Fixing Flyers power play requires organizational reset

 By Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Sometime during the winter of 2015, between periods at the Wells Fargo Center, I hitched a ride on the press elevator from the press box down to the main concourse in search of sustenance more satisfying than popcorn, pretzels and candy. 

Standing at the back, ramrod straight, were Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen – then taking a season-long sabbatical because of a recurrence of blood clots – along with then-assistant coach Joe Mullen.

The subject, the stagnant power play which suffered from a lack of puck motion and shots on goal. The conversation, it went something like this:

Timonen (a defenseman who quarterbacked the power play during most of his seven-year Flyers tenure): “So what do you think the problem is?”

Mullen (a 500-goal scorer, multiple Stanley Cup winner and Hockey Hall of Fame member): “I really don’t (bleeping) know. All I tell them now is ‘You have to have the mindset of shooting the puck; there’s one less (bleeping guy) out there so you have the time and the room. Just shoot the (bleeping) puck.”

Keep in mind, this was during the long stretch of time when the first unit was led by captain and center Claude Giroux, an adequate shooter but pass first player. And the second unit was led by Jakub Voracek, the only other forward on the roster more “pass first” than the captain. 

The kicker is during that 2014-15 season, the first, only and last full season with Craig Berube as head coach, the Flyers posted an overall PP percentage of 23.4 (60 goals in 256 chances) according to Flyers History. That was the highest mark for any team since Paul Holmgren’s first as head coach clicked at 26.7% and the highest for any team in franchise history to date. 

Things steadily got worse with the gradual jettisoning of Wayne Simmonds, Giroux, Voracek and others culminating in the nightmare of the last three seasons. To recap: 15.56% (32nd), 12.2% (32nd) and 14.95% (30th). 

Is there hope on the horizon, as the meat grinder welcomes newly-minted assistant coach Jaroslav “Yogi” Svejkovsky as the head-victim-in-charge?

Finding and Keeping The Big Gun

To operate a successful power play, you’ve got to have a trigger man, one player on each rotation who can get open and fire away. Have the Flyers drafted and successfully developed a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later-type-player who made an impact, well…ever? 

The short answer is: Nope.

Jeff Carter is the only one who comes to mind, but he was not strictly “developed” by the Flyers. Carter, an 11th overall pick in 2003, jumped straight from Sault Ste. Marie in juniors to the Phantoms in the spring of 2005, helping them win a Calder Cup. He won a spot on the big club the following September and after compiling 48 man-advantage goals in 468 regular-season games and 6 more in 47 playoff outings, you know how that story ended. 

As for the rest of the franchise snipers, those players who scored at least 37 in one season:

Rick MacLeish - acquired from Boston in 1971.

Reggie Leach - acquired from California in 1974.

Tim Kerr - undrafted free agent signed 1980.

Ilkka Sinisalo - undrafted free agent signed 1981.

John LeClair - acquired from Montreal in 1995.

For clarity’s sake: 

Rick Tocchet - drafted in 1983, was not originally envisioned as that type of player and didn’t score 40 until his 5th NHL season (45 in 1988-89).

Simon Gagne -  drafted in 1998, became that guy with Peter Forsberg and Briere acquisitions later in his career. Exactly half (37 of 74) of his franchise PPG total came from the 2005-07 and 2008-09 seasons.

James vanRiemsdyk - the infamous no. 2 overall in 2007. A victim of organizational ineptitude who was forcibly molded into a “power forward” type rather than a sniper despite playing for a UNH program which embraced skill, speed and scoring.

Scott Hartnell - acquired from Nashville in 2007. Aside from one glorious season in 2011-12 when 16 of his 37 tallies came with the man advantage, was not specifically brought here to be a gunner.

The whiffs:

James Neal - Perhaps the organizational change from Paul Holmgren to Ron Hextall as GM along with the club’s constant salary-cap conundra played a role. It is still hard to forgive the front office for missing this one. 

In the summer of 2014, Neal, who spent the prior 3-plus seasons with the Penguins, was on the market. He worked primarily with Evgeni Malkin on the second unit, totaling 38(!) of his 89 goals there on the advantage.

Cam Atkinson - Brought here with the potential to add some pop and motion to a stagnant power-play system after 21 PPG from 2016-19, Atkinson's tenure here was rudely interrupted by injury and three different head coaches. Only 4 of his 36 tallies over 143 games came while at least one man up.

