Meltzer: The Standard Episode 2 Recap
The second installment of "The Standard", follows the club on and off the ice through the first half of the six-game preseason schedule
After camp opened with a grueling skating test, the players in camp had combination of an intrasquad scrimmage, a skating-intensive practice, dryland training and then a conditioning skate on Day 2. The next night, the team played its first game of the preseason (a 2-1 home win over the Boston Bruins). On Day 4, the team held a similar combination of activities on Day 4 to what the second day featured. Day 5 was the team's first off-day.
Watch: The Standard Episode 2
That's where Episode 2 begins: the first off-day for the players. There's a recap on what happened so far through the eyes of selected payers. Moving forward from there, the episode carries through to the next two preseason contests (a 2-1 loss in Buffalo and a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of the Capitals). Along the way, viewers are introduced to the Flyers' new assistant coaches, defense/penalty kill coach Brad Shaw and forwards/power play coach Rocky Thompson.
In case you have yet to watch, following is a full rundown of the main topics covered and the players and coaches who are profiled in Episode 2.
A Day at the Ballpark
Flyers players Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Justin Braun were at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia as guests of the Phillies before the baseball team took on the Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 20. The Flyers players took batting practice, held a home run derby amongst themselves, and had the chance to meet and chat with the likes of Phillies stars Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber as well as Phillies manager Rob Thomson.
Thomson, a Canadian who hails from Sarnia, Ontario, recalled that Konecny played for the Ontario Hockey League's Sarnia Sting in 2015-16 after coming over from the Ottawa 67's
in a midseason trade. Konecny seemed a little surprised that the baseball manager remembered that he'd played for the Sting in his junior hockey days, informing Thomson that he was correct.
All four of the Flyers' batting practice participants are shown taking a swing or two in the cage. Hayes, who is shown crushing a BP pitch over the outfield fence, was unofficially crowned as the Flyers BP "King of Swing."
Hockey Ops Meeting
During the first off day in camp, the Flyers hockey operations department held a meeting in the war room at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. General Manager and President of Hockey Operations Chuck Fletcher convened with Assistant General Manager Brent Flahr, Special Assistant Danny Briere and Player Personnel Director Alyn McCauley to discuss camp to date.
Episode 2 showed snippets of the meeting. Fletcher notes that head coach John Tortorella had asked management to select the team's lineups for the first three games of the preseason (which Tortorella observed from pressbox level before going behind the bench for the final two). Tortorella also noted some players he had an interest in getting to know more about.
During the meeting, Fletcher polled the attendees on whether there were any surprises in camp thus far, either positive or negative, from their perspectives. Olle Lycksell is identified as one of the pleasant surprises. Later, Briere mentions the Cates brothers, with Noah's outstanding camp not being much of a surprise but the strong day-in-and-day-out performances of older brother Jackson standing out among the pleasant developments that were not fully anticipated.
A New Challenge for Lycksell
Twenty-three-year-old Olle Lycksell will play his first season in North America in 2022-23. Having excelled in Rookie Camp and the Rookie Series against the New York Rangers' prospects -- not a huge surprise, because Lycksell already had four-and-a-half seasons of professional experience under his belt in Sweden's top league, the SHL -- the challenge became a bigger test in his first NHL camp.
"I'm still learning here. Obviously, it went pretty good at those rookie games. Those were real fun to play. I think I have to step up my game a little bit," Lycksell said.
"It's something you dreamed of since you started playing hockey. You want to be there. It's an amazing feeling. I feel like I'm pretty hungry. It would be really nice to get the opportunity [to play in the NHL, but I think I have to battle for it."
Catching up with the Cates Brothers
Playing as teammates (and often as linemates) is nothing new for Noah and Jackson Cates. However, the opportunity to so in an NHL training camp is something special that both Noah and older brother Jackson dreamed about since childhood.
Episode 2 catches up with Noah and Jackson as they sit together grabbing an off-day meal at Ott's in Voorhees, located across the street from the Flyers Training Center. Both brothers were making a case for themselves to be part of the opening night NHL roster, highlighted most notably by each scoring goals in Philly's 2-1 win over the Bruins.
