Lane Pederson has been around the NHL block. So when Rodrigo Abols was injured Saturday and the Flyers wanted to replace him with an experienced hand from Lehigh Valley, Pederson got the call.<\/p>\n
With 71 NHL games under his belt, Pederson fit the bill. The Flyers have a bunch of youthful, energetic players in their lineup. They were looking for someone more seasoned to fill in at center on the fourth line.<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet had seen what Pederson could do when the two were together with the Arizona Coyotes in the 2020-21 season. Pederson played only 15 games for Arizona that season, but Tocchet got a sense what kind of player he is.<\/p>\n
Pederson has another shot to stick with the Flyers, which didn\u2019t happen in Arizona, San Jose, Vancouver or Columbus.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got some speed up the middle,\u201d Tocchet said in a media session after Wednesday\u2019s morning skate in Utah. \u201cThat\u2019s something that we want. I think that can help his wingers. It\u2019s to find those speed-up-the-middle guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Pederson got the call from general manager Daniel Briere, he had been playing on a Phantoms top line with Denver Barkey, now also with the Flyers.<\/p>\n
Pederson made his Flyers debut on Monday night in a 2-1 win at Vegas. His plus-minus was even, pretty much all you need from a new guy on his first night.<\/p>\n
Now it just comes down to whether he can perform consistently.<\/p>\n
\u201cA guy like him, he\u2019s been chasing consistency his whole career,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cLike, can he be consistent? There are late bloomers who can make the NHL and still be consistent. He\u2019s a great kid and he wants to learn. The consistency is the hardest thing for an NHL player. To be consistent every night. That\u2019s something that he\u2019s going to be chasing. We have to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The Flyers are the fourth-most penalized team in the NHL this season, averaging over 10 minutes in the box per game.<\/p>\n
Tocchet has been patient, but it sounds like that quiet approach is beginning to run out.<\/p>\n
His squad had to face seven power plays in Monday night\u2019s 2-1 win at Vegas. The Flyers prevailed by keeping the Golden Knights to just a single power-play goal. But it\u2019s not a formula for long-term success.<\/p>\n
If things don\u2019t start changing soon, look for a few faces in the pressbox.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt falls on me in the sense of accountability,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYour guys are taking a lot of penalties. What\u2019s the next level? You can\u2019t play \u2018em. So you might have to sit \u2018em out. It could get to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players like Garnet Hathaway (50 penalty minutes) and Matvei Michkov (49) have to be smarter with their sticks and legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome guys are taking too many of the same penalties,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cStick penalties, needless penalties. I might have to do some stuff to clean that out. If it\u2019s a good player who is doing it all the time and he sits out, so be it. That could be the next level. At the end of the day, we can\u2019t keep killing five or six penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tired teams often commit infractions. But the Flyers have the same schedule as just about every other team. That would be just looking for excuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalties we\u2019re getting are high sticking, hooking, tripping,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cA good old-fashioned hit in the corner, charging I can live with. But these are just inexcusable. That\u2019s something that falls on me. It\u2019s going to get to the next level and that\u2019s accountability. I\u2019ll have to do something to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Barkey is still just 20 years old. He\u2019s not going to overpower anyone with his 5-9, 155-pound frame. His coach says there are ways of getting around his slight stature, such as staying light on his feet like other \u201csmall\u201d legends like ex-Tampa Bay great Martin St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him, he\u2019s a smaller guy, it\u2019s body position,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s getting to his position a little quick, he can handle the stuff. I think when he\u2019s a little bit slower, getting to his reads, then he gets knocked around a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at guys like St. Louis, they\u2019re smart players. To get out of piles or sticky situations, they use their speed. When you play with your back against the wall a lot and you don\u2019t move your feet, you\u2019re going to get hit. He (Barkey) won the Memorial Cup (with London). He was good out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lane Pederson has been around the NHL block. So when Rodrigo Abols was injured Saturday and the Flyers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-420941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115936478381302148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420941","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=420941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}