The Flyers’ Special Teams at Practice

The Flyers have been working on their Special Teams for the past two days (To include today) in order to get ready for the Round Robin Tournament and the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. Special teams have improved over the course of this past season with the additions of Assistant Coach Michel Therrien who handles the Power Play, and Assistant Coach Mike Yeo who handles the Penalty Kill.

At the break of the 2019-2020 season, the Flyers power play was ranked 14th overall at 20.8%, and their penalty kill was ranked 11th at 81.8%. 

The Power Play took a while to start up today at practice, however, keep in mind, though, the Flyers haven’t had Special Teams practices until yesterday. And while the Power Play was having a hard time starting up, the Penalty Kill was getting the job done.

Forward, Travis Konecny said, “The [penalty kill], they’re doing well right now. It’s easy to get frustrated when the power play’s not going well, but if you look at if from the other side fo the coin, that means our PK right now is right where it should be and improving.” 

The Power Play was taking a while to get comfortable with each other, Konecny also said. 

Head Coach Alain Vigneault thought differently than Konecny, though, “I saw a real good Brian Elliott in the first period, made some real big saves. He was the difference,” Vigneault continued on to say Elliott was in top form today, and that’s he isn’t worried about the Flyers Power Play, “We’re going to have a good amount of time to get it back to where it was before.” 

Center Scott Laughton said, “It’s probably easier for us on the PK getting back in the swing of things, not moving the puck or anything like that.” Laughton also agreed with Vigneault and said Elliott helped the penalty kill today. Whatever the case may be, the Flyers do not appear to be worried that the Special Teams aspect of the game.