PHILADELPHIA — None of the numbers are pretty. But they all reflect how much trouble the Philadelphia Flyers have had this season putting the puck in the net.
Through their first dozen games, the Flyers are 29th in the league with 2.50 goals per game, 30th with 25.7 shots per game, 31st in five-on-five goal differential (16 for, 31 against) and 28th with a 46.4 shot-attempt (Corsi) share.
Individually, of course, they’re not much better. Morgan Frost has just two assists in his last nine games, and is still looking for his first goal. Tyson Foerster has just three points (two goals, one assist). Owen Tippett has one goal. Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ two most skilled forwards, still have yet to score a goal this season during five-on-five play. Captain and current top-line center Sean Couturier has been held off of the scoresheet entirely in all but two games.
Yes, the Flyers have been better defensively lately, keying their pair of low-scoring wins last week in Boston (2-1) and against St. Louis (2-0). They were even decent in their own end on Saturday, too, in a 2-0 loss in the rematch at home with the Bruins. But at some point, if they’re going to be competitive this season, they’re simply going to have to do more damage offensively.
The most perplexing part of their lack of chemistry offensively is that there’s really been just one new addition from last season, Michkov. Perhaps coach John Tortorella’s frequent line shuffling has adversely affected their ability to get on the same page this season, but just about all of these guys have played with one another at some point over the past few years.
So why, with that familiarity, does it sometimes look like they’re utterly confused with what the other is doing in the offensive zone?
“That’s a good question,” Frost said after Saturday’s game. “I think we’ve just got to get our feet under us. Every team is going to have stretches they go through that are tough throughout the season. I think it’s just about stopping the bleeding. We’ve got pretty much the same team, so I think we all know it’s in this room, and we can do it.”
Michkov’s struggles — he’s now gone four straight games without a point — are the most understandable, since he is a 19-year-old rookie. Tortorella indicated that too often in the offensive zone, Michkov is looking for open ice rather than supporting his teammates. As for Konecny, while he hasn’t done much at five-on-five, he’s still the Flyers’ leading scorer with 10 points (five goals, five assists) and has at least two or three great scoring chances most nights.
The cases of Frost, Tippett and Foerster, though, are probably the most perplexing. All of them should be in the primes of their careers and taking steps forward rather than regressing, which is what they’ve all done to this point. It’s still too early in the season to be overly concerned, but it’s at least a tad worrying.
Frost, who has been in and out of Tortorella’s doghouse throughout their time together, admitted on Saturday that he could be playing much better. He nearly had his first goal in the second period of Saturday’s game, but Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo got just enough of his shot off the rush that would have gotten the Flyers, trailing 2-0 at the time, back into the game while also removing the giant monkey on Frost’s back.
“I’ll be the first one to say I’ve been pretty bad this year, and I take full ownership of that,” Frost said. “Just trying to get it going. I don’t want to keep bringing this up because it’s been every year with the confidence or whatever, but I feel good going into the games. I think it’s just going to take a couple bounces here and there and then I’ll really start going.”
Tortorella was asked about Frost on Monday after the Flyers’ practice, and said he’s “trying like hell” to get the young centerman going.
Is Frost’s leash with the coach getting shorter?
“It certainly is,” he said.
Tippett has seemingly had more possession of the puck in recent games, but it hasn’t translated into much of anything on the scoresheet. He’s second on the Flyers with 29 shots, behind only Konecny, but he’s also missed the net 22 times, tied for seventh-most in the league.
“I think me having the puck on my stick has been better the last couple of games,” Tippett said. “Early on in the year, I didn’t have it enough. For me, it’s just a matter of being patient and not throwing it away when I do have it. I don’t think it’s trying to be cute or anything. I’m trying to generate chances.”
Foerster has already come out of the lineup once as a healthy scratch. From Tortorella’s perspective, the 22-year-old isn’t doing the things that made him effective last season as arguably the league’s best two-way rookie forward, such as being involved in the game from a physical standpoint (Foerster has been credited with just seven hits so far this season, reflecting that).
The coach would like to see both Foerster and Tippett improve on their “hardness.”
“Tyson and Tipp, for them to get their games back they have to be stronger on the puck,” Tortorella said. “Remember Tyson struggled (early) last year scoring goals, and he was here because he had one of the heaviest, strongest sticks I’ve seen out of a young kid. … Haven’t seen it. Haven’t seen it out of Tipp.
“They’re not scoring goals, which we dearly need, but I look (at) why. I look further back on what’s going on in their game, and the concentration, and quite honestly the hardness of it, of playing in those areas, protecting pucks, winning battles — is not there.”
Of course, the Flyers have to play more as a five-some in the offensive zone if they’re ever going to get going as individuals. They just haven’t spent enough time there. According to NHL EDGE stats, the Flyers have played 40.2 percent of their minutes in the offensive zone, 22nd in the league.
Tortorella has mentioned in recent days that he doesn’t believe the players are supporting each other enough in the offensive zone, and therefore aren’t able to make the small-area plays that can turn into scoring chances. He’s also concerned about the lack of aggressiveness from the defensemen in terms of their entries and their pinching.
It’s a lot to fix, particularly as the Flyers try to maintain their recent cohesiveness in their own zone.
“Maybe that’s the losing,” Tortorella said. “You lose some games and maybe you just get a little bit too careful. We can’t be careful, we’ve got to be more aggressive, we’ve got to be closer, and we’ve got to start banging the walls.”
Said Tippett: “The moment you start getting frustrated, it can lead into other parts of the game. We just have to continue doing what we’re doing and it’ll break through, hopefully.”
(Photo of Joel Farabee: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
