Week 1 Recap

by OrangeNblacK on Oct 12, 2010 5:11 PM EDT

5 of 6 was almost a perfect way to start, but I'll take it. And I'm sure all of you will too. Now we saw the 2010-11 Flyers full expected roster vs. The Avs, lets look back and see how the guys have been so far.

N/A: Andreas Nodl. Hasn't played yet, no grade here.

F: Only one Flyers gets an F: Matt Walker for being the highest paid 8th defense-men ever (not positive, but highly likely). Oscars beat him out. LOL. Good for Oscars.

D: Dan Carcillo and Nikolay Zherdev get the only D's but I'm only really worried for CarBomb. His shifts are being taken away on the top line and his time is running out. He hasn't done anything except take a bad penalty. Zherdev's line has had pressure in the offensive zone a lot, and he hasn't been scored on yet. He'll be fine, but I can't say the same for Car Bomb.

C: Only two guys here, and it is the BEFORE PRONGER versions of O'Donnell and Meszaros. O'D struggled with Bartullis with a few bad turnovers, and Meszaros showed why he's not capable of being on the top pair as he did nothing at all with Matt Carle. More to come on these guys later.

C+: Two guys get C+'s and they are line mates. Hartsey and Ville are the winners of this grade. Lieno has 2 assists and Hartnell has nothing. Nothing "horrible" here but Hartnell's 0 points -2 in three games is a little bit concerning. We are winning and Danny has been scoring, so I am not worried. As long as that line stays together, they will be fine. I could have given Ville a B but his assists have been secondary and nothing special.

B: Lots of guys here, lets go 1 by 1. Jeff Carter's two goals are okay, not "A" worthy. The GWG was huge. 14 shots in 3 games is nice, but when him and Richie click, there should be PPG worthy. Matt Calre is here too, he's got a +3 (+2 last game w/ CP) with a point, but didn't do much before Pronger. Shelley goes here too. Sorry haters, but he's done his job, he's banged some bodies, and no one has been killed on our side yet. Carbomb and Powe have been able to roam free without having to answer for it. Both goalies go here, nothing major there. Solid play, nothing great, but nothing bad.

B+: Oscars Bartulis beat out Matt Walker and he wasn't noticed at all (except for taking some hits) and was a +1. Richie's 3 assists in 3 games gets him here. He's +2 and has just picked up where he left off last post season. Kimmo's here also, no points, no mistakes, and he's just been quiet. With Pronger on the back end with him, and the fire power up front, I have nothing wrong with Kimmo being a pure shut down guy, which he has been his whole carrier. Also, with Braydon playing like he is, Kimmo gets some credit for it.

A-: Danny Briere: 2 goals, both huge. Danny has returned form last playoffs, and he's on the "defensive position" in our 4 F 1 D PP.

A: Braydon Coburn is a different player. 6 PIM is too many, but I have been so impressed with his physical play that he gets an A. Blair Betts gets an easy A. He's a PK wiz and tacked on a goal. Add a +3 and another assist and you have a huge cog to the Flyer machine. Lappy gets credit for the Darrol Powe "A" he's about to receive. See: "Betts, Blair" for the reasoning. Goal, Assist, +2. Awesome. Pronger is healthy for game 3, thus getting him an automatic A. Andrej Meszaros and Sean O'Donnell last game, with Pronger were fantastic. They hit everything that moved. JVR gets an A, he's a different player. Stronger, Faster, and more confident.

A+: Claude Giroux. Enough said.

This item was written by a member of this community and is not necessarily endorsed by Broad Street Hockey.

Tweet Comment 2 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I disagree with about 50% of your points, but rather than focus on that, I’d like to focus on what I agree with:

-We all know that Giroux is an NHL superstar, and this is the year he will become a household name for anyone who’s interested in Hockey. There was one rush he made where he ended up losing the puck but was so scary fast, it was like he was going one speed and everyone else in the NHL was at at a different speed.

-Leino, Hartnell, Brier is looking pretty damn good already, and keep in mind that Leino is still getting his legs under him coming off his surgery.

-JVR has definately come into this year with a lot more confidence, and a bit of an edge, that he didn’t have last year.

-Coburn is a beast this year. This is the Coburn we all wanted to see last year, and appeared only in glimpses.

-Matt Carle is probably the most underestimated d-man in the NHL right now, but when you’re on the same team as Kimmo, being underappreciated is practically a badge of honor.

I’ve also been pretty happy with the progress of Mezzaros, who looked like a major mistake but is starting to demonstrate that he’s the guy we were hoping for. Once they settle into the pairing now that elbows is back, I think that other teams are very much going to find playing philly to be highly unpleasant. O’Donnel especially at the price we paid is a fantastic pickup.

-The 4th line is doing pretty much what we expected. I’m partly sad about Lappy’s situation, but given the makeup of the team, I don’t think.

Jeff Carter is starting to get his game back, and this bodes well for the team, although there’s a surprising lack of chemistry on that line. But the truth is they don’t have to light up other teams - even with Carbomb (and I expect to See Powe get some opportunties up there if Carbomb doesn’t gel) that is probably the most dangerous checking line in the NHL purely on the basis of having Carter and Richards who are 2 of the best young defensive forwards in the NHL, and both are capable of opportunistic goals. Even if they mainly neutralize and offset the other teams best lines on certain nights, the Flyers are going to be a nightmare to play against, because it’s just wave after wave of offensive talent, and they’re virtually impossible to match up against.

So far I’m seeing everything I expected to see this year, even though there were a number of missing pieces that still haven’t gelled.

I’ll leave off by saying that not only has Bob impressed, but in his one game of the season Boosh was outstanding.

The best thing about these games is that the Flyers have had to play against 3 excellent young teams in a row, and these are the games that in the past they tended to airball. It’s gone a long way in making me a believer that last year was not a fluke, and that the moves made in the off season were the right ones.

by Gizmoitus on Oct 13, 2010 5:41 AM EDT reply actions

Carter needs to learn to use his size. He is fast an he knows it, but for a guy who is 6’3’’ 200, he is not a physical player (at least not nearly enough to be called a physical player), and he doesn’t have all that much finesse to get around defenders. There is something to be said for getting a lot of shots, and for the last couple years, Carter has been near the top of the league in shot totals, but he misses almost as much as Hartnell falls down. He has a good shot, and good speed, but that’s about it as far as I’m concerned. I kind of hope they stick with the Carter/Richards/winger combo and hope against hope that Richards’ physicality will rub off on Carter a little bit.

by bfrank27 on Oct 18, 2010 8:31 PM EDT reply actions