Before the National Hockey League has it annual holiday break from Christmas Eve Day through Boxing Day, the Flyers (14-13-4) will embark up a grueling gauntlet: four games in six nights.
The stretch starts on Wednesday with a road rematch with the Detroit Red Wings. Last Thursday at Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers skated to a 4-1 victory over Detroit. Alternate captain Scott Laughton's four-goal performance helped the Flyers overcome stellar goaltending in that game from Red Wings netminder (and former Flyer) Cam Talbot.
When teams have schedule segments in which they have three games in four nights (or four matches in six nights, five games in eight nights, etc.) it is vital to go in with the right balance of rest and on-ice preparations. The Flyers had a teamwide off day on Sunday, followed by practice sessions at the FTC in Voorhees on Monday and Tuesday. After Monday's practice, the team held its annual family holiday party. On Tuesday, the team had to leave for the airport shortly after practice.
Following Monday's practice, leading scorer Travis Konecny discussed the positive side of having a three-night break leading into the pre-holiday four-in-six. He noted that there's a mental component as well as a physical challenge to such compacted portions of the game schedule.
"There's not many times during the season that you're able to find the space to get a good skate in. We had a day off [on Sunday] and a little get-together. Today was back to work," Konecny said.
Konecny added that having too much time off between games isn't good, either. That's why having one off day and then two practices leading into the next game was the best approach as he sees it.
"Because you're playing so much, you can kind of lose your legs a little bit. A good skate like [Monday's] can really help that. I know the math part doesn't really add up but it's just the way it works. It's like a morning skate sometimes, getting it out of your system. It felt good today just going there and getting our legs going and grinding a little bit."
The Flyers took line rushes in the first practice. After head coach John Tortorella tweaked some line combinations over the latter part of Saturday's 4-1 road loss to the Minnesota Wild -- most notably putting center Noah Cates with Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov while having Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink with Morgan Frost -- the combos reverted to the forward lines deployed over the previous nine games. Tortorella said Frost would start Wednesday's game with Tippett and Michkov but it may not stay that way.
The Flyers defense pairs at practice remained the same as the three duos from recent games. Rookie Emil Andrae took pre-practice reps alongside veteran Erik Johnson, warming up the goaltenders and getting in some extra skating before the rest of the players came out. During practice, the main pairings included Egor Zamula alongside Rasmus Ristolainen. The standard top duo of Travis Sanheim with Cam York and Nick Seeler with Jamie Drysdale also remained together.
There will be no time for practice sessions over the next few days. Teams nowadays do not hold a morning skate on the second day of a back-to-back and an off day is virtually automatic following games on consecutive nights.
This is an area where NHL players have an advantage over their American Hockey League counterparts. In the AHL, teams still sometimes play games on three straight days/nights from Fridays to Sundays. The NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NHL Players Association does not allow for the scheduling of games on three straight calendar dates.
Additionally, in today's NHL, it's far more common for teams to split starting goalie assignments one apiece when there are games on back-to-back nights. It's uncommon for one goalie to start both games of a B2B, which is a departure from the norms of a quarter-century plus in the past.
The Flyers, of course, currently have three goaltenders on their active NHL roster. In addition to deciding in which order to split the Wednesday and Thursday starting assignments between Samuel Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov, Tortorella and goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh also have to figure out whether to dress Ivan Fedotov as the backup in either game.
The Flyers only have two home games left before a long absence from Wells Fargo Center. On Thursday, they'll host the LA Kings. Two nights later, the Flyers will hold their annual Holiday Spectacular before playing the Columbus Blue Jackets. After that, the Flyers will not return to Wells Fargo Center until they play the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 7.
The final game before the holiday break will be next Monday (Dec. 23) at PPG Paints Arena against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flyers will then have three off-days to be with their families from Dec. 24 to 26. There is also a non-game night on the 27th because the team has to travel to the west coast for the first three matches of a five-game road trip.
