The Philadelphia Flyers have won five of their first eight games and currently have the third-best record in the East Division. Apparently, that hasn’t stopped head coach Alain Vigneault from sending messages to his team though. Vigneault has confirmed to The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor that a healthy Travis Konecny will be scratched for the Flyers’ match-up with the New York Islanders on Saturday night.
Vigneault’s issue with his team so far this season has been their five-on-five play and it seems Konecny will be the one to be made example of. O’Connor writes that Vigneault has been talking to team nearly every game about improving their even strength play in all three zones and has not seen any improvement from Konecny, among others. Vigneault spoke with Konecny, who he still calls one of their three best forwards, this morning and explained his decision to make him a healthy scratch. He explained the decision to O’Connor as well:
I’ve been talking to the players about it for some time, areas we need to be better at… I’ve addressed this with the group a couple of times. Not a couple of times, basically after every game, about our need to play better five-on-five, the need to do the right things, to play the right way… I came here to Philly to win a Stanley Cup, and to win a Stanley Cup, there’s a certain way that you have to play… (Konecny) is the one tonight who is not going to play. His five-on-five game needs to be better in the areas that he’s aware of.
So, Konecny will watch from the press box tonight as his coach hopes that he and his teammates finally get the message. Meanwhile, the Flyers will be without the player tied for the team lead in goals and plus/minus and among the top five in points and hits. The team only hopes that this move doesn’t come back to bite them against a good Islanders in a shortened, divisional season where every game matters that much more.
He’s done dumber things like bench young budding stars for Tanner Glass
I dont like to be crass here but…WTF
He’s doing exactly what he needs to do to light a fire under the asses of players that are performing under expectations. Vigneault has set the standard and the culture. The response will be good, because of the character of The Players.
Konecny has absolutly not been underperforming. its the defense that cant do jack at…defending
Team defense brah, not just defensemen. Wingers and centers not getting back in the play through the neutral zone is what he’s talking about, and as much as we love TK for all that he brings, he certainly doesn’t bring a tenacious back check. Like the article and AV say, he’s the guy getting the short straw hoping that the whole team gets the gut check.
They won the game tonight, so it didn’t backfire entirely, but they certainly didn’t look great, especially for long stretches during the 2nd & 3rd.
except the defenseman are a much bigger part of defending. not all of it, but it starts with them first and foremost. cant see Hägg one more time if he’s not going to provide anything. Konecny at least provides scoring. he might not be a plus defender, but he’s being replaced with…Morin? No offense to the guy, but he cant play at the NHL level.