Vladar to be tested like never before in Flyers postseason push

Courtesy of YardBarker

by Bob Herpen 

Phanatic Magazine 

I don't think it's a stretch to say that Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar has been the most consistent performer on the team through the first two-thirds of the schedule.  

I also don't think it's a stretch to say that he's the front runner for the Bobby Clarke Trophy as team MVP as well as one of maybe two players who have distinguished themselves enough to be considered for the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy as the club's most improved player. 

At 17-8-6 with a 2.47 goals-against average and .905 save percentage, the sixth-year pro out of Czechia is firmly on pace for career highs across the board. As of the Olympic break, the only stat he hasn't set a personal record on is save pct., with his 90.6% rate standing as the best from 4 years ago with the Calgary Flames. 

He's apparently raring to go for a bigger challenge, as he told in-house Flyers media personality Jason Myrtetus earlier in the season.

"I didn't want to go to any ... what usually reporters like to say a 'rebuild' team, I wanted to go to a team that's hungry and that's trying or willing (to do) everything to make it to the playoffs," he admitted. "When I spoke to our head coach, that's what he told me, too, our goal is to make the playoffs."

Man, meet moment.

Vladar, as multiple outlets have already reported and multiple personages have repeatedly mentioned, was shielded in Calgary the last couple seasons due to the emergence of Dustin Wolf as the starter. However, there are indications he could carry a significant load as the games become more important.

Four years ago, under Darryl Sutter in Calgary, Vladar stepped up and helped the Flames not only secure a playoff berth, but a Pacific Division title with a 50-win record. Between Feb. 24 and Apr. 29 that crazy high-scoring expansion season, he was called upon 10 times to start and made appearances in 12 contests. Vladar went 6-3-1 overall including 4-1-1 in the season's final month.

Three years ago, he suited up only 3 times in March and April. Two years back, it was 4 appearances and 3 starts from the middle of February onward. Last season among his 30 games and 29 starts, the workload increased late: 8 games and 7 starts from Feb. 25 through the season's final 7 weeks. The record, 5-1-1. Most importantly, he did not give up more than 3 goals any time he stepped into the crease.

Arguably, the best of the bunch was a 3-0 shutout loss to the two-time defending Cup champion Florida Panthers on March 1, where he stopped 39 of 42 shots. Strangely enough, other great nights when the pressure's on for Vladar also arrived in losses, such as a 40-save effort in a 3-1 loss at Winnipeg in the curtain-dropper to 2022.

Vladar in fact, was also broken in gently during his first season of NHL play, with the Boston Bruins, 5 years ago as the club shuffled the crease between Tuukka Rask, Jaroslav Halak, Jeremy Swayman and the then-23-year-old. Over 5 starts for the third-place club in the Northeast Division, Vladar went 2-2-1 with a 3.40 GAA and .886 SvPct. for a B's club which could outscore any defensive lapses.

For all the complaining about a defense which has as much trouble picking up an open man as a one-armed man has tying his shoes, the Flyers backline hasn't done Vladar dirty. He's only faced as many as 30 shots *nine times* and no more than 35 in any start -- a 6-3 win over the Devils at home on Nov. 22.

For comparison, let's look at the stretch runs of Mr. 500-Yard-Stare himself, former starting goaltender Steve Mason. 

During the Flyers' playoff push in 2014, Mason appeared in 17 games from Feb. 27 through the end of the regular season on Apr. 12 as the top choice over Ray Emery. 

He finished that stretch run with a 10-4-2 record and 1 no-decision, delivering points in 12 of his starts and a total of 22 out of a possible 32 points in Craig Berube's lone excursion to the postseason as head coach here. 

Down the stretch in 2016, Mason was even better. From March 5 to the end of the regular season on Apr. 9, Money Mase carried even more of the load in place of Michal Neuvirth, finishing with a 10-4-3 mark in 17 starts.

In the process, he played a large hand in helping the Flyers wrest 23 of a possible 34 points out of his late-year slate and providing Dave Hakstol his first taste of playoff hockey as an NHL bench boss.

The major difference between Mason and Vladar, is the former was used to shouldering the burden of a starter's role for multiple years, while the latter is setting personal highs for appearances every time he steps into the crease. His 33 games so far is 3 more than he worked all of last season. 

