After the Flyers’ 6-2 loss to Anaheim yesterday, Dave Hakstol said he would “evaluate it all and get better from it.”

Maybe that’s because the Ducks blew up his mad science experiment.

Look, I know it’s proper form to have a nice lede to a story. To write something that really draws in the reader and keeps them wanting more.

And that’s fine when the team is winning, or if it loses a game or two.

But for a game like this, where it was painfully obvious on MONDAY that the Flyers were starting from a disadvantage against a very good Anaheim team because of a peculiar coaching decision?

I don’t want to come across as spitting fire. The team had a clunker. And if they have one every nine games and go 5-3 in the other eight, that’s a 91-point pace. Steal another point here or there and you are a playoff team. So this isn’t Armageddon.

But if I can identify a bad hockey idea 24 hours before the coach, that’s not good.

So, there’s no time for cute and fluffy introductions at times like this. Flyers fans want answers. And while I may not have all of them, I’m not going to waste time getting to them.

So, to the takeaways…

 

1) Lessons in Bad Coaching Decisions

Once it was learned that Andrew MacDonald would miss four-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury (he took a puck to his right knee… and was on crutches in the press box last night), Dave Hakstol decided that rather than just plug in his replacement he would completely shuffle the defensemen into three brand new pairs.

It was a real head-scratcher. Shayne Gostisbehere and Robert Hagg had been excellent together through eight games. Why break them up?

Hakstol had a couple of options: keep Travis Sanheim on the third pairing with Brandon Manning and move Radko Gudas to the top unit with Ivan Provorov, or play Gudas with Manning, since they’ve played together before, and see what Sanheim looks like with Provorov.

He chose Door Number 3.

A former coach had Dry Island, which didn’t go over well with some players. This coach ended up with Zonk Island, which I know kind of went over like a lead balloon in the locker room.

I mean, on Monday Gostisbehere himself said it would be a challenge to juggle all the defensemen.

“I’ve never played with [Gudas] before,” he said. “We just got to feel each other out right now. I’m sure there’ll be some growing pains but let’s hope the mistakes aren’t magnified too much.”

Well, the Ducks brought the world’s largest magnifying glass with them to the Wells Fargo Center.

It made no sense to make these changes, which I outlined on Twitter before the game started:

NOTE: I don’t know why degenerate hockey gamblers would want to read any other site.

But Hakstol is a very certain individual. He was adamant this would work. Also from Monday:

“The entire group is pretty versatile,” he said. “We like them the way had them [in practice]. There’s different roles that each unit has… There is some familiarity between the pairs. It’s mostly pairing guys who we feel will be a successful combination together.”

On Family Feud, Dave would get all three strikes and give the Duck family a chance to steal.

And steal they did.

It was amazing that the score was tied after the first period and that the Flyers had out-shot the Ducks 12-6 as Anaheim had dominated play.

And they did so because the Flyers just couldn’t get the puck out of the zone.

Were it not for 12 blocked shots by the Flyers in the first period, this game could have been an even bigger rout.

But the second period is where it all unraveled.

“We felt like we were OK after the first period,” Gostisbehere told me after his post game media scrum. “But then in the second period it went off the rails. We had too many turnovers and too many mistakes and it cost us.”

Yes it did.

Like here:

A lot goes wrong here.

First, both Sanheim and Manning are too far out of position. They are way too far to the right side of the ice with the play coming from the other side. And they aren’t back enough, leaving them no angle on a fast play coming at them.

But apparently, that’s a new concept:

“I should have been back a little further,”  Manning said. “It’s something we have changed this year. Before you know it our D-men were up in the middle and as a defenseman you try to keep a tight gap and stay close to your guys, so for me I got to be the safety there and back a little bit further, but at the same time that’s a D-man coming 100 miles an hour, think it’s a tough play for everyone in that situation.”

Secondly, Travis Konecny, who was already having a bad night after turning the puck over on the Ducks’ first goal, was the forward with defensive support and he got caught too wide as Brandon Montour blew by him.

The rest was history.

And it wasn’t just these guys.

Provorov had his worst game since maybe a minus-4 night in his fourth game last season against Chicago with two giveaways that led to Anaheim goals.

Hagg missed coverage on Rickard Rakell after Ryan Getzlef took a puck away from Jordan Weal behind the net for another Ducks goal.

All told, the Flyers had 14 giveaways. Seven were credited to defensemen.

“We just weren’t sharp,” Hakstol said. “When we are good, we are sharp, close, tight support, making confident plays with the puck in those tight areas. We didn’t tonight. Bottom line. We didn’t.”

When the third period started, Hakstol again juggled the D-pairs.