The hopefuls:

Alex Bump - Fifth-rounder, Western Michigan, 2022. Here’s a kid who set the world on fire last year with 23 goals on 248 shots (four times notching double-digit SOGs with a high of 14 vs. Arizona State) across 42 games for the Broncos, winners of the NCHC playoff title and national champions. 

Courtesy of Western Michigan University

The 21-year-old roster hopeful won conference tourney MVP, earned first-team All America honors, faded out during the Broncs’ national championship run, recovered with 3 points in 2 regular-season appearances for the Phantoms then added 2 goals in 7 games during the playoffs on 18 SOG.

As long as Bump maintains a trajectory of consistence in his development with and without the puck in Allentown under the new Phantoms regime of head man John Snowden alongside assistants Terrance Wallin and Nick Schultz, I hate to say it, Bump “should be fine.”

But I’m still casting some serious side-eye until I see the plans come to fruition.

It was hardly surprising when I read Jackie Spiegel’s Inquirer column from May 1, which quoted Peter Principaled (and now “reassigned”) Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere saying Jett Luchanko (13th overall, 2024, Guelph Storm), also primarily a puck mover who notched 9 assists in 16 games with the Phantoms at the end of this season, should be more selfish with the puck.

That statement alone should make long-time fans and those attuned to the organization with a critical eye tear their hair out. Why would the club want someone with an obvious desired and crucial skill set, which optimizes driving play, maintaining possession and dishing to the open man, to consider moving away from that skill set? 

Here’s how it’s supposed to go, best of all possible worlds, with linear development: 

Team sees prospect, drafts prospect. Waits an uncertain amount of years before prospect wants to turn pro, signs prospect to a deal and is either shuttled to the AHL or the NHL. If prospect goes to minors, he’s subject to the parent club’s development plan overseen by the AHL staff and is played accordingly until either his play, injury concerns or both warrant a look; if prospect has to be on NHL roster, he’s subject to the parent club’s development plan which involves more intensive and direct supervision. 

Even considering non-linear development that factors in health, utilization, unexpected upticks or downturns in performance or changes in coaching personnel and systems, what is supposed to come out on the other side is supposed to benefit the parent club in the long term. There is a lot of trust placed with an organization that a high-end prospect will be dealt with on the level. 

Problem is, up until this year’s draft, there was exactly one player drafted by either the Fletcher or Briere braintrust, who fits the mold of a puck-hungry winger with a knack for finding the open space and a shoot-first attitude: Alex Bump.

In need of more centers, Briere instead jumped the line in June and brought in both Porter Martone (No. 6, committed to Michigan State) and Shane Vansaghi (No. 48, also sporting Sparty next season). 

Martone appears to be a rush job, a one-and-done who might bypass the Lehigh Valley altogether, so the responsibility is likely on both Martone himself and the big club not to bollocks it up. Vansaghi is an unknown, so is Jack Murtagh (No. 40, committed to Boston University), less so is the 20-year-old Denver Barkey who blitzed through his last 2 years of juniors with 184 points, a pair of OHL titles and last year’s Memorial Cup. 

Has anybody heard anything from Noah Powell?

Nothing is Permanent but Change Is

Historically, it appears the Flyers follow three basic player archetypes for their power plays: 

• Defensemen who collect and move the puck at the point

• Distributors who either remain static in the circles as a principal point of puck motion, or are given license to take play to the opposition

• Bulky wingers positioned along the goal line for muscle and touch. 

It doesn’t matter whether it’s Joe Mullen, Rocky Thompson or Svejkovsky, there’s only so much a particular coaching philosophy or player positioning in the offensive zone can accomplish with these skill sets cast in concrete. Can coaching make it worse? Is the Pope a White Sox fan? Coaching isn’t all of it. The right guys need to be given the right chances to utilize their skills and then given the chance, to execute.

With fewer individual penalties or clear manpower disadvantages called over the last 10 years league-wide and therefore fewer power-play chances available per season, the heat is definitely on a guy whose most famous move was scoring 4 goals on the Buffalo Sabres as a rookie 28 years ago. There’s also a ton of pressure on the presumptive Phantoms hires to properly shepherd the next generation. 

