Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Exit Day Roundup
April 12, 2017, 11:47 AM ET [49 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • NHL.com • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
In rapid-fire sequence in the late afternoon and early evening, eleven Philadelphia Flyers players addressed the media one at a time at Tuesday's locker cleanout day at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. All players had their exit interviews with general manager Ron Hextall and physicals.

The 11 interviewed players, who were requested beforehand by the media, were as follows: Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Ivan Provorov, Wayne Simmonds, Steve Mason, Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Mike Vecchione, Michal Neuvirth and Michael Del Zotto.

Among the players who did not have media sessions were Brayden Schenn, Valtteri Filppula, Jordan Weal, Matt Read, Michael Raffl, Radko Gudas, Andrew MacDonald, Brandon Manning, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Nick Cousins and impending unrestricted free agents Chris VandeVelde and Roman Lyubimov. However, some of these players spoke in the final days of the season.

There will not be any media sessions on Wednesday. Hextall, head coach Dave Hakstol (who was named by Team Canada GM Hextall to an assistant coaching spot to Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper at the upcoming IIHF World Championships) and club president Paul Holmgren will speak on Thursday.

The goaltenders will the topic of a separate upcoming blog. Here were some of the key takeaways from each of the Tuesday sessions with the other players:

CLAUDE GIROUX: The Flyers captain admitted that he was physically hampered for much of the season, which he believed to be after-effects from the hip and groin surgery he underwent after last season. In the latter part of the season, he felt like himself again.

“When you try to do something and you can’t do it, your mind wants to do something but your body doesn’t do it, it’s frustrating," Giroux said. "It was up and down like our team and it’s got to be better, and it will.”

Giroux added that his protracted recuperation did not give him a free pass for a subpar season and added that he takes responsibility for not consistently helping his linemates and the team to the standards he's set.

"There were times during the season that I was playing really good, and then it kind of dipped down a little bit and went back. It’s not about excuses, it’s about making it happen," Giroux said.

Asked if playing in the World Cup of Hockey set him back, he grinned and quipped, "I didn't play in World Cup!" in reference to being a frequent healthy scratch and getting into only one tournament game (skating in a fourth-line role) after struggling in the pre-tournament.

Giroux said that he thinks the team turned a corner after the acquisition of Valtteri Filppula and Jordan Weal and the formation of a line with Sean Couturier centering Brayden Schenn and Dale Weise. The captain called the added depth "exciting" and said that he felt the team's play late in the season -- even prior to being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs -- was much closer to the consistency they will need to carry through a full season.

"When you don’t make the playoffs, when you don’t meet your expectations, change might happen. But at the end of the day, it’s not up to us. For us, it’s to keep working, keep doing what we’re doing. We like our team, we like our group. We didn’t really change from last year. I think with Fil [Filppula] coming in this year, that really helped our depth. He brings a lot to the team. He kills penalties, power plays, very good defensively, and he’s a smart player. When you bring a guy in like that you kind of get excited a little bit," Giroux said.

SEAN COUTURIER: Couturier admitted that he, too, had physical issues for much of the season. In his case, it was a knee injury that was still not fully recovered when he came back and which had periodic setbacks. Eventually, he started to feel better.

"When I came back, I wasn’t probably 100 percent. I thought I could do enough to help the team win, whether it was defensively, offensively, whatever it was frustrating at times and took a few weeks to really start not feeling it anymore and getting it out of my head. It was frustrating, that’s the key word, frustrating at times. You think you’re moving forward and it’s getting better and then you get a little setback. It was that type of year," Couturier said.

"It was tougher than I thought finding my rhythm. I didn’t feel 100 percent. Don’t have my jump. I always felt like I was missing that half second to make a play or whatever. It was definitely frustrating at times. At but at the end there I was starting to feel better and I think it ended pretty good."

Many of the most productive offensive stretches of the respective careers of Couturier and Brayden Schenn have come when they've been paired as linemates. Over the final 20 games this season, Couturier posted 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) and was a plus-18 at even strength. Couturier was asked if he hopes Schenn remains on his line next season.

