Spectrum Memories: It's OK to whistle at your enemies if you win the game

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

On a Sunday night eight days before Christmas, when almost a dozen possible Hall of Fame players suited up between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins in a key conference matchup at the Spectrum, it was the less likely lads who came through for the victorious hosts.

Rookie defenseman Chris Therien pumped home a pair of first-period goals – his first and, as it turns out, only two-goal game in the NHL – while Rod Brind’Amour netted the winner with 2:22 left in regulation as Philly outlasted their rivals, 6-5. 

It was their 49th shot of the game, to 38 for the other side.

“I had a few chances, fanned a couple of times,” Rod the Bod said to the Daily News. “I just kept saying ‘I need one more.’”

The incensed visitors who couldn’t wipe out the winning goal, tried in vain to argue that the puck on a tying goal from Eric Desjardins with 7:10 to play had illegally been kicked in by Joel Otto in front of Pens goaltender Ken Wregget.

“Everybody was asking about it, family, friends,” the 1993 Cup winner told hockey beat Les Bowen about his first tally of the season after racking up 16 assists. “It was a good time to get one.”

Heading into the holidays, the Flyers were locked in a three-way battle for first place in the Atlantic Division with the resurgent New York Rangers and upstart Florida Panthers. Ahead of that thrilla in So. Philla against the Northeast Division leaders, Terry Murray’s club reeled off wins in 11 of their previous 13 games overall, including 8 of their last 9 at the Spectrum dating to mid-November. 

Since a tie at Washington on Nov. 14 left them at 9-6-4, six points behind las Panteras for the division lead, the Orange and Black had only made up 2 points of that difference. Following a 4-2 win in their final visit to the venerable Montreal Forum, they were sitting at 20-8-4, still four points back of the division lead.

The Pens, meanwhile, were third in the East with 43 points and just dared every opponent to outscore them. Period by period. Game to game. 

With the arrival of a fresh and healthy Mario Lemieux to a lineup already featuring flamethrowers Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis and Tomas Sandstrom up front with Sergei Zubov and Larry Murphy on the back end, then new arrivals Brian Smolinski and Petr Nedved, the offensive potential was explosive. Once the puck dropped on the season, that potential was fully realized.

Through 29 previous games, Pittsburgh led the NHL in total goals (146), goals per game (5.03), while sporting a power-play percentage hovering near 50% at home and 30% overall. Not since the Edmonton Oilers 10 years prior had a club finished the season above 5 goals-per-game. 

By this juncture of the season, Mario’s maulers scored 10 once, 9 twice, 8 once and 7 on five occasions. They won games by 10 (vs. Tampa on Nov. 1), by 8 (at San Jose on Nov. 10), and by 6 twice (at Ottawa on Nov. 8, vs. Hartford on Dec. 9).

In 25 appearances, Lemieux rolled to 28 goals and 42 assists. For Jagr, it was 26 goals and 35 assists in 29 contests. Captain Ron was in a dry spell, relatively speaking, only picking up 15 scores and 37 apples over 29 games. 

Defensively – in no small part because their offense and puck-possession was through the roof, the Pens ranked 8th overall in total goals allowed (89) and 10th in goals per game surrendered (3.06). 

Six weeks earlier, they laid a beating on the Flyers at the Civic Arena in Eric Lindros’ first full game absent with a knee injury, striking early and often in a 7-4 rout, which boosted Pitt’s home record against Philly to 9 wins and 4 ties since the end of the 1990-91 season.

This would be the first of two cracks the Flyers had against the Penguins in their last season calling the Spectrum home. It was clear they had to score their way out and prevent just enough – one fewer – to win the night.

In the early stages of a relatively healthy career year, Lindros entered play with a rather pedestrian 20 red lights and 20 helpers across 25 appearances. His Legion of Doom linemates Mikael Renberg and John LeClair posted a combined 75 points, with Johnny Vermont at this juncture leading the club with 41 points while not missing a game.

The hosts punched and counterpunched, up 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 after one period and extended the edge to 4-2 on an Otto strike with 7:12 played in the second. Included in that run were a pair of power-play strikes from Therien with fresh apples from Brind'Amour that bracketed a successful first stanza. That seemed to awaken the dormant visiting offense, who flipped the script and took a 5-4 lead midway through the 3rd period on goals from Smolinski, Francis and Nedved – the latter coming 41 seconds apart.

