{"id":206644,"date":"2025-09-24T00:08:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/206644\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T00:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:08:42","slug":"flyers-want-zegras-and-the-power-play-in-attack-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/206644\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers want Zegras (and the power play) in attack mode"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flyers want Zegras (and the power play) in attack mode<\/a> originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia<\/a><\/p>\n

VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 With fans huddled around the boards last Saturday for the Flyers\u2019 training camp scrimmage, Trevor Zegras had everyone\u2019s attention as he skated into a 2-on-1 opportunity alongside Matvei Michkov.<\/p>\n

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Zegras, a talented playmaker who loves to facilitate, pumped the brakes a bit and looked for Michkov. Eventually, the Flyers\u2019 new center had to shoot, ripping one into the goalie\u2019s leg pad.<\/p>\n

While Rick Tocchet likes all the skill in Zegras\u2019 game, he would have liked some decisiveness there, too. Maybe even some selfishness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he wants to pass to Michkov, he\u2019s waiting, he\u2019s waiting and at that point, he puts himself out of [space]. He has got to attack,\u201d the Flyers\u2019 new head coach said last Saturday. \u201cI\u2019ve got to get him to attack because he\u2019s such a good little player. But that\u2019s why we have training camp at the start of the year. He has got a lot of tools that we can work with, which excites our staff.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut there are certain parts of the game, he has got to attack a little bit more inside, and he will. I\u2019ve had him for three days, so I\u2019m not worried about it. I will give him a lot of credit, he\u2019s skating really well out here, really well, and it seems like he\u2019s in pretty good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flyers made a headline-grabbing trade in June to acquire Zegras from the Ducks<\/a>. The 2019 ninth overall pick was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy in 2021-22 and then scored a career-high 65 points the following season.<\/p>\n

But he became a change-of-scenery candidate<\/a> with Anaheim over the last two seasons. His production dipped, he battled injuries and he bounced to the wing. To open this season, it sure looks like the Flyers want to give him a shot at being a top-six center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played center my whole hockey career up until last season,\u201d Zegras said last Thursday, \u201cso I definitely feel a little bit more comfortable through the middle of the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To be more effective at center, the 24-year-old knows he\u2019ll have to improve his game in the dot. He has a 40.1 career faceoff percentage. His new teammate Sean Couturier is one of the better faceoff guys in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was laughing with him, I was playing the new video game (NHL 26) and his X factor is faceoffs,\u201d Zegras said, \u201cso I went right to him and was like, \u2018What do you got for me?’\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flyers are hoping Zegras\u2019 high-end vision and skill give them a significant boost on the power play. The club has sported an NHL-worst 13.7 power play percentage over the last four seasons combined.<\/p>\n

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New assistant coaches Yogi Svejkovsky and Jay Varady will team up to run the power play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re great communicators, excellent at teaching concepts,\u201d Tocchet said last Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re not about plays, we\u2019re about concepts. \u2026 You don\u2019t want to make these guys robotic. Sometimes power plays are robotic. Football, it\u2019s like, \u2018You\u2019re going here.\u2019 It\u2019s a little different. If the [penalty kill] does this, what is your concept from that? \u2026 I think we\u2019ve got to let these guys be carefree, but there are also concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the start of last Saturday\u2019s scrimmage, the Flyers worked on their power play. The first unit consisted of Zegras, Couturier, Michkov, Travis Konecny and Jamie Drysdale. The second unit had Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, Owen Tippett and Travis Sanheim on it, while Cam York and Christian Dvorak rotated in for some reps.<\/p>\n

Similar to what he wants to see from Zegras, Tocchet will look for the Flyers\u2019 power play to be assertive.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou beat pressure, we have to attack the interior,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see that much last year. You have to be able to take those shots from the middle of the point to open up power plays. You\u2019ve got to take that shot, so we\u2019ve got to make sure whoever\u2019s up there, he\u2019s going to bomb away if that\u2019s what the team\u2019s going to give us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the team gives you and it\u2019s a Grade A, you take it. We\u2019re not looking for tic-tac-toes. If they\u2019re there, take it. To me, be aggressive. The best power plays are the teams that break pressure and they attack, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flyers want Zegras (and the power play) in attack mode originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia VOORHEES, N.J.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[2210,4838,4187,977,1739,1468,9395,5,4182,21453,509,4,6511,4837,1467,56,5205,506,1446,5812,2589,4835,731,3673,4185,3674],"class_list":{"0":"post-206644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-bobby-brink","10":"tag-cam-york","11":"tag-christian-dvorak","12":"tag-ducks","13":"tag-flyers","14":"tag-garnet-hathaway","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-jamie-drysdale","17":"tag-jordan-hall","18":"tag-matvei-michkov","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-noah-cates","21":"tag-owen-tippett","22":"tag-philadelphia","23":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","24":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","25":"tag-power-play","26":"tag-rick-tocchet","27":"tag-sean-couturier","28":"tag-the-flyers","29":"tag-training-camp","30":"tag-travis-konecny","31":"tag-travis-sanheim","32":"tag-trevor-zegras","33":"tag-tyson-foerster"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115256368026206826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}