“I think we just went back to some comfortability level,” Gostisbehere said. “I mean I played with Hagg and Manning has played with Gudas before, I don’t know about Sanheim and Provoov, but I think just to get some familiarity together…

“I don’t know what’s going to go on [moving forward], but I think as a team we could have played a lot better tonight.”

When you juggle unnecessarily, Hak, you can get burned:

 

2) Goaltending conundrum

Once again, the Flyers have goaltending woes. Pick a year out of the hat. Any year. There’s 50 of them to choose from. You have a handful of Parents, a couple Lindberghs, one Froese and a couple Hextalls in there that would be considered a winner, but you have about a 75-80% chance of picking a season where goaltending left you feeling like this:

And here we are, nine games into the season, and we’re talking about it again. Already.

Brian Elliott has started six games. He’s won four, so it’s a bit unfair to call him a disaster. But when he’s been off, he’s been really off – and last night was one of those games.

He faced 25 shots and only made 19 saves. His goals against average has now ballooned to 3.33. His save percentage has plummeted to .886.

And then there are goals where he looks like this:

I was talking to an NHL scout last Saturday at the Edmonton game about the Flyers goaltenders. In the interest of full disclosure, he’s not high on either Elliott or Michal Neuvirth.

But here’s what he said about Elliott:

“The knock on the guy his entire career has been that he doesn’t position his feet properly all the time and it leads to bad goals.”

See above.

The fans are screaming for Neuvirth – and he has looked good in his three starts so far – but he is a streaky goalie. You love him when he’s hot and you go crazy when he’s not.

But, at this point, Hakstol might be willing to give Neuvirth a couple starts in a row. If nothing else, it allows Elliott to clear his head and see if he can’t get himself right in practice. And, maybe Neuvirth stays on a hot streak and plays well enough to stay as the primary guy for a while.

However, the situation is as it always seems to be – there’s no true No. 1 goalie on the roster.

 

3) How about some ice in your whine?

After the game was over several Flyers complained about the ice conditions:

“We noticed the ice is pretty bad right now,” said Sean Couturier, who scored both Flyers goals. “We know it and we have to make better decisions. We have to play [and be] conscious of that. Right now we are risking, making risky plays.”

Asked about what’s wrong with the ice, here’s what the captain had to say:

“I don’t know but we’ll look into it,” said Claude Giroux. “It’s just a little different. We don’t know what was the issue, but at the same time it’s fair for both teams. We’ll look into it. I don’t really want to comment on it because I don’t know what’s going on.”

And then there was Ghost:

“I thought the ice was horrendous tonight,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on, we’re just sticking to it, but it’s not an excuse or anything, it’s just something that we gotta deal with and hopefully it’ll get better.

“[Last game] it wasn’t as bad, but that’s the worst it’s ever been in my career here.”

So, while the rest of the writers went to listen to coach speak from Hakstol, I went to seek out answers about the ice.

I mean, to be fair to the Flyers’ ice crew, they are frequently at the top or near the top of the rankings of all NHL arenas when it comes to ice conditions.

So this had to be an anomaly, right?

I hunted down a Wells Fargo Center source who I knew would have the answers, and he told me the arena pre-game was at 80% humidity because of the weather outside.

He said it’s actually been an issue for most of the home stand, and that they have been trying to manage it, but today, after the rain, it got really humid and it was impossible to correct in time for the game.

“The one thing we can’t control is the weather,” he said. “You don’t always think that an indoor venue can be affected by the weather outside, but it can considerably. We need it to turn to real October temperatures soon so it can feel like Fall.”

With La Nina coming – meaning a mild winter, that might not be the case.

I will give credit to Hakstol though for addressing this in his press conference and basically telling his players to stop carping about the ice, because a 6-2 loss can’t be blamed on the ice.

“Number one, it’s the same for both teams,” he said. “We are not going to fall back on that. There are a lot of things that come before any of those types of things.

“We have to look in the mirror. Right from square one. We have got to be better. We had the chance to make this a hell of a home stand here to start that year. We slipped. 3-2 on the home stand. It’s an average run.”

The Flyers head to Ottawa and Toronto for two games before coming back home next Monday.

I’m gonna bring a parka, because I guarantee the air condition will be on full blast in the Center on Monday night.

 

4) Nolan Patrick injured

Here’s what happened:

The hit is clean. It’s shoulder to shoulder. The impact is hard – head against glass. Patrick had to be helped down the tunnel by a member of the Flyers training staff.

Ron Hextall called it an upper body injury and said we’ll know more today.

But, you don’t have guys helping you walk if it’s a shoulder injury. Patrick got his bell rung. He’s likely being monitored for a concussion. Whether the Flyers announce that publicly or not, we’ll wait and see (I’m betting no), but I think there’s a better than 50-50 chance that Patrick misses Thursday’s game, if not more than that.