It was also the thick of Jagr’s Troy Polamalu era, where his curly black locks flowed freely in every direction from underneath his Jofa bucket. The “pretty” sight caused the more IQ challenged Flyers faithful within distance to the ice to whistle and catcall loud enough to be picked up on any broadcast; a situation which persisted long after the Flyers moved into a larger building where sound took longer to travel.

A target firmly on his front AND back, Jagr played fearlessly, recording 8 shots on net along with a goal and 2 assists. Sometimes he gave, some times he got. As time ticked down in regulation in a firewagon 5-5 game, second-year Flyers defenseman Karl Dykhuis ensured the Czech winger got, to the delight of the home crowd.

“It was exciting, it was frustrating,” Lindros wryly noted of the game where his team allowed the most goals in a win all season. “It was a lot of things.”

It would also be one of the Flyers’ two offensive highlights for the better part of two months. After this sizzling decision, their offense went cold, then completely dormant as the weather on the East Coast went from seasonal to numbing. The Penguins, oddly enough, also had a dry spell from mid-January to mid-February which cost them a shot at 400 goals. They “settled” for a league-best 362.

These clubs hooked up in Philadelphia one more time, a Sunday matinee and FOX national broadcast on March 31 which saw Lemieux sidelined in the second of back-to-backs with travel, opening the door to LeClair’s hat trick that brought him tantalizingly close to his first 50-goal season in a 4-1 win.

After five long years, it appeared the rivalry between these original expansion clubs was tilting back in Philly's favor.

College Hockey Roundup: Martone, McLaughlin and Mounting Pressure

Courtesy of the Daily Free Press

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

With one semester down and another set to commence in January, here’s a recap of the Flyers top-level Division 1 college hockey hopefuls.

A 2026 first-rounder, Porter Martone turned in a solid, consistent first two months at Michigan State, posting team highs of 11 goals and 20 points across 16 games for the Spartans.

So far, he’s accounted for 7 multi-point efforts, and two multi-game goal-scoring streaks (5 games from Nov. 8-22; 3 games Oct. 18-25) as MSU, which ascended to the No. 1 spot in the rankings, ended the semester at No. 3 with a 13-4-0 record after a split with Michigan. Martone, of course, will play for Canada in the World Junior Championships set to commence the day after Christmas. But that was a foregone conclusion. More on a dark horse later in this column.

So what's Martone's ceiling if he keeps it up? Well, that's up in the air.

As it stands, Martone sits in a tie for 15th place nationally in overall scoring. As I did when Flyers fandom went gaga over then-Michigan forward Cooper Marody in the Before Times, I did some sleuthing on how many players who ended up in the top 5 points-wise in the NCAA fared in the NHL. Parameters were from 2017-18 to 2022-23, COVID years inclusive.

Out of 30 high-scoring individuals in that six-year span, only two could be reasonably termed “impact” players at the highest level at present: Cale Makar. Cole Caulfield.

Some notable names I found outside the creme de la creme: Cooper Marody. Troy Terry. Alex Newhook. Spoiler alert: that's not a lot. And the jury is still out on current Flyer Bobby Brink, who led the nation in points at Denver in 2022.

Remember Jack Eichel? Remember anything about his one-and-done career at Boston University except for that one clip of him going end-to-end to score on Maine? A refresher.

Eichel was the nation’s leading scorer in 2014-15, winning the Hobey Baker as the top collegiate player, the first freshman since Paul Kariya to pull it off. But he didn’t win the national championship, instead ready to take the money and jump ship to the Buffalo Sabres (who drafted him 2nd overall in 2015). 

The chronically downtrodden Swordsmen essentially let Eichel be little more than a ticket draw as he spent 2 ¾ NHL seasons before approximating anything close to an NHL player competent in three zones. He was often electric with the puck. But with the Sabres perpetually a league doormat, he was often without the puck. He was also invisible in the neutral or defensive areas. 

Same thing with Sharks dynamo Macklin Celebrini, who won the Hobey at BU during his *age 17 season* in 2023-24. That Terriers club lost in the Frozen Four semis to eventual champion Denver, but the youngster Steve Miller-ed his way to the NHL thanks to the Sharks selecting him first overall two months later. 

