Philadelphia Flyers: Power play work begins at camp

Midway through their second week of camp, the Flyers shifted their focus onto the power play for the first time.

Up until now, most of the focus at training camp had been about reacclimated everyone and gauging where players were at. Focus then shifted to higher tempo drills and bringing systems back into play. And that’s where things were when the Flyers took to the ice on Wednesday.

The power play was a big focus as the team broke off into two different units. The lines looked similar to what the team has put out during the regular season. Of note, Claude Giroux was back on the left side for these drills. There were times that he was seen on the right wall during the year, something that didn’t pan out a majority of the time.

Other than Giroux, the first unit was made up of Travis Konecny, Jakub Voracek, Morgan Forst, and Ivan Provorov. There was a notable name missing from that group. Sean Couturier was one of the biggest notable absences from Flyers camp today. Frost’s spot on the top powerplay unit was due to Couturier not being there.

Normally, teams are unable to speak on why players are missing from camp. They are forced to use “unfit to participate” as the designation. But turns out the case was different for Couturier. And there was a very good reason that he was unavailable to the team today.

You could definitely call that a great week for Couturier. He wasn’t the only one to miss practice today, however, he was the only one whose absence could be explained. Carter Hart did not take to the ice either, somewhat of an expectation after he left practice early yesterday. But according to Alain Vigneault, there is not much concern to him missing practice.

Connor Bunnaman and Kirill Ustimenko were also unavailable to practice. They, along with Hart, fell under the distinction of “unable to participate.” So that meant that Brian Elliott and Alex Lyon were the only two goaltenders available.

Looking at the other unit, it featured Kevin Hayes, James van Riemsdyk, Joel Farabee, Matt Niskanen, and Travis Sanheim. Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Shayne Gostisbehere also took turns subbing on on the unit.

The power play this year was much improved from year’s past. The unit, coming in at 20.8%, was the Flyers’ best mark since the 2017-18 season. And it was drastically better than what they put up last season (17.1%). The direction from assistant head coach Michel Therrien has helped the unit propel themselves to 14th best in the league.

That may not seem like a lot, but they were among the bottom ten units last season. So the middle of the pack is a huge improvement. Having more than just a solid even-strength group is an important way to separate yourself from other teams in the playoffs.