VOORHEES, N.J. - It's not a romantic notion to the Flyers to contemplate the last time they had a full, non-game day practice at their Skate Zone training center. It was nearly two weeks ago, on Feb. 14 - Valentine's Day.
Got to love that kind of workload, no?
"It's definitely not the reason why we've been inconsistent," Danny Briere said. "We've been up and down and that's something we are trying to fix."
They are trying to mend their evil, inconsistent ways, yet are battling a schedule that has had them at the top of the league in games played. That's why most of the Flyers spent a Tuesday work day at the Skate Zone only looking at video rather than jamming their skates on.
"Looking forward, we'll have the chance to maybe get a little bit more rest and get some practice time," Briere said. "I know we've played more games than other teams in the league, but at some point it's going to reverse and it's going to be to our advantage a little bit more.
"When you lose games like that at home," Briere added about a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Monday, "there's no excuse. Everybody's disappointed, everybody's frustrated with the way things are going. At the same time, if you sit here and feel sorry for yourself, it's not going to help you. You have to move forward; you have to find ways to get motivated again."
As luck would have it, the Flyers have to do that right away again. They host the Washington Capitals tonight in a game between disappointing would-be contenders.
"You have to find ways to come back here and look at what you did wrong and put a positive spin on it," Briere said. "It's really easy to sulk and feel badly for yourself; if we do that, it's not going to help us. We have to come back tomorrow, put a smiley face on, and be excited to play again."
Always a sunny personality, Peter Laviolette knows video sessions can be fruitful, too.
"We're in the middle of six games in nine nights, you know?" Laviolette said. "The games are coming too quick; the most important thing is rest. We'll try to handle things on video, like we did today. Just go over things - things we can do better during the course of games and things we did well."
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Simon Gagne, brought in for a conditional draft pick yesterday in the wake of Tye McGinn fracturing an orbital bone, had been renting out his house in Voorhees, N.J., since leaving the Flyers in 2010. His longtime tenant: Peter Laviolette and family. But just when Gagne has an unplanned return, he also had a little business to attend to.
"Last month I finally found someone willing to buy it, so the closing's going to be done on March 15," Gagne said. "It's part of the life, but at the same time we all know the (real estate) market in Jersey's not too good. So just getting to find a buyer to buy the house, it's something that even if I'm going back to Philly, and though it's a house we lived in for quite a while, where my son was born, and a lot of good memories...at the same time it was maybe the best option even if I go back there to sell the house and maybe renting something for the next couple years or at least the next couple months."
According to Gagne, it's not Laviolette buying the house. "Nah," he said, "it's one of the Phillies."
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NOTES: McGinn was diagnosed with that orbital bone break after he'd returned in the game with the Leafs and played during parts of the second and third periods. The fracture came courtesy of Toronto's Mike Brown, who landed a short right just prior to the end of the fight. According to GM Paul Holmgren, McGinn is out "at least two weeks." Scott Hartnell, waxing philosophically on the importance of never letting up: "(Wednesday) at the drop of the puck we have to be ready to play 60 minutes. If you play 50 minutes in this league you're not going to win games. By watching when I was hurt and definitely last night playing, when you take a few minutes off it seems like it comes back and bites you in the..." Gagne will celebrate birthday No. 33 this week, though not on the day. He was born Feb. 29, 1980.