ST. LOUIS — Sure, the Flyers had a few bright spots in their 6-3 loss to the Blues on Wednesday. They lit the red lamp three more times than they did in a shutout loss at New Jersey before the Christmas break, so that was an improvement.
Still, coach Dave Hakstol was having nothing of bright spots or moral victories on the day after the loss to the St. Louis.
“There's always bright spots, but we're looking at the overall 60 minutes and it wasn't good enough so not really interested in looking at bright spots right now,” he said Thursday after a fast-paced practice at Scottrade Center. “We had a lot of holes in that game. We have a lot of work to do. We have to be better and we have to be better in almost every area.”
Mainly in the defensive zone in terms of blocking passing lanes and sweeping the front of net to goalie Steve Mason's visual advantage. But also in the offensive zone in generating scoring chances, which were in short supply other than the three bright-spot goals. Then, there's that pesky neutral zone.
The Flyers have little time to reshape their game, traveling to the West Coast for games Friday in San Jose and New Year's Day in Anaheim. After a break of six days, it's back into the fire with three games in five nights, with the Flyers skipping the frying-pan part.
“We're going into another competitive building (Friday in San Jose) so we don't have a lot of time to turn it around and move in the right direction,” Hakstol said, noting the practice Thursday was designed in that regard. “Coming off the break, we have to get back to the foundation of what we are, individual and collective competitiveness, so we just went out and had a good work day.
“Thirty-five minutes and got the work done and get moving forward.”
NHL
The makeup of the lines was hard to discern in the practice Thursday, as first-liner Jakub Voracek had what Hakstol called a “maintenance day.”
“Haven't even thought about lines yet,” he said. “Today was about getting some competitiveness back. We're worry about lines later, that's secondary. Just competitive.”
Couturier's back
After being sidelined for 16 games over five weeks, center Sean Couturier returned to the lineup Wednesday. He skated between Nick Cousins and Dale Weise, and though he didn't get an assist on the goal, his rush led to Cousins' goal at 4:32 of the second period.
Being back “felt good,“ he said.
“It's never easy coming back finding your timing. As the game went on I feel I got better," Couturier said. "My legs were there; I felt in good shape, but my timing, I felt sometimes either a little ahead of the play or a little behind the play. It's just about finding the right timing.
“I have to build on last night. It wasn't our best game but I have to build and get better every day."
Hockey gods 101
Center Brayden Schenn's pretty one-timer goal served as an example of the mythical hockey gods at work. His goal, at 4:13 of the third period, came just 28 seconds after his apparent goal was disallowed. Referee Joe McIsaac lost sight of the puck under Blues goalie Carter Hutton before trickled out to Schenn for the tap-in.
Were the hockey gods involved?
“It happens. It happens for sure,” Schenn said. “You don't get the bounce one way, then it hops the other way. Sometimes you go through a stretch where you may not get any bounces, then it goes in. It definitely happens during the course of a long season.”