VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 He might have two goals in his first five NHL games, but Flyers rookie Alex Bump is taking nothing for granted.<\/p>\n
Bump knows stability can be fleeting in the NHL. A costly mistake here or there can get you quickly sent back to the minors.<\/p>\n
So far that hasn\u2019t happened, and the big smile on the left wing\u2019s face after Sunday\u2019s practice at the Flyers Training Center confirmed that.<\/p>\n
Bump was asked if his sudden success has had a chance to sink in yet. After all, he scored in his very first game and kind of made it look easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I can play here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an everyday league, you can\u2019t be happy with the past. You have to stay in the present and focus on game by game. It\u2019s just knowing that I can play here. It\u2019s the belief in yourself. I have a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bump\u2019s goal against the Blue Jackets was a tip-in of a long shot that came about because of his proximity to the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a big body,\u201d said the 6-foot-0, 195-pound native of Minnesota. \u201cSo I\u2019ve got to get to the front of the net more often.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bump\u2019s scoring prowess could be used on the Flyers\u2019 power play, which sits dead last in the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have the guys on the power play who can do the job,\u201d Bump said. \u201cMaybe more pucks to the net. We\u2019re passing up too many shots from all over the rink. Maybe just not getting the bounces as well. I think that will come still. You just have to play through it. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll start going in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bump got two minutes, 41 seconds of power-play time in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 shootout loss to Columbus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m set to be on the power play, honestly,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I can get shots in the middle of the rink and have a good chance of scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s to lose? The Flyers are clicking at just around only 15 percent. In the past four seasons, they\u2019ve been 31st in the league once and 32nd the other three times.<\/p>\n
The advice from coach Rick Tocchet to his power-play cast has been rather elementary.<\/p>\n
\u201cShoot the puck,\u201d Bump said. \u201cMore shots. Can\u2019t be passing up shots. When you\u2019re in the middle of the ice you\u2019re going to have to shoot. I think that\u2019s kind of been his message.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bump said he\u2019s made it through these first five games without too much physical wear and tear. He\u2019s looking forward to a trip to the West Coast, which starts Wednesday in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
Running on adrenaline?<\/p>\n
\u201cA little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we got back from Minnesota (early Friday morning) and I didn\u2019t get asleep to about five. That was a tough wakeup. The adrenaline for every game is high. Tough to get down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bump said it\u2019s nice to have Lehigh Valley teammates Denver Barkey and veteran Garrett Wilson around to help him get acclimated.<\/p>\n
\u201c(With Lehigh) he (Wilson) has taken all of us prospects under his wing,\u201d Bump said. \u201cShowing us the way. It\u2019s nice to have him here. All the guys have been great. Every time I have a question they can answer it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
NOTES >>\u00a0Tocchet missed Sunday\u2019s practice due to illness but should be ready for the first game of the trip Wednesday. \u2026 After this road trip, the Flyers have only one more game outside of the Eastern time zone (at Winnipeg on April 11). \u2026 Travis Sanheim leads the Flyers in blocked shots with 193.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 He might have two goals in his first five NHL games, but Flyers rookie Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,11211],"class_list":{"0":"post-506545","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-dln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116240347546657683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506545","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=506545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}