There are 26 games remaining once the NHL returns from Milano Cortina and the Flyers resume play between Feb. 25 through Apr. 14. If we're going to play the crease roulette version of "Dat's a Win, Dat's a Loss" for Vladar's work level as the season concludes, it's reasonable to think head coach Rick Tocchet would be smart enough to put Vladar in net for the following:

Feb. 25 at Washington 

Feb. 28  BOSTON

Mar. 2    TORONTO

Mar. 7    at Pittsburgh

Mar. 9    NY RANGERS

Mar. 11  WASHINGTON

Mar. 14  COLUMBUS

Either one of Mar. 18  at Anaheim/Mar. 19 at Los Angeles

Mar. 21  at San Jose

Mar. 24  COLUMBUS

Mar. 28  at Detroit

Mar. 31  at Washington

Apr. 3    at NY Islanders

Apr. 5    BOSTON

Apr. 7    at New Jersey

Apr. 9    at Detroit

Apr. 13  CAROLINA

That's 18 out of 26 games, restarting the schedule 8 points out of a playoff spot. Sam Ersson or whoever else is well enough to play and can be propped up will likely start the others including out-of-conference contests against Utah, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Chicago and Winnipeg; some of the remainder during which Vladar will rest are certainly going to be planned losses and some of those he may be called upon for mop-up duty. 

It could be a blessing or a curse for Vladar to take the reins; don't ask me to predict. It does bode well he rested for 2 weeks due to injury in January and then will play only sporadically for his country at the Olympics ahead of the intense downhill run to spring. Then again, after a 5-3 loss in Columbus on Jan. 28, Vladar indicated how tough a restart is. 

"Even if you skate with 3 or 4 guys, you're never going to see bodies in front of you, crashing (into) your view or tipping pucks, stuff like that," he noted. "I think right now our trained did an awesome job getting me back as soon as possible. So was Dilly (goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh), just trying to work on those little details that I still need to work on."

Another restart is coming soon with 3 games in 4 days right off the bat. If Vladar shows up like Mason, or even shows up like the Vladar who made two spectacular sprawling saves at the right post to thwart two Blue Jacket shooters 21 days ago, there is a good shot the Flyers can at least compete for a spot. 

At worst, he'll need to wring points out of at least 13 or maybe 14 of those 17 potential starts, the more two-pointers the better. but as many single points beyond regulation as possible beyond that. Writing this, it is nothing short of a tall order. If all indications from his teammates are accurate, they may rise to his level when it's needed most. 

"When he says something, it carries weight," Flyers winger Noah Cates told Wayne Fish on Feb. 4 at the club's practice facility. "He's pulling his weight so when he says something, you want to play hard for him because he's battling his ass off every night and giving us a chance to win."

Anything less, and Flyers twitter will want to burn it all down in the face of another failure. The franchise record for playoff futility is 5 consecutive seasons, from 1990 through 1994. Back then, there was a shifting roster year to year that brought the club progressively higher-end talent that sparked a revival. This would be the sixth in a row, without a solid plan in place to improve. Win or lose, Vladar absolutely deserves better for his professionalism.

Spectrum Memories: Claude Lemieux Still Sucks

Courtesy of Le Journal de Montreal

by Bob Herpen 

Phanatic Hockey Editor 

On this mid-winter evening at the Spectrum, Public Enemy No. 1 Claude Lemieux – like PootieTang – done did it again.

In a crucial Sunday night nationally-televised game between two teams expected to be championship contenders, the two-time Stanley Cup winner and Avalanche winger stole the show from a dynamic teammate and sunk the Philadelphia Flyers with the go-ahead goal in the final minute of regulation of a 5-3 road victory.

To recap: almost eight months earlier to the day, Lemieux took the starch out of a hostile crowd at the Spectrum on a steamy June afternoon and put the New Jersey Devils ahead in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals by a 3-2 score. The winning score, seen below as one of the most infamous whiffs in Ron Hextall's storied goaltending career, also staked his club to a 3-2 series advantage.

Once called "The Bill Laimbeer of Hockey" by the Hartford Courant, Lemieux was also called "clutch" long before Justin Williams stamped his indelible mark on multiple playoff Game 7s.

