Photo Credit: Mitchell Leff/ USA TODAY Sports
The month of January will officially be in the Flyers rearview mirror when they hit the ice Tuesday night.
After a month where the Flyers won just one of 14 games and secured six out of a possible 28 points, they’ll have a chance to get off on the right foot to start the month of February.
Just to review, the Flyers went 1-10-2, were outscored 50-28, and averaged just 2.15 goals-for per game in the first month of 2022. Simply put, it was very much a month to forget.
February marks a new beginning for the Flyers. They play a total of eight games, seven of which come on home ice. They’ll get their fair share of meetings with Metropolitan Division rivals as well with games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, and Washington Capitals (twice).
To kick things off though, they’ll battle with Kyle Connor and the Winnipeg Jets in hopes of starting off the month of February on a high note.
Lines/Pairings from practice
Everyone took the ice for practice today except for forward Morgan Frost. Here’s how the Flyers looked at pratice this morning in regards to lines and defensive pairings:
Forward Lines:
Lindblom-Giroux-Atkinson
van Riemsdyk-Laughton-Konecny
Willman-Brassard-Mayhew
Ratcliffe-Bunnaman-MacEwen
Defensive Pairings:
Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-York
Frost absent from practice. Expected to play versus Jets
Morgan Frost didn’t take the ice for Flyers practice this morning leaving people wondering whether or not he suffered an injury, had a maintenance day, or had been sent down the AHL. Derick Brassard took the place of Frost on the third line as well as on the second power play unit.
It would’ve been very odd if the Flyers had chosen to send Frost down considering he’s coming off of one of his better games defensively and has had really good chemistry with his linemates Max Willman and Gerry Mayhew.
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It turns out, Frost wasn’t feeling well when he arrived to the practice facility leading the Flyers to make the decision to keep him off of the ice. While he didn’t practice, Flyers head coach Mike Yeo said he expects him to be in the lineup tomorrow night versus the Jets.
“Frosty came to the rink today feeling a little bit under the weather so we kept him off,” Yeo said. “We expect him to be a player tomorrow.”
Brassard out until after break despite making progress
Derick Brassard hit the ice once again this morning continuing to rehab from his hip injury.
Brassard, who the Flyers signed to a one-year, $825,000 contract this offseason with the Flyers, last played in a game back on Jan. 6 versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. He’ll miss at least one more game. With the Flyers having a stretch of seven days without a game due to the NHL All-Star break, it doesn’t make sense to rush him back.
“Derick, that was by far the most activity he’s seen in a long time,” Yeo said. He said he was feeling it after practice. That was a pretty intense practice, a little up and down, all the starts and stops to battles, that was great. But as we’re playing tomorrow, getting through a practice like that is certainly a pretty good indication that you’re ready. With that said I don’t think it makes a lot of sense. We got a week off here. I think it was a good first step and he’s going to have the opportunity to skate a little bit more now over the break, come back, have another good practice, and then hopefully he’s ready to go.”
Flyers third line building more and more chemistry with each game
The line of Max Willman, Morgan Frost, and Gerry Mayhew has been the Flyers best line over the course of the last few games and seem to be gelling more and more with each game.
On Saturday afternoon in the Flyers 4-3 overtime win over the Kings, Morgan Frost made nice play on the breakout gathering the puck along the wall before pushing it to Max Willman. Willman then eventually passed the puck back to Frost who made a nice pass to Rasmus Ristolainen who made a nice move to the net before dishing it off to Gerry Mayhew for the tap-in goal to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Over the last three games, Mayhew has two goals. He has potted three goals over his past five games.
“. . . We’ve been buzzing and just getting the pucks deep, we’re hogging the [defense] and we’re getting the puck back,” Mayhew said following Saturday afternoons game. “If we do that night in and night out , I think good things will happen for us. But it definitely felt good.”
Ristolainen unsure about future
Rasmus Ristolainen was traded to the Flyers back in late July. The Flyers sent a first-round pick, defenseman Robert Hagg and a 2023 second-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres for the big-bodied defensman.
Over the course of 40 games, the 6’4″ defenseman has registered 11 points scoring two goals and tallying nine assists. He’s a physical defenseman whose long reach allows him to break up plays. He leads the Flyers in hits this season with 138 and has held his own defensively.
After this season, Ristolainen is set to become an unrestricted free agent. He hasn’t given much thought to his future just yet but said he’s enjoyed his short time in Philly.
“I haven’t really thought about it at all,” Ristolainen said. “Those sort of things I can’t really control what’s going to happen. I’ve really enjoyed my time in Philly. I like my teammates a lot and the whole staff so it’s been good so far besides the games. We’re not where we [need to be] at but still, I believe in this group.”
Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher did make it clear that he wanted to re-sign Ristolainen at some point. However, its not a definite that the Flyers get a deal done with the veteran defenseman. Time will tell whether or not Ristolainen sticks around.