Again, the rebuilding Sharks were in a similar bind as the Sabres, so last season Celebrini was left to do what he does best to get the fans in the building and butts in the seats. Now in his second NHL campaign, San Jose has become collectively better defensively, so Celebrini’s learning curve will continue to sharpen night after night in The Show. 

There’s no doubt in my mind, had Eichel run it back in 2015 to win it all, or if Celebrini stayed at least another year in college, they’d have come out to the Sabres and Sharks, respectively, a better developed player. 

You’re never going to get anything other than a negative reaction from me if you parrot the following lines about any top-flight D1 prospect: 

“He’s surprisingly mature for his age.”

“He’s got nothing left to prove at this level.”

“His coach even says there’s nothing left to teach him.”

First of all no college coach or pundit is going to publicly malign – or even offer neutral comment – on a perceived blue chipper. It’s part of what I figure is a “social contract” at the NCAA level which goes back to when I attended BC in the late 90s because, at least in hockey, it’s not as laughable to call players “student-athletes” despite the fact that Martone is getting an estimated $500K in NIL money for showing up. 

And I guess I also have to warn you against all the ball-washing content submitted from blogs on up to the Inquirer, which isn't going to tell you anything other than:

A) what you want to hear and

B) the positive organizational spin

But money talks and status symbolizes, And when prospects are taken in the top five by desperate franchises, the juice that's made for public consumption is always worth the squeeze. Thing is, the Flyers are far from a bottom-feeding rebuilding club eager to retain a fan base and they aren't really hurting for ticket sales or attendance, relatively speaking.

Do I think the front office could pressure Martone to turn pro in March or April? Yes. There’s a history going back to JVR in 2009 which also includes its handling of then-goalie-prospect and current Leafs netminder Anthony Stolarz a couple years later, where "sooner rather than later" is the response from the front office.

Do I think Martone would have already seriously considered being a one-and-done with a good shot at making the NHL out of camp next September? Yes, and it would be criminal if his management team didn’t prep him for the chance to take a leap in spring.

Here’s the real question that you should be asking -- one for which I don’t have an answer and if anyone else who covers the club says they do after an introductory semester, they’re either lying or have a vested interest in getting fans’ hopes as high as an elephant’s eye on the Fourth of July -- do I think the Flyers are going to turn Martone loose on the league, accepting him as is, without any further development? 

The closest I can come to an answer is, it wouldn’t be in their best interest to do so, no matter how many points Martone collects, or how many accolades he wins or how far Sparty goes in the national tournament. There's *always* something more to prove, especially if he's expected to challenge for an NHL roster spot in September.

There's also a lot riding on the Snowden era in Allentown. If the new Phantoms coaching regime has its *bleep* together getting Alex Bump, Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk squared away, there might not be a lot of trepidation if Martone starts out in the AHL.

The second half of the national D1 schedule includes what former Clarkson, Bowling Green and BC head coach, the Hockey Hall of Famer Jerry York coined “trophy season.” Michigan State are the defending B1G champions and, if they get through that gauntlet, may be reasonably expected to not only advance past the first game (which Sparty failed to do last March, falling 4-3 to Cornell in its 2024 NCAA opener) but to contend for a title.

All of MSU's 16 second-half non-tournament games are conference clashes, including two on the road at Penn State at the end of January, where the eastern Pennsylvania hype machine will be turned up to 11 when Martone faces fellow freshman, Penn State's Gavin McKenna, on back-to-back nights Jan. 30-31.

For Montco native Owen McLaughlin as well as frosh draftees Jack Murtagh and Carter Amico at Boston University, trophy season includes the Hub ritual of midwinter, a tougher conference slate, then the conference and national postseason.

McLaughlin, in his fourth collegiate campaign, has remained near the top of the Terriers’ scoring list as the Scarlet and White have struggled to rise above in Hockey East after a roster turnover in the wake of a second-place finish last April. With one more contest remaining in the first half of the year, McLaughlin sat out a weekend split with Vermont that left him at 13 pts (4G, 9A) in 15 appearances.

Murtagh also hit a snag as the semester concluded, going pointless in 7 straight after a consistent start to his career. He’ll hit the break no worse than 3G & 3A over 17 games. Amico is a clear work-in-progress, no points across 17 games with a minus-9 rating.

All three players face stiffer tests ahead than the two-game set against MSU in October which quite a few pundits salivated over as solely being a function of the Flyers’ draft prowess. BU will play all three conference games vs. BC in the winter, with the potential for at least two more clashes (Beanpot, Hockey East playoffs) looming ahead. 

