NEW YORK _ After the Flyers were eliminated from playoff contention with Sunday's 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers, coach Dave Hakstol didn't rule out the possibility of Mike Vecchione making his NHL debut Tuesday in New Jersey.
But he hinted Vecchione wouldn't be ready until Saturday afternoon's home game against Columbus. The Flyers conclude their disappointing season Sunday night against visiting Carolina.
"I don't know about Tuesday," Hakstol said. "But we absolutely want to get him in a game or two, maybe more. I want to make sure it's a good situation for him."
Vecchione's season with Union College ended March 26, and the 5-foot-10, 195-pound center wasn't on the ice again until a week later. He has not had a full practice with the Flyers, and won't have that opportunity until Wednesday because the team was off on Monday and has a game Tuesday.
"You want to put a player in as much of a situation of strength as possible to have success," Hakstol said. "The reality is, Mike still hasn't had a practice with us. He's had a couple morning skates, so we'll look at Tuesday and consider it. We do have a couple good days of practice after that, leading into the weekend. We'll take all that into consideration, and make sure we give him a real good opportunity for success when he does go in."
As far as the overall season, Hakstol said he never felt the playoffs were a given even when the Flyers had a 10-game winning streak that ended Dec. 17. When they won their 10th straight, the Flyers had 41 points.
At that time, only three of the NHL's 30 teams _ Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Montreal _ had more points than the Flyers. The Flyers had 13 more points than Toronto, which is now seven "ahead of Philadelphia.
"I said it at that time, it was going to be a battle all the way through," Hakstol said. "I don't think anybody in our room got too far ahead of themselves. You just know things are too tight when you look throughout the conference. You look at a couple key points _ three or four games where you look at different outcomes _ [because] it's that close.
"But the reality is, we're on the outside looking in."
The Flyers are on the outside because their special teams killed them down the stretch. Prior to a way-too-late four-game winning streak recently, the Flyers power play was 3 for 43 (7 percent) and its penalty kill was 22 for 32 (68.8 percent) in their first 12 games in March.
Those dozen games (5-6-1) virtually wiped out their playoff chances.