"It's super special going through all the ranks together; high school, college, and now an NHL training camp together. It's been great moving up the ladder together. Hopefully, this next step we can be together again. Our mom was at the first preseason game when we both scored. She was thrilled. It was a great experience. She came out for Jackson's birthday, and we ended up both playing and both scoring. So, that was super special," Noah Cates said.
Jackson was asked what the brothers do in their free time at camp. Do they seek out each other's company? Is most of the discussion hockey related.
"A lot of chilling out. Trying to get things off our minds. Just trying to recover and save the legs for the next day. We hang out, get dinner together... watch Netflix, read a book, anything we can do to kill time at the hotel. Just try to keep things off our mind but we, for sure, talk about hockey a lot," Jackson said.
Episode 2 also captures some on-ice footage of the linemate brothers going back to the bench amid a frustrating game for the Flyers in Buffalo. Noah admonishes his older brother that he has to remember to verbally communicate on the ice.
Back at Ott's, the Cates brothers said they got on one another more often as teenagers than they do now. The younger sibling was more often on the receiving end.
Meet the new assistants
Tortorella and Brad Shaw are no strangers to working together. Shaw, who is one of the most respected veteran assistants leaguewide -- a demanding but fair teacher and an outstanding communicator of detailed information -- was part of Tortorella's staff in Columbus for five years. Thompson is working with them for the first time but believes there's a natural fit in terms of personalities, work ethics and hockey philosophies.
"I'm very detail-oriented and I think Shawsy is the same way. To me, coming to the rink and working hard, that's fun for me," Thompson said.
On the surface, Rocky Thompson as a coach bears little resemblance to the former enforcer. The wild long hair he sported during his playing days was cut short years ago when he became a coach. The perennially psyched-up winger with the muscle-flexing celebration after winning a fight on the ice has been replaced by a coach who is a believer in analytics and intensive video study that he can pass along to players. As a player, he was a fun-loving guy who kept his teammates loose. As a coach, to outsiders, he seems quite serious most of the time.
Thompson, however, insists that he really hasn't changed. He loves the game, loves to be part of the team environment, and still enjoys a good laugh. He just compartmentalizes things.
"Being around the guys is good. Having a relationship with them is important. I've always been that way as a coach. It's how I was as a player, as a leader. So that never changed for me. I'm not someone else when I come here. I am who I am. I can come with a smile on my face, joke around. But when it's time to work, it's time to work. If you can do that, you can make a joke. That's fine. As long as you put your nose to the grindstone and keep pushing, that's a positive thing," Thompson said in Episode 2.
Shaw has a professorial mannerism about him. He believes in being very thorough and expressing himself in an even-handed but honest way. After a post-Columbus stint as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Shaw jumped at the chance to reunite with Tortorella in Philadelphia after "Torts" was hired as the Flyers' head coach.
"The chance to work together again with Torts really intrigued me. The five years together in Columbus, I really enjoyed him. It just so happens that my older brother is a fanatical Flyers fan, so that made it easy as well. But they are the type of team, that you walk down the hall and you read some of the stuff [in the displays that highlight franchise history]. You see the names. I think that gives a little more incentive. I also think the fan base does," Shaw said.
"I am a competitive guy. I realize our job here is to get there as well as we can and as fast as we can. I think the puzzle of that -- how you put all those pieces together -- to find the right combination and get to that finish point or at least on the road to that finishing point, that drives the competitive juice in me to find the right way. Be part of a staff that finds that way, and then transfer it to the players."
So far in training camp, there has been a heavier emphasis on conditioning and mental toughness than on Xs-and-Os and systems. Systems work began in the next practice after Episode 2 concluded. However, Thompson said there was a reason why camp's progression was laid out as it was: the early camp themes will be a central part of the team identity Tortorella wants to establish and will insist upon in addition to how systems drills get executed in practice and games.
"I think Torts set the tone with the foundation that we want to lay. The work ethic, the culture. I think the guys have done a great job. [Camp] has been very taxing on them but they've done a great job. They put the work in. Put work in over the summer. But it doesn't matter how hard you work over the summer. You get here, and go through a training camp like that. You realize, 'Whoa! There's another level'. Our guys are finding it, which is a good thing," Thompson said.
