PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Cam York might be only 25 years, old but from a hockey perspective he\u2019s a grizzled veteran.<\/p>\n
The Flyers defenseman has played 309 NHL games just for the chance to compete in his first Stanley Cup playoffs. Even though this might be his initial postseason go-round, he\u2019s been playing long enough to serve as a calming voice for many of the team\u2019s younger players.<\/p>\n
After Wednesday morning\u2019s skate at Xfinity Mobile Arena, York shared what advice he\u2019s been giving to rookies like Denver Barkey, Porter Martone and Emil Andrae. With the Flyers making their first playoff appearance at XMA since 2020, the place figured to be a madhouse, at least for the opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The most prudent approach to that bedlam? Stay even-keeled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was our mantra for our last 20 regular-season games,\u201d York said. \u201cWe have tried to stay even-keeled. There\u2019s obviously a lot of noise around us. It\u2019s like if you lose a game, sell the farm. It\u2019s just been our mentality since the Olympic break. Stay positive, no matter what happens. We know what we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet sees a certain maturity in York\u2019s game, especially since he\u2019s been put on the second pairing with Jamie Drysdale,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s taken steps, as much physically as mentally,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cMore consistency from him. I just felt there\u2019s more consistency in his game, puck decisions and stuff like that. I think he and Drysdale have taken steps. They\u2019re not the biggest guys but they can defend with their brains and their quickness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain Sean Couturier, the Flyers\u2019 dean, has been around since that 2011-12 season when he recorded his first hat trick against the Penguins in that year\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs. Like York, Couturier would like to see his team not get too caught up in that early storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cControl your emotions and not get too ramped up, that can lead to bad things,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cStay in control, stay in the moment. There\u2019s going to be a lot of atmosphere. Hopefully we can feed off that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having the Pittsburgh experience under their belts should be helpful, too. The noise at PPG was deafening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Pittsburgh was a good test,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cThat was a loud building, a lot of atmosphere. A couple young guys said it was the loudest they\u2019ve heard. I\u2019m sure it will be louder here. I don\u2019t think the noise has affected us so far, just stay in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers tried to stay even-keeled in recording a rather surprising pair of wins in the first two games of the best-of-seven series at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in those situations where you can be over-keyed,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe know the city and what\u2019s going on. We have to be careful we\u2019re not overexuberant. Running around, pinch at the wrong time, undisciplined. These are the things you have to be careful of. We have to play a smart game.\u201d<\/p>\n
York remembers his first couple years. He figures the noise level for Wednesday night\u2019s Game 3 and Saturday night\u2019s Game 4 would be much higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that they\u2019re going to be buzzing,\u201d York said. \u201cOur team has a defend-first mentality. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to get out of position or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
York likes the way his team has kept its composure on the ice, too. While they took seven penalties in the first two games, none resulted in any damage on the power play. The Flyers didn\u2019t get suckered into many post-whistle scrums either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the way that we\u2019ve played so far, we know that they\u2019re frustrated,\u201d York said. \u201cI think we have them in a good spot right now. We have to keep the pedal to the metal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Flyers\u2019 penalty kill has been efficient, Tocchet does not want his team taking any penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe handled it well,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cI understand their point of view. You just move on. It has nothing to do with this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The Flyers having last line change in Games 3 and 4 should help them find matchups, especially against Sidney Crosby. The Flyers want to get their Couturier-led fourth line out there against Sid as much as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does help,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cBut sometimes as a coach you have to be careful you don\u2019t get people out of the game. It\u2019s a mixed bag for me. I have to let things flow but there are certain guys on the ice that are faster, that\u2019s when you have the advantage at home. Sometimes coaches overmatch. You have to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The Flyers had trouble with slow starts this season. That wasn\u2019t the case in the opening games of the series. What\u2019s improved?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think getting into the game a little quicker,\u201d Tocchet explained. \u201cGetting a little more aggressive early, instead of waiting to see what the other team is going to do. It\u2019s more get to our identity first, let\u2019s not worry about their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always have to expect the other team is going to come out hard. We have to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
NOTES >> Christian Dvorak was off for a maintenance day at morning skate. Tocchet said defenseman Andrae, who missed Game 2, was a possibility. \u2026 The Flyers called up five players from Lehigh Valley: Goaltender Carson Bjarnason, defensemen Helge Grans and Hunter McDonald, forwards Oscar Eklind and Jacob Gaucher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Cam York might be only 25 years, old but from a hockey perspective he\u2019s a grizzled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558254,"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-558253","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\/116450576546302002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558253","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=558253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}