PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Some of the Flyers were bound to have pre-trade-deadline jitters ahead of Thursday\u2019s game against Utah. Trevor Zegras probably had the best advice for those worrying.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust try to block out all the noise,\u201d Zegras said after the morning skate, \u201cand focus on, I guess, what you are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Friday. There\u2019s no way to predict what Flyers GM Daniel Briere plans to do because his team is on the bubble of playoff contention.<\/p>\n
Privately, the Flyers went into the game against the Mammoth a pretty confident group. Playing well, with three straight wins, might give management second thoughts about making moves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we got a pretty tight-knit group, so it\u2019s fun being at the rink,\u201d Zegras said. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ve got some good momentum, some good mojo going.\u201d<\/p>\n
One player on whom the rumors centered is defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. Ristolainen has made it known that he would like to stay, but he has no real control over the situation. He\u2019s been playing well since returning from the Olympics with Finland, which makes him a more attractive trade candidate.<\/p>\n
His most recent blue line partner, Travis Sanheim, is one player who hopes the towering Finn stays put. The two Olympians have created strong chemistry over the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re familiar with each other,\u201d said Sanheim, who had been paired with Cam York for much of the past two seasons. \u201cWe\u2019ve played together before. We both played at the Olympics with the style we needed to play over there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s benefitted us coming back. We work well off each other, we\u2019re hard to play against and we\u2019re a good breakout pair. I think the last game (at Toronto on Monday) was the best I\u2019ve seen him break out pucks. I didn\u2019t have to do a lot, he was breaking them out by himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of those breakouts caused coach Rick Tocchet to say Ristolainen was wheeling pucks \u201clike Bobby Orr.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been fun to play with,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cReal easy to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the trade deadline in regards to Ristolainen, Sanheim shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t say a whole lot, but I think just his mindset and how he approaches things,\u201d Sanheim said. \u201cAnd I think a lot of guys can learn from him and, and how he handles certain situations. I think he\u2019s been through this before and it\u2019s nothing new for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Tocchet has experimented with Carl Grundstrom, a natural wing, at center. The results have been mixed, but it\u2019s a difficult position to pick up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough situation,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cI think he\u2019s done a nice job. It\u2019s hard. Face-offs are something that you\u2019re putting someone there who\u2019s never played center before. It\u2019s just because of circumstances. He\u2019s doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grundstrom has eight goals in 31 games, not bad for a guy mostly playing on the fourth line. He\u2019s filled in at center with Rodrigo Abols injured.<\/p>\n
For now, Grundstrom will probably stay at center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hanging in there with that,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe wanted to stay in the lineup and try center. That\u2019s the world we live in now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Travis Konecny missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. He skated in the morning.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no definitive word if he will be ready for Saturday\u2019s game at Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Some of the Flyers were bound to have pre-trade-deadline jitters ahead of Thursday\u2019s game against Utah.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,5,4,56,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-487919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116179198529966306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487919","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=487919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}