoring first this season, including 6-2-2 at home and 5-2-1 on the road.
The Flyers are 6-10-1 when the opposition gets the first goal this season 2-5-1 at home, 4-5-0 away.
With the Flyers playing the Bruins three times and the Islanders twice in the next five games, this could be the Flyers’ season – load management and red, or not.
“If you’re wondering about our season and what we have to do to get back on track, stick together and work as a group,” Lindblom said. “That’s the only thing we can do. We can’t just fall apart and do our own thing here. We have to play as a team and go for it the whole way. We have to work for it. There’s going to be plenty of tough games here but we have to get back and really, really push forward here.”