The timing of the goal deflated the host Flyers, who had fought through the frustrating neutral zone trap to erase a 2-0 deficit and tie the game with the sellout throng firmly in their corner. A win could have ensured a chance to close things out in a home-bound Game 7 even in the event of a Game 6 loss on the road.

"I was tied up with (Eric) Lindros and when Marty (Brodeur) made the save and it went into the corner, I just saw a lot of open ice on the right side," Lemieux said of his series-turning score.

"I wasn't sure if I should make a play or shoot. (Petr) Svoboda backed up a little and I fired it. It was lucky."

Instead, two nights later, despite scoring the first and last goals in that Game 6 at the Meadowlands, the Devils rifled home the middle four scores and ensured their first-ever trip to the championship round.

Lemieux, of course, had a hand in that crushing defeat, too.

Flash forward to the calendar year 19-naughty-six. Lemieux landed in Colorado thanks to a series of trades just prior to the start of the regular season that saw fellow contract refugees Steve Thomas (from New Jersey to NY Islanders) and Wendel Clark (from Colorado to NY Islanders) also change locations. deflated the Philly crowd once again.

The stakes weren’t nearly as high, and the goal wasn’t nearly as clean, but it did the job nonetheless. With two Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears, there was no way Lemieux heard the Philly faithful turn on him again.

It's what he does best. Remember all that...unpleasantness...in Montreal?

The dribbler -- another one Hextall should have snagged -- gave the visitors a 4-3 edge and took the starch out of a speed-for-speed, talent-for-talent matchup which featured second-year center and former Flyers first-round draftee Peter Forsberg record a hat trick – including the empty netter which accounted for the 5-3 final in the Avs’ favor.

The player for which he was packaged, Flyers captain Eric Lindros, chipped in with two goals and one assist including the tying score earlier in a frantic, six-goal third stanza.

Drafted No. 6 overall by then-Flyers GM Russ Farwell in 1991, Forsberg made his NHL debut in the Spectrum a little more than a year prior, on Jan. 21, 1995 when the Nordiques helped open the lockout-shortened season. Also there that Saturday afternoon but absent on Sunday night, Avs center Mike Ricci -- one of the other active Flyers also shipped to Quebec in the 1992 Lindros mega deal -- sidelined due to a bad back.

This time, Forsberg made his re-debut in a new uniform for the same franchise and posted the first of his eight career trifectas – accounting for exactly half of his career goal total vs. the Flyers in one evening. The often-injured super Swede went on to record 15 points (6G, 9A) over 15 appearances until signing here to a metric ton of anticipation before the 2005-06 campaign.

If you’re in contention for a division title and a top-two conference seed, it’s better to lose to a non-conference club that’s also competing for first overall and a shot at the President’s Trophy for home-ice throughout the playoffs. The Flyers split that part of the job: beating the eventual 62-win Red Wings but falling to the 47-win Avalanche. 

Colorado *really* needed this one. Coming off a homestand which ended in a tie with Tampa Bay and loss to Hartford, the Avs dropped to 12 points behind Detroit for first place in the West and first place overall.

It’s also best to shore up the home side down the stretch, and the Orange and Black passed muster there, as well. They lost only two more home games from Feb. 11 through the end of the regular season, to the Devils and Bruins, going 10-2-1 in the Spectrum ahead of the playoffs. This loss ended a bad stretch of 2-4-3 on home ice since a rousing win over the Penguins just before Christmas.

Just about the only star-caliber player not involved with the contest was future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy. Roy, traded from the Canadiens to the Avalanche two months prior, had a horrendous overall record vs. the Flyers to this point in his career. That dismal mark included surrendering all 7 goals against Philly in both clubs’ season opener at the Forum back in October when he still toiled for the Montreal Canadiens.

Instead, Stephane "I deserve to be a starter in the NHL" Fiset got the nod in net for the visitors and nabbed the win with a 26-save effort. Although a potential Finals matchup between the Avalanche and Flyers never materialized for that season and during the remainder of the era, Lemieux continued his career-long torture game four years later. 

Traded once again due to impending unrestricted free-agent status late in the 1999-2000 season from the Avs back to the Devils, Lemieux was part of the sinister squad which rallied from a 3-1 series deficit in the Eastern finals to beat the Flyers in 7 games and eventually went onto win the second of three Cups in 9 seasons.

