Raffl shoots for bounce-back season with Flyers
ALLENTOWN - Michael Raffl is among a handful of Flyers forwards coming off an uneven season. That's why the 6-foot, 200-pound left winger spent a good part of the summer working on his leg strength and came into camp in great shape.
ALLENTOWN - Michael Raffl is among a handful of Flyers forwards coming off an uneven season.
That's why the 6-foot, 200-pound left winger spent a good part of the summer working on his leg strength and came into camp in great shape.
"I felt a little heavy last year, so I changed it up a little bit," he said of his offseason workout routine.
Raffl, 27, a hard-nosed player who is starting his fourth year with the Flyers, is trying to improve on a 13-goal season. He had 21 goals the previous year.
The Austria native said he simply needs to shoot more. "That should be our mentality as a team - to get as many shots as possible," he said Wednesday before the exhibition game against New Jersey at the PPL Center, home of the Flyers' AHL farm team, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The Flyers, who finished 22d in scoring last season, need more production from players including Raffl and Jake Voracek (11 goals last season). Raffl finished strongly, however, collecting five goals and eight assists over his final 19 games.
"I thought he had some ups and downs last year, especially in the first half of the year," coach Dave Hakstol said. "But once he settled in . . . he played a great power game for us. That's what I want him thinking about, using that powerful body that he has, creating speed, creating loose pucks."
Raffl said, "It helps when you go through a struggle like that. Everybody remembers how we got out of it, and we have to build on that."
Last season, Raffl finished with a plus-9 rating, which was tops among Flyers forwards.
Roster trimmed
The Flyers reduced their roster to 49 players Wednesday by sending Mark Dekanich, Chris McCarthy, Maxim Lamarche, Martin Ouellette, Jesper Pettersson, Steve Swavely, and Kevin Sundher to the Phantoms.
General manager Ron Hextall said he expected to make as many as 15 more cuts Thursday "to try to get down to a manageable" number.
Breakaways
Defenseman Nick Schultz suffered a lower-body injury Tuesday and will miss four to seven days, Hextall said. . . . The Flyers' next preseason game will be Saturday night against Boston at the Wells Fargo Center. They have four exhibition games remaining - home-and-home series against the Bruins and New York Rangers.