Eichel, for all his capability during his lone collegiate season, struggled against better competition, like bitter rivals BC and to a lesser extent tight-checking UMass-Lowell. He also wasn’t much of a presence in the national title-game loss to Providence. For anxious Flyers insiders and outsiders watching Martone et al., it's wise to never underestimate the impact of the pressure of facing traditional rivals in meaningful games on professional development.

Looking toward Michiana, Cole Knuble was having a sluggish start to his junior season at Notre Dame after striking for 39 points in 34 games as a wise fool. On Thanksgiving Eve afternoon at Merrimack, he shook off a hit to the head late in the second period, with his goal kicking off a rally from 3-1 down which saw the Irish bested the Warriors, 5-4. His four points (1G, 3A) were not only a season high, but were the most in any period or game of any Flyers prospect in the first semester, yes, even from the Mighty Martone.

Knuble’s been lost in the sauce after a solid sophomore campaign @NDHockey. Season high 4 points in 3rd period alone.
Overshadowed by Martone and the trio from BU.
Irish win 5-4 @Merrimack_MIH, face @BC_MHockey
at Conte on Friday #LetsGoFlyers https://t.co/J8ZswsAWno

— Bob Herpen (@pelle31lives) November 26, 2025

The younger Knuble and the rest of his fellow Irish skidded into the holidays with a 3-game losing streak during which they were outscored by a 21-9 against BC and Big 10 foe Wisconsin. Nonetheless, with a 4-game point streak his first-half splits are respectable: 3G & 10A in 16 games.

Want more evidence of the tightrope all potential high-scoring prospects walk? Check out Massimo Rizzo. 

Not a Flyers draftee (Carolina, 7th round, 2019) Rizzo was acquired in the aborted Tony DeAngelo deal in the summer of '23. The left-handed shooting center put up significant numbers for a legacy program at Denver, winning two national championships (2022, 2024) while totaling 39 goals and 126 points over 107 games. Rizzo’s bona fides include an NCHC All-Rookie Selection 2022, along with a conference first-team nod in 2023 and a second-team selection in his final collegiate campaign. However, after collecting just 18 points in 46 games with Lehigh Valley a season ago, Rizzo now is toiling for the club’s ECHL affiliate in Reading. 

The only shot Rizzo has to climb back up the greased ladder would be if the cascade of injuries and callups start to hit the Flyers first before trickling down to the Phantoms. Which is a tragedy, because the 24-year-old showed flashes at least equal to Zeev Buium at times skating for the Pioneers.

Given the tricky crossroads of a player’s actual skill set weighed against the organizations’ game plan for that particular player, and the pressure of having to conform to that standard, prospects like BU’s McLaughlin may never aspire to be anything higher but a seat filler in the minors. Remember Tanner Laczynski -- the Ohio State product was once a top-5 NCAA point-getter, but once it was time to turn pro, he disappeared like a hot dog wrapper in a hurricane.

It's getting late kinda early for Shane Vansaghi, Martone’s teammate at MSU, an example of a guy on the bubble but who may be in danger of slipping totally off the radar. 

A second-round choice in June, the sophomore has been largely invisible over the first portion of the season for the defending B1G champs, save for that heroic sequence in mid-October at BU which ended up saving a game for the visitors. He’s posted 1-5-6 in 16 games after going for 6-10-16 in 37 appearances as a frosh. 

For the morning crew, unreal sequence for #LetsGoFlyers prospect Shane Vansaghi to end @MSU_Hockey’s 4-3 OT win at @TerrierHockey. Sparty blew a 3-1 lead & came within an inch of losing this one. https://t.co/Xf2SqXK7ZW

— Bob Herpen (@pelle31lives) October 19, 2025

At a listed 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, the 19-year-old, like Martone, has an NHL-ready build but needs to put more into whatever is expected of him on a game-to-game basis. If you’re going to be noticed by the parent club, half of your season’s output can’t come against non-conference cakewalks like Colgate.

A fourth-round pick in 2024 out of Finland who spent last year in Dubuque of the USHL, freshman forward Heikki Ruohonen is having a typical season as a youngster new to the D1 game. As of a semester-ending 7-3 Crimson dispatch of Brown on Dec. 6, the 19-year-old, who bucked the trend of generations of his countrymen and chose against the SM-Liiga, posted 1 goal and 4 assists in 10 appearances. 