Who on the current roster comes close to being a pure finisher? Most likely the Golden Child Matvei Michkov. Bump and Barkey are on deck but that does nothing to help the big club come October.

Courtesy of the Inquirer

According to Hockey Reference, no Flyers forward has finished with more than 10 power-play goals in an uninterrupted regular season since Wayne Simmonds notched 11 in 2017-18.

JVR notched 10 in the COVID-shortened 2021 sprint. The high water-mark over the last decade for power-play prowess was Brayden Schenn (17) and Simmonds (16) in 2016-17, the last time two players finished with more than 10. 

Likewise, no defenseman has ever logged double-digit PP scores in franchise history and while Gostisbehere was the last d-man to have as many as 8 PPG, that was 10 seasons ago. Even team and Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Howe never had more than 8 in one season as a Flyer. 

Another good question is how will Cam York and, eventually, Oliver Bonk be deployed?

The main question is not whether these prospect’s skill sets suggest a Johnny Vermont or Ghost Bear; it’s whether the organization’s vision for these players suits their skill set, or will they try to wedge them into a role for which they are ill-suited because the new PP strategy demands it?

There needs to be consistent, clear-cut communication between Snowden and Wallin, Tocchet and Svejkovsky, on up to Briere regarding what is expected from player and coach alike. Anything less would be a disservice to both the Flyers’ current roster as well as those in the pipeline.

Right now there are too many questions to sort out, only so many games and so many years before the next Phantoms and Flyers coaches are ushered out the door. Tocchet’s talking a good game but he’s the one who sets the rules and watches the kids play it. Maybe we should all just touch grass and lay in the sand until October.

Found not guilty, Hart can resume his career...but far, far from here

Photo courtesy of the New York Times

By Bob Herpen

Phanatic Magazine

Former Philadelphia Flyers starting goaltender Carter Hart is a free man.

Pronounced not guilty of sexual assault stemming from a 2018 incident in London, Ontario, Provincial Superior Court Justice Maria Carrochia on Thursday deemed Hart and fellow Team Canada teammates Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote, have cleared a very important hurdle in the resumption of their lives. 

If you recall, Hart – the Flyers' latest choice to become the heir apparent to the Parent-Lindbergh-Hextall legacy – was given his unconditional release in January 2024 following news of the allegations. When the club declined to make him a qualifying offer last summer as a restricted free agent, Hart became an unrestricted free agent who could sign with anyone he chose.

I’m sure in light of the verdict, there is doubt in many minds, both in the real world and online. “Not guilty” is far from “innocent.” Hart’s actions and behavior on the night in question with the alleged victim and his teammates is a matter of public record. 

Airing out that unsavory conduct should plant a tremendous seed of doubt in the minds of National Hockey League general managers as to their suitability, both character-wise and fitness-wise, to resume his career. 

Hart and his co-defendants apparently cleared another hurdle with public support of the NHL Players’ Association, which, according to TSN of Canada on Friday, stated they should be allowed to resume their careers.

However, we all know it just takes one brave soul among 32 to stick his neck out – whether it’s for Hart or any of the other four defendants – and the rest of the league will follow along dutifully despite any initial blowback. Front offices have found redeeming qualities in players for worse.

In the Fall of 1992, another former Flyer, Dan Quinn, was arraigned on suspicion of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room in a Twin Cities suburb. Worse, Quinn’s former teammate, golf buddy and future Hockey Hall of Fame entrant Mario Lemieux (during the season he missed time due to treatments for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, no less) was alleged to have been present in the room when the incident was supposed to have occurred.

Quinn was freed on bond and never formally charged, but the stain of the accusations forced the North Stars to release him unconditionally, days later. Already an established 10-year veteran, he was not picked up by any other club, NHL or otherwise, for the remainder. 

When Quinn did get the call, it was the expansion Ottawa Senators who scooped him up for 13 games in desperation in March of the following season. Lemieux, on the other hand, felt the tide of public sentiment turn for the worse only briefly before the press fitted him for laurels after battling and beating cancer.

What separates this situation from a more cut-and-dried incidence of assault or rape is Hart’s misdeed being a sin of omission – failure to act once in the room to stop anything else that happened after McLeod and “E.M’s” first encounter in the hotel – and not a sin of commission, which would place on him greater culpability. 

