The halfway point of the season has come and gone and with the Flyers continuing to make a playoff push, reaching the halfway mark allows a chance for evaluation.
It isn't hard to find the point when things started to turn on a season that was going downhill fast.
Ron Hextall did a sit-down interview with Steve Coates of the Flyers radio broadcast team for the team's website and was asked about Shayne Gostisbehere's contributions to the team.
The GM shared his thoughts on Gostisbehere, noting that in a season where he had struggled some, his call-up to the NHL nearly didn't happen.
"It came quick. If you look at his training camp, he was a little off," Hextall said. "He wasn’t probably what he expected or we expected, albeit played seven games last year so it’s tough. He went down to the minors and he was okay early but not great. He certainly wasn’t himself. I think I saw him in his 15th game, the game before we called him up and he was real good and starting to hit his stride."
The game Hextall is referring to is the Phantoms game on Nov. 13, the team's 14th game of the season. Gostisbehere had two assists in a 7-1 win against Rochester. The next night, he was in Carolina, helping the Flyers to a 3-2 overtime win.
Talk about timing.
"Prior to that, I’m not sure things would have gone that well," Hextall said. "But he came in and fit in seamlessly."
Gostisbehere was only up because a spot had opened up with Mark Streit suffering a lower-body injury that would leave him out for six weeks. Streit missed 19 games. In that time, Gostisbehere recorded 14 points, including six goals, three of the overtime winners. Ghost also took over on the top power-play unit, holding the position when Streit returned on Dec. 30.
"Obviously because Mark Streit was out, he had a big chunk of the pie, the first power play was big for Shayne," Hextall said. "That’s one of the attributes that he brings. When you look at Ghost, you say first power play is one of his duties and he’s very good at it. He fit in well, I think the opportunity was there for him and he jumped at it."
Interestingly enough, when Ghost wasn't winning games in overtime for the Flyers, he was certainly helping lift their spirits. The Flyers were 5-8-3 when Gostisbehere was called up on Nov. 13. In the 19 games Streit was out, the Flyers went 10-5-4 and they have a 15-9-5 in the 29 games since Gostisbehere's call-up.
That has the Flyers within five points of a playoff spot after a dismal start to the season. Was Gostisbehere's call-up the turning point.
"We are a team. One player comes in, he can’t make that big of a difference," Hextall said. "If one player comes in and plays great and everyone else plays so-so, it really doesn’t matter. It’s not going to add that much.
"I think our group was starting to come together and Ghost comes in, there’s no question he added a high skill level, mobility, speed, playmaking from the back end. He’s added an element to us for sure. I think our whole group has really picked it up and done a good job. In saying that, there’s no room for complacency. We need to keep pushing here."
Part 1 of Coates interview with Hextall can be seen below.
That push continues for the Flyers on Saturday night as the Flyers face the New York Islanders at 7:30 p.m.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