Ruohonen might be behind the 8-ball because of Harvard’s truncated Ivy League schedule and might fly under the radar as the Crimson haven’t had a national profile in years. That said, I’m not really sure, if he develops on a sharp curve over the next two years, that he’s so academically inclined it would influence his decision to reject an overture from the Flyers.

You might recall goaltender prospect Merrick Madsen was called upon to leave Harvard after a stellar junior season in 2017 as goaltending slots became available in the minor leagues. When he declined the offer, choosing instead to finish his senior season and earn his degree although the Flyers might have lost his rights without him putting pen to paper, the penalty for such insolence was a trade to the Coyotes. 

Nonetheless, Ruohonen heard the call of his native Finland, which selected him for its World Junior roster on Dec. 13.

And bringing up the rear, UNH winger Ryan MacPherson, a sophomore and sixth round choice in 2023. With only a single goal and a pair of helpers in 31 games over his year-and-a-half in college, it’s safe to say the organ-eye-zation might make him a seat filler in the ECHL at best.

That doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of Mike Souza’s Wildcats, who took two at bitter rival Maine this past weekend, upping their road mark to 7-3-0 (including a win at Hockey East leading UConn).

Games to Watch

Jan. 15 - Michigan State at Wisconsin

Jan. 16 - Wisconsin at Michigan State; Denver at North Dakota

Jan. 17 - Denver at North Dakota

Jan. 31 - Michigan State vs. Penn State at Beaver Stadium

Feb. 2 - Boston University vs. Northeastern (Beanpot semifinal)

Boston College vs. Harvard (Beanpot semifinal)

Feb. 6 - Michigan State at Michigan

Feb. 7 - Michigan at Michigan State

Feb. 9 - Beanpot Final

Feb, 13 & 14 - Penn State at Michigan

Feb. 27 - BC at BU

Feb. 28 - BU at BC

March 5 & 6 - Wisconsin at Penn State

Spectrum Memories: The Russians Came and We Sent Them Home Again

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

The Philadelphia Flyers’ longest string of success during their final season calling the Spectrum home arrived in mid-to-late November and a sliver of December. 

An eight-game win streak, well timed with the return of team captain Eric Lindros from his third knee injury in less than four seasons, pulled the club out of the doldrums and set them on an ascending path toward defending their Atlantic Division title.

Six of those wins came on home ice, with only one against an opponent who ended the season with a superior record: the Detroit Red Wings.

At the time of the Black Friday matinee, however, the Wings were only just starting to motor through their appointed rounds. The defending Western Conference champions – who were mired in sludge during a shocking four-game sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils only five months prior – began the season stuck in the mud, going 5-5-2. 

All that began to change on Oct. 27, 1995, when Detroit GM Jimmy Devellano pulled off a puzzling deal which saw former 50-goal scorer Ray Whitney exiled to San Jose in exchange for winger Igor Larionov. 

Here’s the catch: the Wings already had four former Soviet-era players on its roster – forwards Sergei Fedorov and Slava Kozlov, along with defensemen Vladimir Konstantinov and Slava Fetisov. The acquisition of Larionov paved the way for the creation of the Russian Five. 

The pentaverate made their debut later that day to fuel a 3-0 victory in Calgary over the Flames. They’d drop the next two tilts on the road, but, starting with a 6-5 overtime decision in Boston on Nov. 2, embarked on a 7-game win streak which propelled them atop the Central Division. 

Owing to that sputtering start, the Red Wings came into Philly on Nov. 24 one point up on Toronto for the division lead but four points behind the Orange and Black, who sat second in the Atlantic to the surging Florida Panthers.

The Flyers, meanwhile, were fresh off a waxing of the LA Kings, who dropped a 5-2 decision to their ungracious hosts on Thanksgiving Eve Eve in what would end up being Wayne Gretzky’s final visit to Philadelphia while wearing the Black and Silver. That put them 4-0-0 since Lindros’ triumphant return. 

Head coach Terry Murray decided to up the ante a bit by starting erstwhile backup Garth Snow for the second consecutive game as head man Ron Hextall remained out with a pulled muscle. Snow, who by this time was quickly cementing his place on the depth chart ahead of one-time starter Dominic Roussel, made 25 stops in turning back the Kings and improving his record to 4-2-1. He wasn’t fully unaware of the impact these internationally trained speedster have on the pace of play.

