Flyers’ Phil Myers believes he’s ‘moving in the right direction.’ Carter Hart is still out.
The defenseman is trying to stay positive and ready for when he gets back into the lineup.
Phil Myers has had a disappointing season and been a healthy scratch in four of the Flyers’ last seven games.
“It’s definitely been tough trying to stay positive,” the 6-foot-5 defenseman said after practice Tuesday in Voorhees. “I’ve been working hard in practice, so that part of it has been good. ... I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
Myers, 24, says he needs to play a simple game and with more consistency. He has eight points, all assists, and a minus-12 rating in 33 games.
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He said he was “taking care of my body and staying ready. Whenever I get the opportunity to play in the lineup, I’m going to be ready.”
The Flyers have lost six of their last eight and have 11 games left, including back-to-back meetings with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday and Friday. The Blueshirts are in fifth place, five points ahead of the sixth-place Flyers in the East.
“We’re juts battling right now,” Myers said. “We’re not getting many bounces, and we just have to keep at it and try to finish up strong here.”
Hart update
Goalie Carter Hart (3.67 GAA, .877 save percentage), who has missed the last two games with an undisclosed lower-body injury, did not practice Tuesday.
“He’s doing his rehab, and I don’t think this is very serious,” coach Alain Vigneault said.
Brian Elliott (2.93, .892) is expected to face the Rangers on Thursday.
Unique practice
At Tuesday’s practice, Vigneault put the forwards and defensemen in different groups.
“Today was about getting some touches,” Vigneault said. “Defensemen getting D touches, D pivots, D shots. Forwards split up into two groups of seven forwards each. … We haven’t had much practice time, so today was more individual-based practice, where players got touches and were working on their edges. … And we haven’t been able to work at all on on-ice conditioning, so we were able to do a little bit today.
“It was a good day for us. It’s our first break in a while as far as not playing games.”
Wednesday will be a full team practice, working on five-on-five play and other situations.
Marleau and me
Flyers center Sean Couturier on San Jose’s Patrick Marleau, 41, who set an NHL record by playing in his 1,768th game Monday as he passed Gordie Howe: “It’s an honor to have played against a guy who played the most games in the league.”
Myers agreed.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment. He started playing the year I was born [1997], which is pretty incredible that he’s still playing right now,” he said. “I’m really happy for him, and happy I got the opportunity to play against him.”