Friday Morning Fly By: Recapping a Loss, No Kovy For You, MSM Fluff

by Travis Hughes on Jan 29, 2010 10:30 AM EST in Morning Fly By

Today's open discussion thread, including your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes...

Last night's NHL scores... Thrashers 4, Flyers 3 - OTT 4, PIT 1 - CAR 4, NYI 1 - LAK 4, CBJ 1 - MIN 1, COL 0 - PHX 3, CGY 2 (SO) - STL 2, EDM 1 - CHI 4, SJS 3
Recaps of the loss to the Thrashers from the AP, CP, NHL.com, Inquirer, Daily News, CSN, the Bucks Co. Courier Times, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And now for your ridiculously untimely stories about players who are playing well despite a terrible loss that the whole team should be blamed for, likely all written before the outcome of last night's game was even determined. We've got one on Oskars Bartulis from Carchidi... [Inq]
... one on Dan Carcillo from Panaccio... [CSN]
... and one on Darroll Powe from Wayne Fish. [Bucks. Co Times]
Why Kovalchuk won't be a Flyer, something we discussed here weeks ago. [DN]
Atlanta GM Don Waddell is impressed with the win last night and is still holding out hope that Kovalchuk will stay in town. [ESPN]
Meanwhile, it appears the Bruins are dropping out of the sweepstakes. [The Fourth Period]
And now for a much more intriguing piece from one of them blogger types: DMG on why Kovy's situation in Atlanta isn't proof that the current CBA is a sham. [Japers']
Jean-Sebastian Giguere is frustrated as a backup in Anaheim. [TFP]
IOC President thinks that the Olympics are good for the NHL. The NHL doesn't think the Olympics are good for the NHL. [SB Nation]
There's no all-star game this season, but if there was, Mike Richards and Chris Pronger would make the cut. [Puck Prospectus]
Vancouver is currently on a ridiculous road trip (thanks, Olympics) but um, this map is off in more than a few places. I counted six mistakes, how many did you find? [Sportsnet]
Flyers prospect goaltender Jacob De Serres has a new mask. [Luber's Lounge]
Petr Sykora, set to become a free agent. [Hockey Or Die]
Patrick Maroon returned to action on Wednesday night and lit the world on fire. [Post-Star]
Derek Zona tests out how an Internet trade rumor starts. Highly entertaining. [The Copper & Blue]
CSN's Sarah Baicker: Mark Fistric is insane. He was trying to work on getting with me DURING their morning skate when they were in Philly. [@sbaicker]
Finally, watch Claude Giroux's goal from last night. Again, again and again.

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Comments

The way I see it is that there’s no use in thinking what could of been. Maybe it’s a good thing. An ugly game that seemed liked complete waste of time might be the slap in the face by reality motivation this team needs. Might be.

This could be two points lost come April that will prove to be crucial, but there are two big points to be had Saturday against a team the Flyers are directly competing with. I really like all four games coming up in this next week – leading to the showdown in Philly with the Devils.

Would also love to see Pat Maroon get a couple NHL games under his belt before the season ends too.

by Michael4L on Jan 29, 2010 10:44 AM EST reply actions

I watched the San Jose-Chicago game last night, which was pretty awesome.

But my point is that the color guy for San Jose is absolutely amazing. I highly recommend checking out a San Jose broadcast. He was breaking down the action as it developed, as if he were Ron Jaworski on Tuesday morning looking at game film.

It was amazing and I wish we had that kind of broadcast in Philly.

by MarioD on Jan 29, 2010 10:44 AM EST reply actions

I completely second that. I love that TCN shows San Jose games, and they do it pretty often.

Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Jan 29, 2010 10:55 AM EST up reply actions

Drew Remenda is good. Darryl Reaugh is my favorite in terms of blending entertainment with insightful analysis, but Remenda has really grown on me.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Jan 29, 2010 11:41 AM EST up reply actions

Good grief...

Apparently:
Boston’s in Nova Scotia
Les Habs have moved to Trois-Pistoles
Columbus is now in western Michigan
Detroit’s…uh…in Columbus
Chicago’s now in St. Louis
The Predators have moved to Hunstville, Alabama
Tampa Bay is an artificial island off the Atlantic coast of Florida, rather than an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico
The Panthers moved to Dekle Beach
Pocatello, Idaho got the Avalanche away from Colorado
To make up for that, Dinosaur, Colorado now has the ’Yotes

"When you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you is
Believe"

by The Dark on Jan 29, 2010 10:45 AM EST reply actions

Agreed

But you gave credit for Toronto and Ottawa, where I wouldn’t give them the benefit of the doubt there. To me, it appears the Sens moved into the US because the center of that logo looks closer to Syracuse than to Ottawa. Rhetorical, I know, but shouldn’t a Canadian journalist know that Ottawa is west of Montreal, not south? The Leafs logo isn’t even over the correct Great Lake, so the Leafs must be playing this game in London. The only place I might disagree would be to say the Habs are farther south than Trois-Pistoles, but that whole map is just embarassing. Why bother creating a graphic at all if you’re going to do that bad of a job?

by DragonGirl0583 on Jan 29, 2010 10:07 PM EST up reply actions

was at the game last night. it really sucks when you get up to get a beer during intermission and you get back to your seat and miss 30 seconds of action, only to see the thrashers celebrating their 2nd goal before you can even sit down.