Scotty Bowman countered with veteran Cup winner Mike Vernon, who had been responsible for 3 of Detroit’s 5 losses to that point. Bowman, ever cagey and aloof, staked Vernon and counterpart Chris Osgood in a battle for net-bound supremacy for the whole season in what could be best termed as a 1A/1B goaltending rotation. The former saw an end to his week-long rest following a 5-4 win in Edmonton earned with 25 saves.

With visions of Russians leaving the ice in a huff dancing in their heads, a full capacity sellout crowd of 17,380 were in attendance.

The end result was a 4-1 loss despite the Red Wings looking a half-step quicker and outshooting the Flyers, 37-26. Lindros lit the lamp twice for his third multi-score game of the year, picking up a point in the 16th of the 17 games for which he’d skated. Eric Desjardins chipped in two assists, Rob DiMaio and John LeClair each netted one.

The 36 saves were, by a wide margin, a career high for Snow. The product of the legendary high-school program at Mount Saint Charles High School in Woonsocket, Rhode Island turned in a pair of 32-save efforts previously (a 6-5 loss for Quebec at Montreal on Apr. 5, 1995; a 3-2 loss for the Nords in Philadelphia on Dec. 16, 1993).

A statement victory at a crucial time if there ever was one.

In the next day’s Daily News, usual boxing beat writer Bernard Fernandez subbed for Les Bowen and quoted Snow – who played for the USA at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer – as saying: “The Olympic experience probably prepared me more than anything for the way that Russian line plays. You have to do things a little differently as a goalie when those guys are out there.”

The final tally for the Russian Five: 

Fedorov: 8 shots on goal, 1 assist, minus-2

Fetisov:   2 SOG, no points, minus-1

Konstantinov: 1 SOG, minus-1

Kozlov:  1 SOG, minus-1

Larionov: 1 goal, 2 SOG, minus-2

As for Murray, he chose to praise both his goaltender and his opponents.

“Garth Snow was outstanding today,” he said. “They’re a creative hockey club. They’re going to force you, defensively, to make a lot of decisions. And Snowie was right on top of his game.”

“(The Russians) are schooled the same way,” Murray continued. “Their train of thought coming up as young players is the same. They play extremely well together, reading off of each other and creating offensive opportunities.”

Eleven days later, at Joe Louis Arena, the Red Wings gained their revenge. Looking a step-and-a-half faster than the Flyers from the opening drop, the hosts raced out to a 4-0 lead which could have easily been 8-0, then hung on for a 5-3 decision which quashed the visitors’ eventual season-best 8-game winning run. 

That win occurred only 3 days after their legendary 11-1 waxing of the Canadiens at the Forum. (You know the one, where Patrick Roy was left in for 9 goals, made a routine save then raised his arms in mock victory at the crowd’s sarcastic cheers, was finally pulled from the game, told Habs president Ronald Corey he’d never play another game in Montreal, was immediately suspended, then traded to Colorado and proceeded to beat Detroit en route to his third Stanley Cup win).

The Russians were responsible for the game’s opening and closing scores, and while the five-man unit only picked up 4 points on the night, were a major driver in the puck possession game which kept Philly on their heels throughout. 

Still, Murray was not at all hyperbolic in looking ahead after the success of the first test heading into the holiday stretch.

“To come up big against Detroit … I think, is a good indication of where we’re going and the type of team that we’re becoming,” he noted. “We’re coming off the most difficult part of our schedule for the whole season (16 games in 28 days. To finish it strong, with a lot of jump and good decision-making, feels very good.”

"Chasing the Game" another cliche best left behind

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Hockey lingo is heavily infused by a few choice phrases that pass in and out of style with every philosophical change in game strategy. Some of them are so deeply lodged in a player, coach, broadcaster or pundit’s consciousness, it can’t be dislodged with a laser beam. 

One of those which has proven to be more adhesive than barnacles on a boat hull, is the notion that each night, teams need to score that all-important first goal, or else they’ll work themselves into exhaustion due to “chasing the game.”

This season, under new head coach Rick Tocchet, the Philadelphia Flyers are doing their best to lay waste to that biting phrase.

After Saturday night’s 6-3 dispatch of the New Jersey Devils, the home squad has allowed the first goal in a mystifying 15 of 20 games. Even more out there, their record when other clubs get the jump improved to 8-4-3. That’s 19 of their 25 total points. 