Injury aside, Patrick has been on a bit of a roller coaster as a rookie so far. There have been flashes of brilliance that gets everyone excited about him – after all he was the No. 2 pick in the draft – but he’s still just 19 and a bit of a deer in headlights at times – like losing the puck battle against Edmonton Saturday that resulted in the Oilers’ only goal.

And it seems that the “fourth line” centered by Scott Laughton is getting more ice time than Patrick’s of late, meaning Patrick is really playing limited minutes.

It is highly unlikely (although with the Flyers I will never say anything is 100% certain unless I know it to be) that he will be sent back to Junior hockey. The Flyers would have to do that before he returns to the lineup, or else he has to stay on the roster all season. And he’s too young to play in the AHL (stupid rule that we’ll get into sometime but is driven by money in Canada), so he’s likely to stay here.

But, we all know how Giroux and Gostisbehere struggled last year coming off similar injuries to what Patrick had surgery for this past summer (sports hernias). It takes a while to really recover 100 percent from those.

So, we may not see the real Nolan Patrick for some time, but I’m betting the Flyers give him a breather here for a few games – definitely if he’s concussed, and maybe even if he’s not.

 

5) Roster Moves?

I think something is coming. There’s no way the Flyers go on the road to Canada with just these six defensemen – especially after last night’s performance. Somebody will be called up. Who, is the big question. Will it be Sam Morin, who made the team out of camp, but didn’t play in the first four games before being sent down?

Or will it be a depth guy like Mark Alt, who can come up and be an emergency guy if needed?

I’ll throw in one wild card for ya – how about Mark Friedman?

He was impressive in training camp and opened some eyes. Maybe getting him into practice with the big club on a road trip gives you a little more intel on him. Just a thought.

And if Patrick is hurt, do they need a forward?

Jori Lehtera, who was again not noticeable, can play center – and he’s actually a better center than he is a winger, so he can move into that role.

That would mean that either Taylor Leier (likely) or Matt Read (unlikely) would move in on the wing. They were both healthy scratches yesterday.

But, the Flyers have a history of rewarding guys playing well in the minors.

So what about the possibility of calling up left wing Danick Martel? In seven games for the Phantoms, he has seven goals and three assists for 10 points and is a plus-10. If Read isn’t a guy that you think is going to help much, maybe you give Martel a shot.

The Flyers could waive Read again. He won’t be claimed because of his salary. Again, this is just a thought.

 

6) Math Happens

I don’t ever want to disavow any research that can be valuable for analysis of hockey, so please don’t take what I’m about to say as that.

But this game was a living, breathing example of why you can’t be a slave to hockey analytics.

If you were to go purely by the analytics, the Flyers were a Corsi plus-6.

Now, to be fair to the stat geeks, normally, when you take more shots than the other team, it is indicative of you controlling the puck more and in turn, mathematically, you are getting a higher percentage of chances at the net.

But, as is the case with dealing with any odds, there is a gambling element attached to it – and in this case, you just rolled snake eyes.

Make no mistake, the Ducks dominated this game. They dictated tempo. They were a better forechecking team. They were a better back-checking team. They seemed faster, even if they weren’t. They beat the Flyers to a pulp.

Like so:

Use the analytics to give you perspective. But use your eyes to see reality. They will never lie to you like the numbers do sometimes.

 

7) Loose Pucks

Here are some tidbits from around the rink last night:

  1. Couturier scored two goals and now has six on the season. He didn’t score his sixth goal last season until New Year’s Day. The most he’s ever scored in a season is 15 in 2014-15. He didn’t get his sixth that season until December 11th. He’s well on his way to a career-best.
  2. His second goal was a milestone goal for all involved. It was Couturier’s 200th point in the NHL. Picking up assists were Sanheim (his first NHL point) and Jake Voracek (his 500th NHL point). That may have never happened before, and it may never happen again.
  3. Another interesting thing about Couturier in this one, he has been talking to assistant equipment manager Harry Bricker for the last few days about changing his skate blades. Couturier told me Bricker put new blades on his skates just prior to the Anaheim game. Maybe that’s why he was able to deal with the bad ice better than his teammates and score a pair of goals.
  4. Speaking of Voracek, he now has 12 points this season, all assists. His 12 points have him tied for fourth in the NHL. Right now, both he and Washingtons Evgeny Kuznetsov are among the top four scorers in the league and neither has a goal. Go figure.
  5. The Ducks scored a power play goal in the second period when Nick Ritchie popped one in on a rebound. As good as the Ducks are it was just their second power play goal of the season.
  6. It was the Flyers’ first loss this season to a team not coached by a former Flyers coach. The other three came against Peter Laviolette (two to Nashville) and John Stevens (Los Angeles).