"Yeah. It goes back to when we played together in the minors in the lockout year. We always seemed to make some plays and find each other out there. It’s too bad that we never really played a whole lot together after that, but it was nice to be back with him and keep having that success that we have had," Couturier said.

The center said that his entire late season, including Dale Weise, clicked together.

"Me, Schenner and Weiser, we had some tremendous chemistry. We seemed to find each other right from the get go when we were reunited. We had a good first few games and built on that, and finished the year strong together. It was nice, and hopefully we can build on that and get the same thing going next year."

WAYNE SIMMONDS: Simmonds vehemently defended the leadership of Giroux of captain, calling him a warrior.

"He’s going to battle for the guys, he’s our captain, he’s our leader. He’s not going to leave us to hang no matter how he feels," Simmonds said.

Asked about his own leadership role as an alternate captain and his evolution as a player in recent years, Simmonds said his role has grown and he relishes it.

"I think I’ve become more of a leader myself. Claude’s our captain, but I’m here to help him. We’re here to help our younger guys and get this thing going in the right direction and not only get into the playoffs. I think he’s getting better and he’s being a leader. I think I’d probably be the bad cop for the most part. G’s the nice guy; I’m the man that’s yelling. I’m probably more all over guys for some things," Simmonds said.

The power forward also acknowledged that he has some interest in playing for Team Canada at the World Championships.

IVAN PROVOROV: Winning the Barry Ashbee Trophy as a rookie, the 20-year-old Russian defenseman enjoyed a remarkably strong and consistent campaign after some rough early games. After the initial acclimation period, he settled in fast and felt comfortable.

“It probably took me about 15 or 20 games to adjust. After that I started to play my game. As the games went on I got better and better but everybody gets better and better," Provorov said.

Despite leading the Flyers in ice time and playing an 82-game regular season schedule for the first time against the world's top players, Provorov said he never went through a spell where he "hit the wall", either at midseason or by the end.

"I still have tons of strength. I had a really good summer, the last five years I’ve been training back home, actually six I think, the last six years I have been training back home. I have a great coach and a great program and I get better in the summer and put a lot of work in so I can go all year without slowing down.... I’ll probably start training in July. I’ll take June off," Provorov said.

Provorov also defended his much-maligned defensive partner, Andrew MacDonald. The rookie believed it was an equal partnership on the ice and credits MacDonald for helping him along the way this season.

"I played most of the year with Andrew and I think we have good chemistry," Provorov said. " We understand where we are together on the ice. We have a good chemistry offensively and defensively. He’s definitely helped me a lot.”

JAKUB VORACEK: Despite recording his fourth 20-goal season in the NHL and being named NHL First Star of the Week during December (buoyed by an eight-point outburst in two games), Voracek admitted that he expected a more consistent season from himself. He said he was embarrassed by his plus-minus rating in particular.

The player said he still believes that the team, essentially led by the same players, can win together going forward. However, he admits that needs to come sooner rather than later.

"There’s no reason not to believe in ourselves. It’s tough to tell you something else. We have what, won one series vs. Pittsburgh in six years? Right? If I’m not mistaken. It’s not good enough. We’re in our prime years. We’ve got to make sure that we step up our game and get this team to the playoffs and start winning some series because if we don’t it’s going to get broken up. We've got to win," Voracek said.

Voracek was asked if perhaps a veteran forward leader added to the current leadership group -- similar to how Jaromir Jagr impacted the team beyond his stats in 2011-12 -- could help the club get to the next level. The player replied that he, Simmonds and Giroux are all getting into their late 20s, all have considerable NHL experience at this point and they are the ones who should be leading.

In regard to how the 2016-17 season got away from the team, Voracek said there were a lot of issues that contributed. One factor was the team's tendency for much of the season -- eventually corrected, but not until the latter part of the campaign -- to get off to slow starts and to have to chase the games. There was a cumulative effect.

