Dave Hakstol: 'Number One Goal Is To Be A Playoff Team'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Flyers will play their final game before the NHL All-Star Break tonight as they visit an outstanding Washington Capitals team. The Flyers will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak. Just prior to this skid, the Flyers were playing some of their best hockey of the season, putting together a 5-0-1 stretch.
Overall this season, Philadelphia is 20-18-8. With 48 points, they are currently seventh in the Metropolitan Division and seven points out of the final wild card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
The Flyers have made progress this season, but there is still work to do.
"The number one goal on the list is to improve as a team, to win enough games and to be a playoff team," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol tells KYW Newsradio. "Right now, we've shown improvement in a lot of areas, we continue to get better. But, at the same time, right into the heart of the second-half schedule here, we have some work to do to put ourselves back into a playoff position."
Listen to the entire interview with Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol:
This is Hakstol's first year as the head coach here in Philadelphia. He came to the Flyers after a wildly successful run as the head coach at the University of North Dakota. He talks about whether the transition to the NHL has been about what he thought it would be.
"I didn't really have any preconceived notions," Hakstol says. "When you go through something for the first time, there's going to be challenges every day. I think that's been the case, that's been true. There's new challenges that come at you day in and day out, but I've enjoyed it. It's been extremely challenging. I'm thankful for that opportunity and most importantly, the good people that we have in this organization and the unbelievable fans that we have."
So what does the coach consider to be the strength of the 2015-16 Flyers?
"I think so far, overall, it's been our resolve as a team," Hakstol says. "I think night in and night out we have twenty guys in the lineup that have shown that they're going to go out and battle hard for one another. I really like the area of growth that we've shown in terms of having the ability and the confidence to know that if we're down by one, even if it's into a third period or late in a hockey game, we have the confidence to know that we're going to be able come back and tie that game out and come up with a good outcome. You know, it's mindset. I think that's a big part of any team. I think we still have a ways to go there yet, in terms of the consistency of that mindset, but we're showing some signs."
The Flyers and Capitals will face-off tonight at 8:00.