Also, one of the biggest plays of the game was Hartnell’s blown breakaway in the first. You cant blame a guy (especially a grinder like Hartnell) for missing on a breakaway once…its one on one hockey and sometime the goalie just wins. but when you get the rebound and get two cracks at it like Hartnell did, much less with an empty net the second time, you must bury it

by njh3293 on Jan 29, 2010 12:45 PM EST reply actions

I’m not defending Hartnell, he needs to play better. he was pretty close to the net when he tried to swing it around. I think last year it would have gone in for him, but he’s just having one of those slumps/years

by SkookFlyerfan on Jan 29, 2010 1:22 PM EST up reply actions

HA! way to go Fistric.

and Giroux’s assist on Asham’s goal was another great highlight. despite the complete team collapse in the third, those were some nice moves.

by KevinEdward on Jan 29, 2010 2:13 PM EST reply actions

personally i hope PL bag skated this sorry bunch of bums until they puked today. Not that it would do any good, but just the thought of some of these idiots puking gives me some sort of petty satisfaction for the fact that I had to endure that 3rd period last night.

Managing Editor - HockeyOutsiders.com

by HockeyOutsiders on Jan 29, 2010 3:43 PM EST reply actions

I know Sykora hasn’t done much this year, but does anyone else think the Flyers could use a somewhat crafty right wing that will probably be fairly cheap. Gagne and Richards are disadvantaged by playing with Powe.

Doing that could free up some bottom six forwards to send in a package for a third-pair D. I know Sykora probably isn’t the best candidate but he’s available so its worth a thought. Just had a quick look at his career stats and he scores in 1/2 of his games which isn’t terrible

by ToddtheFox on Jan 29, 2010 4:14 PM EST reply actions

I’d take Sykora in a heartbeat.

by EREX21 on Jan 29, 2010 4:41 PM EST up reply actions

Might not be a bad idea. Put Richards with two steady veterans who can score. Richie and Gags have been together for most of the year (so long as Gagne has been healthy) but they’ve always played with younger guys like Powe and Giroux or less-experienced players like Pyorala.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Jan 29, 2010 4:50 PM EST up reply actions

Powe and Hartnell are trading places

http://flyers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=35835

by bdunc8 on Jan 29, 2010 5:11 PM EST up reply actions

Why not Powe and Briere?

by ToddtheFox on Jan 29, 2010 5:14 PM EST up reply actions

Gagne-Richards-Briere sounds good, but Hartnell-Carter-Powe would be pretty weak. I think Carter needs a playmaker on his line to grab some attention and give him some open space.

by bdunc8 on Jan 29, 2010 5:55 PM EST up reply actions

Wasn’t Gagne and Briere playing together part of Homer’s original plan in signing Briere?

by DragonGirl0583 on Jan 29, 2010 6:17 PM EST up reply actions

The only thing is we have no cap space as far as I can tell.

by ToddtheFox on Jan 29, 2010 5:03 PM EST up reply actions

Looks like the Ducks are about to sign Hiller long-term, so Giguere’s pretty much officially a lame duck. MarioD, do you think someone like Giguere would be a better fit to deal with Laviolette’s system and its odd-man rushes against?

by Ben Feldman on Jan 30, 2010 11:54 AM EST reply actions

Absolutely. But its going to take more than just Carter for Giguierre.

First off, Giggy makes $1m more than carter, so the Flyers can barely afford him if at all. I would guess they’d send Boucher to anaheim in that deal and then waive emery. But then they’d still need a dman and two forwards now.

Personally, I hate paying a goaltender a $6m cap hit. Its just terrible fiscal management, as we’ve discussed before. I’d much prefer to fire Holmgren and Laviolette, get a new GM and bring back Stevens or, even better, Hitchcock, then sign a goalie this summer for a couple million a year and go back to being a defensive team.

There’s another glut of quality UFA goaltenders this summer, so several are going to end up with low cap hit deals. Here’s a list in terms of general talent evaluation on my part:

Nabokov
Hiller
Chris Mason (StL)

I think those are going to be five highest valued goalies. One of them could slip to the $3m a year range, which would be a good value. After those guys are a glut of serviceable secon tier goaltenders who could probably be had for $2m a year or less and with the right team are quality players:

Theodore
Ellis
Hedberg
Nittymaki

That’s 7 goaltenders, I’d be happy with who are all UFAs. You’ve also got the following RFAs flooding the market:

Harding
Price
Halak

So you’ve got 10 quality goaltenders available this summer. And how many teams would be looking for a starting goaltender right now?

~~Anaheim~~ (Has Giguere, if they trade him that takes one other team of the list)
Atlanta
Boston
Buffalo
Carolina
Calgary
Chicago
Columbus ?? (They’ve got two goalies under contract but are both under $2m so they could decide to sign someone to improve)
Dallas
~~Detroit~~ ?? (Same as Columbus, but I would expect them to ride Jimmy Howard and not make a move)
Edmonton (Do they eat Khaby’s $3.75m? Or suck for the next four years? Either way, Keving Lowe should not have a job.)
~~Florida~~
~~Los Angeles~~ ?? (same as columbus)
~~Minnesota~~
Montreal
Nashville
New Jersey
NY Islanders (Rolosson and DiPietro)
NY Rangers
Ottawa
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
San Jose
St Louis
Tampa
Toronto
~~Vancouver~~
~~Washington~~ ??(I would expect them to go with and save the cap money, but he is very cheap so they could afford a big contract if someone signs without the guarantee of playing time.)

That’s 11 teams looking for a starting goalie (including Columbus as a representative of the four question mark teams, one of which I’m guess will sign a big name).

With 10 quality starting goaltenders, and no guarantee all 11 of those teams will even sign one (I’m look at you, Edmonton) there will definitely be a few goalies who sign at good value.

by MarioD on Jan 30, 2010 1:08 PM EST up reply actions