“Obviously you go into the game, you prepare yourself, and you want to have a good start, you want to score that first goal. In the end chasing the games, in the first half of the season, chasing the games basically every game that’s what happened to us. We came back lot of time it takes extra energy. If you’re up 1-0, 2-0, you can play that game completely differently especially when you play three games in four nights," Voracek said.

"Instead of coming back from two goals down where you waste that energy, and down the road in March and April, you can’t use that energy to push to the playoffs and sometimes in those big games we were lacking that energy. Like when you look at that game in Jersey, we knew that was the biggest game of the year and there was absolutely nothing we could do. No one was skating. Four or five guys that might have bad legs in a day game, which is normal but at that game it was the biggest game of the year, and we were literally out of energy, and one of the reason is we were having bad starts in the beginning of the season.”

SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: Following his magical rookie season that saw him finish as the runner-up in the Calder Trophy race, Gostisbehere experienced a roller coaster second year. Unlikely Giroux, Gostisbehere vehemently denied that his hip and groin surgery affected him at any point of the season; he did not need to take treatment on his hip even once through the campaign. Rather, Gostisbehere attributed his struggles completely to a loss of confidence.

The player eventually turned the corner. Over the final quarter of the season, his offensive creativity returned and even his play without the puck -- which was the specific area that Hakstol was strongly displeased with for much of the season -- improved.

“It’s pretty cliché but I just said I’m going to go out there and have fun. I’m going to make plays and I don’t care if I get yelled at. I’m going to play my game and make my plays. People can look at is as risky but most of the time it works out for me," Gostisbehere said.

"It’s legit you can tell who doesn’t have confidence on the ice when they have the puck, you can tell. If it’s a guy who’s bringing it up and he’s looking everywhere and he doesn’t have confidence then you can tell it’s confidence. I make plays on the blue line, they’re plays that I have to do quick, I have to react and I have to have the confidence to do them. I can’t do them if I’m thinking like oh what if his stick goes there, I can’t. You just have to have a free mind and you have to go out there and play and let your abilities take over. That’s what I was learning more and more as the season went on, realizing I had the skills I just have trust my abilities.”

Gostisbehere also predicted that Provorov won't have any sort of sophomore slump resembling his own.

NICK SCHULTZ AND MICHAEL DEL ZOTTO: Both players said that Hextall informed them in their exit interviews that they will not be offered contracts for next season. Both said they understood, although Del Zotto seemed particularly disappointed and said it was a tough and emotional day.

Schultz said he would see first if there might a chance to catch on with another NHL team before rushing into a retirement decision. He said last Thursday, however, that it would have to a situation where he didn't have to uproot his family again right away.

Del Zotto opined that after starting the season on IR due to a lower-body issue (after missing the stretch drive and playoffs last year with a wrist injury), he eventually settled in and felt he had a strong season despite being periodically scratched from the lineup. He felt that, unlike his 2014 unrestricted free agency, he would not linger on the market long this summer.

"There was some scratchings this year but any team or scout or GM who’s been watching my game this year, they see I can be a valuable asset to any team so I’m not too worried," Del Zotto said.

MIKE VECCHIONE: The recent Union College graduate -- he completed all his course work in March, and will walk at graduation on June 11 -- said that while he was disappointed with not winning the Hobey Baker Award, he felt that all three finalists had strong cases to win. A restricted free agent this summer who will be signed to a new contract, Vecchione was asked to review his brief time with the Flyers so far.

"It’s been pretty simple this past week and a half. We didn’t get into too much detail with systems. Coach Hakstol just told me to go out there and play a game. It’s gotten you this far so we don’t need to throw systems down your throat or anything like that. Just go out there and have fun, do what you’ve been doing your whole life," Vecchione said.

"The welcome the guys gave me was really helpful too. It was just open arms and everybody was taking me in, making me a part of the family as soon as I walked in the door. It’s been a great two weeks and I couldn’t be happier with it. Like I said before, I’m just ready to get to work in the offseason and come back and find myself a job."