It was obvious once Hart was named as a defendant, he should have disappeared and not been allowed to remain in good standing with the Flyers. And that happened. 

And let’s be clear: if Hart were facing prison time for sexual assault or rape, there is no way he should be allowed to continue unabated anywhere in hockey or in life, nor could I justify any thought process to the contrary. But he wasn’t. 

I’m not advocating the Flyers welcome him back with open arms – that is, if Hart even wants to reunite with the franchise that selected him 48th overall in 2016. I’m saying for a lack of a “guilty” verdict, Hart should be allowed to start rebuilding his professional profile somewhere, but far, far away from the top professional league in the world.

I hear it’s lovely in Death Valley around 3 p.m. this time of year. If there’s a midnight beer league starting up in Norway or Kazakhstan let him stew there. Oymyakon goes from 80 above to 70 below in the blink of an eye on the Siberian plateau.

Of course, I understand the nature of social media. Its boundaries are extremes of thought, and nothing about the online discourse regarding this trial for its duration shows it can be any other way. Men suck. Believe all women. There are going to be readers outraged that I dared to embrace nuance, or failed to express sufficient anger that I don’t want Hart burned at the stake for guilt by association.

For those of you who passionately wish to damn all involved, I salute your commitment. Nobody needs to tell you this is a free country and you are free to hold that deeply-felt opinion close in your heart. Absence of nuance in thought works best on social media, not so much in the real world. There are very few moral absolutes, less so when legal posturing further blurs lines while paying lip service to seeking truth. 

If you have beef, then bring the ruckus to Judge Carrochia, a woman who failed to find the complainant’s testimony “credible or reliable.” Take it out on the absolute joke of a prosecution team whose misconduct was so egregious it resulted in two mistrials, the second one forcing the proceedings to be a judge-only bench proceeding.

If, somehow, Hart gains the good graces of the Flyers front office – or any other NHL front 

office – I fully support any fans’ or otherwise concerned citizens’ desire to protest his signing or any subsequent on-ice appearance.

Anywhere. On any platform. And by any means they deem fit without resorting to violence or property damage. Same goes for the other four smacked-asses who shared the “not guilty” verdict if they are allowed to play again.

Unlike the other four, Hart projected the biggest profile and is likely to be given greater and quicker consideration for a shot at resuming his career in the NHL. The rumors swirled online practically the whole month of July that the Oilers had (or didn’t have) interest in the 26-year-old native of suburban Edmonton. 

Even if you put it out of your mind in favor of touching grass, putting a drink in your hand and toes in the sand, or shut off all online behavior to enjoy real life before football jolts us all back to reality: be prepared for, and not shocked by, Hart’s inevitable return to our TV screens and a rink near you. 

The further away from anywhere good, the better.

Cool, calm and collected: Cote continues championing cannabis

Courtesy of CBC News

 by Bob Herpen 

Phanatic Hockey Editor 

According to former Phantoms and Flyers player and assistant coach Riley Cote, the moral arc of cannabis use among hockey players is long and it seems to favor justice. 

In a relatively short span, perception of marijuana in hockey culture – against decades of intertwining with alcohol as the main method of stress relief, team bonding and celebration – has morphed from lessons more apt to be gleaned from the original “Reefer Madness” to a substance viewed as a viable option for pain relief and recovery.

“Even when I was coaching the Phantoms (from 2010-17 in Glens Falls and Allentown), we had suspended a few guys for cannabis use who got popped vaping after the game so it was still very, very taboo,” Cote revealed during a July 7 Zoom call with the Phanatic. “And if you got popped with it, it was like, ‘the Devil’s lettuce,’ you were looked at as a drug user and everything else.”  

Oddly enough, that need for secrecy meant there was no peer pressure from teammates to quit the green and sink some golden brown. 

“So I was always, up until I retired, absolutely quiet about it outside of the group of guys I could trust,” he continued. “Because that would essentially be career suicide.”

But the tables have turned. Once freed from the discretion required of employment with a multi-million-dollar enterprise that is a National Hockey League franchise, Cote went full force into not only talking about his brand of self-medication, but also promoting that million-dollar enterprise in the same spaces that once required stifling.

