Top draft picks to meet

VOORHEES, N.J. » Nolan Patrick could easily read the locker room tea leaves Friday, since he was garnering more media attention after a Flyers practice than he’d seen since being selected second-over-all in the June draft.

Just so happens that the kid who went one spot ahead of him, No. 1 overall playmaker Nico Hischier, had called him earlier in the day.

“I know him pretty good; I was actually just talking to him (Friday),” Patrick said. “He’s a really good guy and a good player.”

Of course, Patrick wanted to quickly shift the focus of his spoken thoughts to the game Saturday night, with the Flyers taking on the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center. It’s the first meeting of the season between the two old Turnpike pals, but the spotlight for this one will be on the two top players in the draft facing each other as NHL pals for the first time.

“I knew that was coming,” Patrick said of the unavoidable com--

parison questions regarding him and Hischier. “It’s just another game, I think. The main focus is on winning. It’s not like I’m going out there and it’s me vs. him. It’s just get the win and that’s our main focus.”

Both teams are especially focused on this game because of the competitiveness in the Metropolitan Division ... and the fact that it serves as the first of four Flyers-Devils meetings in about a month’s time (to Feb. 13).

What makes these games all the more urgent is the fact that these new-look Devils have been on top of the division for much of the season’s first half, until getting passed in recent weeks.

“I haven’t seen them play very much,” Claude Giroux said of the Devils. “But it looks like they find ways to win. They have guys that can score goals and their goaltending has been pretty good this year with Cory (Schneider). He’s one of their best players and I think it’s important for us to (pressure) him right away.”

The Devils (22-11-8, 52 points) have actually slipped to third in the division

due to an ongoing five-game winless skid (0-23). But like the Flyers, they are coming off their leaguemandated “bye week,” which means they’ll be just as overly rested as the Flyers and will, perhaps, be a lot hungrier in front of their few thousand home fans to make up ground.

Heading into Friday’s games the Devils had played three games less than the division-leading Washington Capitals (57 points) and four less than secondplace Columbus (53 points), so they can still soon sniff some of the air at the top of the division.

The Flyers (19-15-8, 46),

on a three-game winning streak before their “bye” kicked in, will have a lot of say in where the Devils go from here. And vice-versa, of course.

As for Patrick (2 goals, 8 points in 33 Flyers games), he’s been coming around but has started his bigleague career apparently still feeling the effects of the two sports hernia surgeries he had during his junior days. He’s hoping to have a lot of say in how his team does in the season’s second half.

“I think my skating is getting better,” said Patrick, a junior phenom (92 goals, 205 points in 163 games

with Brandon) who is very much on a learning curve as a rookie now. “I’m getting my skating legs back and that’s probably the main thing that I’ve actually noticed. It’s tough to really notice the difference but obviously I’m a little more confident in my game now. I’m trying to play fast.

“It’s not like you can really compare it to where you were before (as a junior). It was so long ago for me. I don’t really think about that too much.”

Nor does he think much about Hischier, though the two struck up a friendship while playing in tournament games late in their

junior careers.

“Obviously he’s a great player,” Patrick said. “You’ve got to be aware of him when he’s on the ice, but obviously there’s a bigger focus for us.”

NOTES » Sean Couturier, a Selke Award candidate with a career high 23 goals and 42 points in 42 Flyers games, on not getting AllStar consideration: “Yeah it would have been nice. But it’s not something I’m too worried about.” ... The Phantoms’ Tyrell Goulbourne is back practicing with the big club and could be in the lineup Saturday night in New Jersey.