VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 They call it home-ice advantage because teams generally perform better in the friendly confines of their residence. In the case of the Flyers, the word \u201cgenerally\u201d doesn\u2019t apply, at least not this season.<\/p>\n
With just a dozen games left on the schedule, the Flyers have won only 15 of 35 games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They have a sparkling 19-12-4 mark on the road, including seven straight victories.<\/p>\n
The Flyers have a half-dozen games left on Broad Street. It wouldn\u2019t be a reach to say they need to go at least 5-1 if they have designs on making the postseason.<\/p>\n
After Wednesday\u2019s practice at the Flyers Training Center, coach Rick Tocchet admitted he doesn\u2019t have all the answers. At least he didn\u2019t in a 3-2 home loss to Columbus on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know but I\u2019ve got to figure it out,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s my first year here. The first half of the year we had a great home record. For whatever reason (in the second half) it hasn\u2019t been. Is it coming back from long road trips? I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ve got to use the crowd, it was a big game for us. I thought we had a great first period, it should have been a loud building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet said a five-minute lapse resulting in two Columbus goals at the start of the second period might have taken some of the energy out of XMA.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our heels, deferring,\u201d Tocchet said of his team\u2019s play in that brief span. \u201cNot taking charge. I saw that. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to correct here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think youth has a lot to do with it. And some of our veterans have to take charge. When the other team makes a push, there are certain plays that have to be made to stop the press. We didn\u2019t get \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers held a 1-0 lead after the first period and had been 14-0-3 when ahead after 20 minutes. Tocchet thought the Flyers should have been ahead multiple goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a microcosm,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe have a two-on-one, instead of taking the net we make a pass \u2013 those are momentum killers. I don\u2019t blame the crowd getting antsy. Continue to press forward, get pucks on net. We have to have a 60-minute mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denver Barkey, 20, is one of the young players Tocchet mentioned. He concurs that the Flyers have to play at home like they do on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be easier to get up to win home games, right?\u201d Barkey said. \u201cI think that\u2019s something we\u2019re going to look on as a group. You want to be really good on home ice. You don\u2019t want anybody to want to come and play here. I think we can up our games at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the road, the Flyers try to simplify things and not go after the fancy plays. Can that be applied to home ice?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, try to keep it simple,\u201d Barkey said. \u201cThe crowd noise and the energy in the (XMA) building might get to us and we try to make the perfect play and really we just need to get pucks to the net and execute the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain Sean Couturier has been around long enough to know that simpler is better most times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we knew why we\u2019re better on the road, I\u2019m sure we would be better (at home),\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just the way it goes sometimes. We definitely should be better than what we are. On the road maybe we just focus on being better collectively. Just worried about getting the win instead of putting on a show maybe. Getting highlight goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Tyson Foerster, sidelined since December due to surgery to repair an upper-body injury, has been skating but isn\u2019t cleared for contact. Tocchet said there\u2019s no timeline for a possible return with three weeks left in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s progressing really well,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWhen does the yellow jersey come off, I couldn\u2019t tell you right now. So we have to be smart. I\u2019m going to keep the yellow jersey on him because I don\u2019t want him to get hurt. When he\u2019s healthy enough to play, we\u2019ll make the right decision. Just him getting close to contact drills is big. It\u2019s another weapon we\u2019re going to have next year. We have to make sure we\u2019re careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foerster was leading the team in goals when he was injured, with 10 goals and 13 points in 21 games. Tocchet said Foerster\u2019s shot is about 80 to 85 percent of full strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still lethal,\u201d the coach said. \u201cHe\u2019s still got that shot. It\u2019s only going to get harder, better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Nikita Grebenkin (upper-body injury), a scratch for the Columbus game, did not skate Wednesday. Tocchet said the young Russian went in for medical tests.<\/p>\n
As for his chances of playing against Chicago at home on Thursday, Tocchet said \u201cprobably not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Tocchet said rookie Alex Bump was not at his best against the Blue Jackets Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t think he was skating,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe did a lot of standing around. Sometimes with a young guy that\u2019s what happens, they freeze up. We have to relax \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOORHEES, N.J. \u2014 They call it home-ice advantage because teams generally perform better in the friendly confines of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523148,"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-523147","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\/116293250860129446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523147","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=523147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}