PHILADELPHIA \u2013 For a 20-year-old going through the rigors of a National Hockey League schedule for the first time, the Olympic break couldn\u2019t come at a better time for Denver Barkey.<\/p>\n
The rookie has shown his mettle through a demanding, Olympic-compressed slate. Friday, he gets to go back to Newmarket, Ontario, for some home cooking over the next week or so.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s already played 20 games for the Flyers. Add another 26 with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and it\u2019s a pretty good workload. It\u2019s a big jump from 60 last year with the London Knights in the Ontario Hockey League, though he played 80 or more thanks to long playoff runs each of the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet is keeping an eye on Barkey and hasn\u2019t ruled out the possibility that the left wing could return to the American Hockey League at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this break is perfect to talk about it,\u201d Tocchet said during Tuesday morning\u2019s pre-game skate at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. \u201cThis is a good break for Barkey to reset.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously opened up a lot of eyes. Dan (Briere, Flyers general manager) will make those decisions. But for me he\u2019s been a guy who\u2019s tried to do the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkey plays bigger than his 5-foot-10, 171-pound frame suggests. He takes and gives hits. He plays with snarl in the corners. With two goals and nine points, he\u2019s producing offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s elusive on the ice,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot to like about him. Whether he stays or not \u2013 and there\u2019s a good chance he will \u2013 I\u2019ll talk to Danny about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkey gives the impression he\u2019s just grateful to be here. A third-round pick in the 2023 draft, he doesn\u2019t give off an air of entitlement. There aren\u2019t a lot of 20-year-olds cruising around the NHL, fewer still at his draft position.<\/p>\n
As for heading home for the Olympic break, it\u2019s like a second Christmas break, only better. There\u2019s time to really unpack the bags and take a mental rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be nice to sit back a bit and relax,\u201d Barkey said. \u201cTake it all in. Be proud of yourself. Think about all the hard work that\u2019s gotten you here. And it will be nice to go home and see family and friends. It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve seen a lot of them. This will be a chance to talk about what it\u2019s been like this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Defenseman Emil Andrae was scratched for a fourth straight game Tuesday. Tocchet hoped to get him back in action this week, but the matchup against Washington didn\u2019t look favorable. Andrae is not one of the bigger, more physical players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis (the Caps) is a big, heavy team,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThey\u2019re built in the corners. There is a little bit of a matchup thing there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrae can add speed, which is a positive. That might work better against a team like Ottawa, who the Flyers play Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can defend with quickness and your brain, too,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that you\u2019re just a small guy that you can\u2019t play against bigger guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The experiment of Trevor Zegras at center continues, and Tocchet wants to see how this transition is working for the player who\u2019s been used mostly at left wing this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn faceoffs, the last game, he was something like 64 percent,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThat\u2019s a positive. That was one thing that he was worried about. And some coverages down low. I didn\u2019t see a guy confused out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why make the move to have Zegras at center now? Some of it might have to do with his recent slump after a hot start. The coach wants to see if he can change things up.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first 30 games he was going so good,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe looked at me (after the switch) like I was crazy. I want to see if he can hold that position down for us. He likes that hybrid, I put him on the wing sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 For a 20-year-old going through the rigors of a National Hockey League schedule for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444009,"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-444008","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\/116008936658659053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444008","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=444008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}