A breakdown:

10/9        Florida                               1-2 (L)                   0-1-0

10/11      Carolina                          3-4 (OTL)                 0-1-1

10/16      Winnipeg                           2-5 (L)                   0-2-1

10/18      Minnesota                      2-1 (OTW)                1-2-1 

10/20      Seattle                              5-2 (W)                   2-2-1 

10/25      Islanders                        4-3 (SOW)                3-2-1

10/28      Pittsburgh                      3-2 (SOW)                 4-2-1

11/2        Calgary                              1-2 (L)                    4-3-1

11/6        Nashville                            3-1 (W)                  5-3-1

11/8        Ottawa                            2-3 (OTL)                  5-3-2

11/12      Edmonton                       1-2 (OTL)                  5-3-3

11/14      St Louis                          6-5 (SOW)                 6-3-3 

11/15      Dallas                                1-5 (L)                     6-4-3

11/20      St Louis                          3-2 (OTW)                 7-4-3

11/22      New Jersey                        6-3 (W)                  8-4-3

Of note - twice already the Flyers have erased an early deficit in three straight games. Eight times they’ve won beyond regulation when initially behind. 

With a league schedule condensed due to February’s Olympic break, there are going to be more opportunities for 3-in-4’s or 4-in-6’s to wreak havoc on the club’s energy level. It’s crucial to be able to store energy, to manage energy and to have a sharp mental edge when energy is flagging. Tocchet is well aware.

“You can still win those games with your ‘B game’ if you’re smart, if you play team hockey. Game management comes into play when you’re tired,” he said in Saturday’s pregame. “That’s something we’re working on here every day.”

For the sake of comparison consider the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Surely a roster competent in all three zones, playing a 200-foot game, giving a 60-minute effort, gets on top a lot and stays there, right?

Not so much.

Last season, the Cats allowed the game’s first goal in 39 of 82 regular-season games, going 14-21-4. That’s right. Fourteen wins and 32 points when supposedly caving in, allowing the opening salvo and “chasing the game” from the drop. 

This season, things are not quite as rosy. As of Saturday night’s 6-3 home loss to the two-time defending Cup losers, the Edmonton Oilers, Paul Maurice’s club has yielded first in 12 of their 21 tilts thus far, going 4-8-0. 

10/7       Chicago                             3-2 (W)                  1-0-0

10/13     Flyers                                2-5 (L)                    1-1-0

10/15     Detroit                               1-4 (L)                    1-2-0

10/18     Buffalo                               0-3 (L)                    1-3-0

10/23     Pittsburgh                          3-5 (L)                    1-4-0

10/28     Anaheim                          3-2 (SOW)               2-4-0

11/4       Anaheim                            3-7 (L)                    2-5-0

11/8       San Jose                            1-3 (L)                   2-6-0

11/13     Washington                        6-3 (W)                  3-6-0

11/15     Tampa Bay                        1-3 (L)                    3-7-0

11/17     Vancouver                         8-5 (W)                   4-7-0

11/22     Edmonton                          3-6 (L)                    4-8-0

Of course, there are several mitigating factors between the Flyers’ and Panthers’ respective situations. Maurice’s continuity of coaching, the confidence of being a three-time Eastern Conference playoff champion which has overcome virtually every obstacle, an obvious talent-level gap, then the two pressing this year which may explain the discrepancy – the expectation of losing Aleksander Barkov for the entire season and fatigue of participating in 335 games from October 2022 up to the present.

History Always Repeats

Looking back nearly 30 years, to the 1996-97 season which ended up being the tip of the spear for the Dead Puck Era, the Cup Final-entrant Flyers under Terry Murray finished second in their division and third in the East while allowing the first goal in 43 of 82 contests. 

They were 16-19-8 overall, 5-8-0 without Eric Lindros as he slowly recovered from a hamstring injury at the start of the year and 11-11-8 thereafter. The club was even scored upon first 7 times during their season-changing 17-game unbeaten streak from late November through early January. Clearly the effect of playing from a deficit wasn’t as dire as some might suggest.

Nothing truly ensures success like getting ahead and staying ahead, and the franchise’s last Stanley Cup Final entrant is proof. During the Flyers’ 2009-10 season which ended in a surprise four-round journey the club was absolutely dismal when playing catch up, going 8-25-0 

overall – 2-8-0 with John Stevens and then 6-17-0 with Peter Laviolette.  