Old Time Hockey costs more now than it ever did

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Mike Keenan was Rick Tocchet's first NHL coach, beginning with their respective NHL rookie season of 1984-85. 

Keenan oversaw the first 278 games of Tocchet's illustrious playing career but it took just 44 games for the new boss to become same as the old boss, the one every player on those memorable teams spat a curse at more than once. 

The Christmas Eve Bag Skate of 1984 is legendary and multiple players have mentioned it publicly over the years. After a rousing home win over the Capitals the night before allowed the Flyers to keep pace in the race to first place in the Patrick Division, a planned easy practice the next day ahead of holiday travel turned into a nightmare of epic proportions. Two days later, they laid an absolute stinker in a 6-0 road loss at Washington.

Following a 5-1 loss to Tampa at home on Monday, Tocchet and the Flyers proceeded with a normal routine the following day. On Wednesday, however, facing the first of a back-to-back road stint at Buffalo ahead of a 7:30 pm national TV start, he conceded to the ghost of Iron Mike and declared the team would have a practice at noon instead of a pre-planned day of rest ahead of travel. 

Interesting move for a team looking like and playing like the Walking Dead ever since their 5-2 home win on Jan. 6 against the Anaheim Ducks left them devoid of energy and emotion as a whole and down two additional players: Bobby Brink and Jamie Drysdale. 

Two nights later, it wasn't the power play that doomed an eventual 2-1 overtime setback to the Maple Leafs, but the general lack of power which saw them score the game's first goal but unable to do anything other than bear witness to that slender 1-goal edge melting away in the late stages of regulation and OT. 

Then, down Brink, Drysdale and Travis Konecny on Saturday night, the Orange and Black's burst of brio early on was savagely slapped down by the Lightning in a 7-2 slaughter. Although Konecny returned in the back end of the home-and-home on Monday, no life was detected until the hosts were already down 3-0 in the second period of an eventual 5-1 defeat. 

Worse still, facing 3-and-4-goal deficits, the Flyers expended whatever lifeforce remained in meaningless pissing matches during the entire third period, mostly started by the battling Bolts and joyfully joined in by the hostile hosts. It played out like an entire chapter of Old Time Hockey, where score settling and calling cards in a blowout were more important than, y'know, trying to score and reduce the margin of defeat. 

It added 15 to 20 real-time minutes to a game that should mercifully have ended much sooner than it did. Harp on the bad officiating? Argue with a wall. I get it. a big part of the Tocchet ethos is a callback to what made him a respected player. Win and go full bore to do it. Lose but don't take it sitting down and cause some chaos. 

What's starting to wear already is the lack of any insight into the learning process. When asked point-blank on Monday in the postgame what lessons the young team could learn from these back-to-back embarrassments, Tocchet offered the following word salad:

"I mean, it's a good hockey team over there. It's a measuring stick. You know, you can't get frustrated, you gotta keep working and just do the proper things," he said. "We gotta hold onto pucks. We need some guys ... let's face it, their best players are very good. There's a level we gotta find some of our guys to get to and that's what we're trying to get to, every day."

Courtesy of FoxSports.com

Anyway, the result was inevitable. A tired visiting team made more tired-er by a vigorous practice touched down in a city whose team was justifiably upset at losing their previous game to the 2-time defending Cup champion Panthers late in regulation. 

The Sabres, winners in 12 of their last 14, bolted from the block and could have been ahead 5-0 in the first period. Instead, they settled for a 2-0 margin which was extended to 4-1 after two and closed out at 5-2. 

Among the brain-dead highlights in that one: Trevor Zegras and Konecny sprung on a 2-on-0 break from their defensive blue line that resulted in zero shots on goal after Zegras opted to curl left, deke, then attempt a drop pass to a then-covered TK. Three Flyers including the comedy duo Seeler & Juulsen, standing within 6 feet of Sam Ersson, covering no one, as Vince Dunn scores from atop the crease. 

The vortex also managed to swallow up first-half team MVP and nominal starter Dan Vladar, who left the game with an apparent lower-body injury spotted on a routine save early in the contest. Later updates termed the injury "not serious" but a timetable is still unknown.

