VOORHEES, N.J. — Few hockey coaches or even players, for that matter, enjoy a five-day break between games. Especially when your goaltender has just logged back-to-back shutout victories.
Given the chance to play instead of sit, Dave Hakstol and the Flyers would have opted for the former.
Yet there is perhaps one advantage to all this and it's something that will only be present this season, not next.
Hakstol’s systems are slightly different from that of Craig Berube. Especially his neutral zone forecheck that requires tighter gaps and more pressure from a five-man unit.
Hakstol said when the season began, he hoped the Flyers would quickly get to the point where everything they do on the ice is instinctive without having to pause and think.
Four games into the regular season, the Flyers say they have a better grasp of Hakstol’s system and predict that when they host Dallas on Tuesday, they will have an even better handle on things because the long layoff has given them a chance to practice more.
“It’s OK,” Wayne Simmonds said of the break. “It’s a good thing in this case. We’re learning new systems and we are going to settle into it. We need to get more comfortable.
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“I thought we’ve done a good job the last couple of games and this break is going to solidify it. It should be all second nature by the time we are done this little layoff here.”
The players feel once the Flyers have mastered the subtle points of a new neutral zone forecheck, they will be better able to slow down quick teams off the rush.
“I think the guys are starting to get it and you can see it out there,” Simmonds said. “Our neutral zone has been really good for us. We’re stopping plays up and turning and getting opportunities the other way.
“We’re playing a pretty simple game, getting pucks deep and not turning it over in the neutral zone. That is huge. That is where we got into a lot of problems last year.”
Hakstol gave the players off Thursday and they are off Saturday, as well. This way, he said, he can have two hard practices Sunday and Monday to prep for the back-to-back games against Dallas and at Boston on Wednesday.
“We’re not going to have many stretches like this during the season,” Hakstol said. “Very seldom do you get two days off practice in a row … we have a good foundation, but a lot of things to build and improve. You can’t get to everything, but we’ll get to some things.”
Jakub Voracek had an interesting take on the layoff. There’s no way a team can maintain momentum by not playing for five days.
What it can do, however, is accept the reality that players will be rusty and just focus on the work ethic for a period or so before things fall into place.
“We just can’t panic if we are rusty,” Voracek said. “And we’re going to be rusty. It’s always like that. If you go five to six days without a game, you have the make sure that first 20 minutes that you pay attention to the details.
“Maybe you are gonna have lags because game tempo has nothing to do with practice tempo. We’ve got to stay patient like we did the last two games. Hopefully we will find a way to win the game.”
It won’t be easy for the Flyers.
Last season, they won three in a row, had a five-day break and came back and lost four straight. Later, they won four in a row, had a four-day break and came back and lost.