Do you know where I *suspect* the phrase originated and gained steam? When Jacques Lemaire implemented the neutral-zone trap full-time after the Devils won the Cup in 1995. 

In stark contrast to the Panthers under head coach Doug MacLean, who would revert to the bottleneck with a lead at the start of the third period, New Jersey robotically fell into the full press immediately after scoring first – whether that be 5 minutes after puck drop or midway through a contest. It made for boring hockey which forcibly drained the lifeblood from opponents for half a decade.

Old habits die hard. Those three loaded words seemed to vanish in the vapor of an Alex Ovechkin breakaway when the NHL came back from its implosion in 2005. It started to creep back in around the time the Orange and Black made their last Finals run, dipped back out of existence when Jaromir Jagr arrived, then somehow became harder to kill than cockroaches and Keith Richards. 

Bemoaning an initial deficit is the province of small minds. Give up a goal 4 minutes in? There’s 56 minutes to tie and go ahead. Give it up halfway through regulation? Half of the game to get it back. 

That antiquated attitude simply doesn’t hold water since 2021, the last round of expansion which welcomed Seattle and left the NHL at its current 32-franchise bloat. Since then, teams coast to 3 and 4 goal leads only to surrender like anesthetic was suddenly pumped through the benches. 

It’s the hardest of hard sells when the Washington Capitals put up 15 goals over their last 2 games this week. Or when the Flyers nearly overcame a 5-1 first-period deficit in Detroit two Christmases ago, falling 7-6 in a shootout. Or when they battled back from a pair of 2-goal deficits in St. Louis 8 days ago to win a 6-5 thriller – their third multi-goal comeback victory in the season’s first quarter.

Saturday Night Special

If there is a book coaches consult which contains other sage words of wisdom, including “never give up a goal in the first or last minute of a period,” on Saturday night, the Flyers tore that book to shreds. 

After the Devils enjoyed the early territorial advantage as well as an 8-2 shot edge in the first eight minutes and a 1-0 lead thanks to a Timo Meier second-chance power-play strike, all Hell broke loose. 

“I think we were pretty predictable,” Tocchet admitted as an opener to his postgame presser. 

Noah Cates followed up an Egor “Prince of” Zamula shot to tie the game after exactly nine minutes elapsed. Then, in a franchise-record span of 26 seconds, Matvei Michkov was sprung on a breakaway by Sean Couturier off a defensive-zone turnover and Tyson Foerster followed 9 seconds later with a one-time laser and added another strike on the same shift, this time from the right circle, only 17 seconds after the fourth puck drop. 

The hosts were now up 4-1 and started attacking.

“It’s a big thing,” Tocchet said about the history-making staccato burst. “That team can come back. They tried. They had some chances there. That’s why you have to bear down. That’s why you have to stay structured in your system. It was nice to have that killer instinct.”

Get a lead and keep a lead? That’s at least an evergreen saying.

The Flyers kept up the pressure in the second period, severely tilting the ice for 16 ½ minutes and ended up maintaining a three-goal edge after a Nico Hischier goal neutralized a Bobby Brink tracer. 

Flyers starter Dan Vladar, ever deepening the chasm between he and his backup Sam Ersson, smothered 32 pucks for the victory. He was dented just once in the third period, with 6:33 to play on a long blast tipped in by Hischier he couldn’t see and therefore, didn’t stop. The Devils finally awoke and had two opportunities, one in a vacant net, to cut their deficit to one, but Trevor Zegras put an end to the fans’ agita with a brilliant breakaway marker at 15:21 for the 6-3 final. 

“The last two games we were confronting at the blue line and that’s how you get odd-man rush chances, right?” Tocchet added. “Once you counterattack, you take off.”

Gravity almost pulled Cates under during his postgame pool interviews, but he deftly demurred, saying, “Obviously you don’t want to give (that first) one up but to get one then get the building into it … a couple quick after that was awesome.”

In the microcosm of the Rick Tocchet era, resilience not control, seems to be an effective strategy. The Flyers will need it facing a 4-in-6 this coming week on the road against Tampa, Florida, the Islanders and Devils.They’ll also have overlapping 3-in-4s in mid-December and just before Christmas, then yet another out West before the turn of the new year.