Just a few years after haltingly introducing the potential professional benefits of cannabis-related products in his final years as Phantoms assistant, Cote says he was openly hawking his interest in a company specializing in cannabidiol products directly in the Flyers locker room where he found interested parties among the strength and conditioning coaches.

Born in Winnipeg, Cote left home to pursue his dream when he was 16 years old. Shuffled off to northern Saskatchewan, his experiences with non-alcoholic substances were a couple tries with marijuana that left him confused and paranoid. 

You can’t blame him. There’s no catchy rhyme to guide the young and inexperienced with cannabis as there is with booze (“Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, etc.).

What followed was four years with Prince Albert in the Western Hockey League of Canadian juniors, 108 games and a Turner Cup championship during a brief tour in the second tier of professional hockey, 183 appearances in the AHL including a Calder Cup title in 2005, then 156 NHL contests exclusively for the Orange and Black between 2006 and 2010. 

As he rose through the ranks, Cote’s relationship with cannabis grew and became more comfortable, all at a time when there was little guidance except the lessons learned through trial-and-error titration, along with adjusting location and mindset during consumption.

“I think I connected with it more on a level that most people would describe their relationship with cannabis, in lower doses, for managing anxiety because you feel the ‘softness,’” he said. “I found a little grove, again, without science to support it, any literature.”

His one shining moment in The Show came against the Montreal Canadiens, just prior to his 26th birthday – a goal in the dying seconds of a 5-3 home defeat on Feb. 17, 2008. That season also marked Cote’s high-water marks for games played in a single NHL campaign (70), along with the most points (4) and penalty minutes (202). 

It may be surprising, though, that Cote says he really didn’t remember celebrating. And it’s something he says he definitely can’t blame on the Demon Weed, instead chalking it up to being a good teammate who just couldn’t cut loose after a loss.

“I didn’t even celebrate on the ice, so I know I didn’t go out and say, ‘Hey, look at me! I scored my first NHL goal!’ but I would almost put money on that,” Cote recalled. “It was at home, so I probably went out for some pops after. And that’s generally where it would go. It would be alcohol, right?”

It is well established that hockey culture centered around alcohol has existed for decades and with it, the residual disdain for other “hard” drugs. It is also now well established that enforcer culture, which revolves around players groomed or selected specifically to fight opponents, lends itself to anxiety and depression. 

Aside from the catch-all panacea that beer offered, increasing use and subsequent abuse of opioids to combat pain became the order of the day. The honor of The Code might have been blown up for good with the deaths of former heavyweights Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak attributed in part to substance abuse as a result of mishandling the mental and physical toll fighting took on both players.

Cote felt it too, admitting the level of stress and performance anxiety, knowing he had a near-mandate to fight when necessary, was overwhelming and persistent. He said cannabis often blunted intrusive thoughts of hockey as a battleground.

“When Georges Laraque comes to Philly the first time, certainly my anxiety is through the roof,” he added. “I’ve gotta earn my keep and let everybody know I’ve got my street cred.”

One of the benefits of marijuana use after a particularly tough night, was an effect as immediate as words of reassurance.

Cote recalled one night as a Flyer, being tasked with fighting venerable veteran Donald Brashear. Following a particularly brutal bout and defeat, Cote said he smoked “more to soothe the mental pain and my wounded pride than to ease the physical pain” of getting rag-dolled by the Quebec-raised pugilist.

For a long time, Cote was part of a secret society, a de-centralized cadre of conspirators which existed at every level of the sport. 

“No matter what league I played in there was always a handful of guys that used cannabis, whether they knew it was medicine or not, that’s a different story,” he said. “There was always a few regulars and you naturally find those guys.”

Now, the amount of legitimate medical information at the fingertips of players, coaches, agents and staff, alongside the evolution of strength, conditioning and recovery has altered opinions, and forced the matter into the open, Cote admitted. 

If he were involved with management in pro hockey, it would be a ‘no brainer’ to allow athletes the opportunity to embrace any edge they can to compete better. All the better to keep the “meat suits” in top shape.

“It’s changed so much,” Cote acknowledged. “I know there’s not (many) current guys speaking about it but management’s very well aware of guys using cannabis now.

“I think unless you’re living in a hole in the ground somewhere, it’s safe to say that even the most old-school mind would tell you cannabis is safer than alcohol and a better recovery tool.”

For more on Cote's cannabis crusade, hit the link.