"I just think we maybe we've got to ... get our spark, our mojo back a little bit," Zegras said in the Sabres postmortem. "We just got to, I guess reboot our brains a little bit and know that it's a hard league and that you're going to go through these tough stretches."

"We're a pretty young team and I know we've played well up to this point, but we haven't really accomplished a whole lot," he added. "Got to keep the foot on the pedal and just keep going."

Oh Trev. So close I can taste it. Blink once if I'm on the right track.

Onto Pittsburgh. And the same thing happens. 

The hosts pumped home two goals in the first and added another score early in the second before any Flyers answered. It took several minutes but the adrenaline burst arrived and helped carry the club, which had the better of the play until the middle buzzer. 

But it was only just before Rodrigo Abols cut the visitors' deficit to two, instead of right after Egor Chinakhov scored, when Tocchet decided to replace Ersson with call-up Alexei Kolosov. And despite the goal and uptick in energy and puck possession, they still faced a 3-goal hole entering the final 20 minutes. 

Despite promising signs like Denver Barkey adding two assists and his customary solid play with and without the puck along with Matvei Michkov notching a goal and a fight, it didn't matter and the night ended with a 6-3 defeat to a Penguins club on an 8-3-1 run since their 8-game skid prior to Christmas. 

Thanks to the Tribune Review

 There's a matinee tomorrow with the struggling Rangers who will surely have a collective case of the red ass after the Senators put an 8-4 whipping on them at home on Wednesday. Heading into the game, the Flyers have given up a robust 5 goals per over their 5-game skid. 

The only club worse recently, the Blueshirts themselves, at 6.75 GPG against in their last 4 contests. 

Tocchet laid it all bare after the loss last night. He blamed the terrible power play and the lackluster penalty kill. He called out the excessive passing and lack of shooting. He assailed players making bad choices that lead to penalties, bad choices which result from "playing too hard" and being soft in the corners. 

Yet, not a peep of accountability for himself or his coaching staff.

Might be the right time for a Rangers Eve bag skate. That'll teach 'em to keep losing and not learning any lessons.

"There's adversity (that) hit our team and in your career you're going to have adversity. I don't care who you are and (how you improve is) how you deal with it," he added, with no context as to how this patchwork roster can accomplish it.

Remember back in May, when I wrote that hiring Tocchet was a calculated gamble based on nostalgia? Despite the Flyers' above-expected performance in the season's first half, I can't point to anything objective that he's done to help the team win. Just showed two glaring examples of something he's done that put the team into, then failed to break them out of a slump -- right out of the old time playbook -- and might have amplified the main issue behind this current losing stretch. 

When all NHL players adhere to similar, year-round regimens, sweat equity can become a physical and psychological punishment, not an edge. In his time, Keenan was way ahead of the curve on health, exercise and the need to push athletes to their limits, thanks to Pat Croce riding shotgun. It was a key component of the Flyers' youth movement, which often won games in the third period due to that significant edge in fitness.

I don't think it's coddling to let a beaten batch of youngsters facing a stretch of 6 games in 9 days rest in the midst of a losing skid. Tocchet obviously didn't think so, so I hope he's learned a lesson about the proper time to push the pedal to the floor. He'll certainly be given a wide berth to figure it out.

As it stands now, the choice to run the kids down in the midst of a spate of depth-killing injuries, overall malaise and quality conference opponents might be enough of a negative inflection point that could grease the skids upon which another empty April are greased.

On Jan. 6, the Flyers rose to sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Ten days later, they've managed to backslide all the way to 11th place while seeing Washington, Toronto and Pittsburgh race past them. All losses hurt. But these losses coming in the midst of a veritable (bleep) storm hurt more. 

New York may be waiting to settle a score, or willing to engage. Either way, they're playing with house money after team GM Chris Drury admitted a retooling of the roster around younger talent would be underway soon.

Twenty-five days ago, Philly wasted leads of 3-1 and 4-2 at Madison Square Garden before dropping a 5-4 OT result, one which featured Nic Deslauriers illegally checking, then legally abusing, Rangers newbie Brennan Othmann. Thereafter, the Orange and Black embark on a brief road swing, part of going 5 of 6 away from home. 

The smart move would be for Tocchet to hammer home the importance of staying cool and focused on winning the game. The actual move remains to be seen.