Wednesday Morning Fly By: A Win

I missed a good chunk of the game last night due to prior commitments but got home in time to see OT and the shootout.

JVR looked good. Zherdev needs a new number because when I saw him I thought the following:

Big Guy + Effortless Skater (in a good way) + #93 = Petr Nedved. No thank you.

But I can see that Zherdev has skill. I’m starting to get excited for the season, people.

Nik Zherdev can really skate and the puck follows him around – too bad he doesn’t follow it back into his own zone.

Tehehe… (cackles)

I don’t think I even knew Andrej Meszaros was in the lineup. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Definitely a good thing. Once you start noticing Meszaros, it means he does his usual… turn overrr!

And I find it pretty funny that people use “Lightning Could Strike Twice” as it was something very unusual, nearly impossible. Lightning can strike 100 times if it wants.

Above, I wrote this:

Big Guy + Effortless Skater (in a good way) + #93 = Petr Nedved

I have decided that, with a new season comes a new mathematical rule which shall be huddled in unholy quorum with The Fun Quotient and JVT (Jones’ Value to Team).

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Ex-Flyers’ Number.

(Physical Attributes + Previous Reputation) x (Hockey Skill / Effort Displayed) + Sweater Number = Ex-Flyer to Reminisce About.

In short, (PA + PR)(HS/ED) + SN = EFN

PA and PR are constants. ED and SN are variables. HS is on a slope / parabola which increases, then decreases, over time. Therefore, EFN can be changed, for better or worse.

The EFN remains absolutely true for a given player unless:

• The variable SN changes, AND/OR
• The variable ED changes as well.

A difference in SN by itself does not affect the quality of the EFN. However, a difference in ED almost always does.

For Mr. Zherdev:

PA = Fairly tall/big boy!
PR = The Ukranian Joffrey Lupul (minus the fratboy)
HS = Obviously talented, good skater.
ED = Offensive end good, Defensive end not so much.
SN = 93 (Same as Petr Nedved)

All of these attributes, when computed, return Petr Nedved. This may change if/when Mr. Zherdev becomes responsible in his own end of the ice and remains a consistent offensive threat. It will not change if only his SN changes.

Giroux looked like he was the only guy on the ice who knew about the speed burst button he looked extremely quick not fast but quick darting to the puck. Too bad he was playing the no hands team in Powe and Nodl as he wingers or that line could have put up big points.

Zherdev was a better passer than I expected and was noticeable he seems to have that ability to play without the puck more than I expected and get to dangerous spots with his stick on the ice. -3 for the game not good but still that line was threatening on much shifts.

O’Donnell was much faster and a much better puck handler than I expected. For whatever reason I expected a more pylon like Hatcher type D-Man and O’Donnell made lots nice subtle plays with the puck to stop the pressure and get out the zone.

Meszaros did not impress me in the D-Zone he seemed all over the place and made some turnovers that everyone pretty much said was his MO. He look a lot more comfortable on the attack and hopefully that translates well to the PP.

Powe played really well I usually bash the guy but he looked better.

Bartulis looked physically over-matched.

Danny B. looked like his chippy self and that was one hell of a shot to get the tying goal.

Leighton look so so rebounds and such like usual.

BOB looked really fast with a quick glove hand but he played a little too deep in his net for comfort.

If the officials got paid for that game someone call the cops because they were stealing money they didn’t call anything and they didn’t even bother breaking up fights.

For what it’s worth, the Puck Daddy preview of the Flyers

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NHL-2010-11-Season-Preview-Wrestling-with-Phila?urn=nhl-271569

Going off of my “media perception” angle:

In more than one story today, Ben Holmstrom and Andreas Nodl are being lumped together. While Holmstrom is being praised, Nodl is being knocked. Did the two really play differently? I don’t think anybody will argue that they did. Instead, Holmstrom is “surprising” while Nodl is “not showing enough”.

Why is that? Neither are likely to make the team out of camp, but the spin makes it seem like Holmstrom is a lot closer than Nodl to forcing his way into the lineup.