Flyers Notes: Carelessness is cause of Flyers going to the penalty box

So far this season, the Flyers have formed a steady procession to the penalty box, but coach Peter Laviolette doesn't seem overly concerned because the infractions are not so much from lack of discipline but from carelessness with their sticks.

The Flyers went into Saturday night's game against the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center averaging 19.2 penalties minutes a game, third highest in the NHL. They'd been shorthanded 36 times, an average of six a game.

The majority of the Flyers penalties have involved sticks. They'd been hit with seven high-sticking penalties, including two double minors, and six tripping infractions.

"I think it's a conscious thing of trying to keep our sticks down," Laviolette said. "If you look at the amount of high-sticking penalties we've taken, a lot of them have been accidental. All of a sudden your stick pops up and hits somebody on the nose, and it's four minutes. I think it's just unawareness to what we need to do. They're not retaliatory penalties. . . . But we're still going to the box too much, and they seem to come in clusters."

Obviously, playing shorthanded so often makes it difficult for a club to get into an offensive flow. Also, it often leaves the most significant goal-scorers on the bench long enough to tighten up.

"When the penalty kill is on the ice too much it keeps the Girouxs and Brieres and the Jagrs on the bench and their legs tighten up," Laviolette said. "If we can keep the penalties to one a period that would be a good thing."

A tripping penalty on James van Riemsdyk late in the third period against Los Angeles Oct. 15 led to an overtime loss for the Flyers.

Despite all the penalties, the Flyers started the night 4-1-1 largely because they had scored five power-play goals in 15 advantages in their three prior games. They were converting power plays at a 25 percent rate, fifth in the NHL. Overall, they had scored eight power-play goals while allowing six shorthanded goals.

"If you can be successful on the power play and if your penalty kill does a good job, you're going to find out you're going to win a lot of hockey games," Laviolette said. "We've taken our power play from 14th to the top five. We're still going through some things on the penalty kill."

Playing his second game for the Flyers, highly touted rookie Brayden Schenn began the game on a line with Danny Briere and Wayne Simmonds. Laviolette also made changes to the second and third lines. Van Riemsdyk was with Jakub Voracek and Matt Read, while Claude Giroux centered Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell. . . . Flyers defensemen Chris Pronger and Matt Walker were teammates with St. Louis for two seasons - 2002-03 and 2003-04.

- Ray Parrillo