What's wrong?

by Philly37 on Feb 12, 2012 5:56 PM EST

Hey, I haven't written a FanPost in a while, so here it goes. It's no secret that the Flyers have been slipping lately. Most people think that the problem is defense, but could it be something else? (Keep in mind this is pure speculation)

Goaltending

Ilya Byzgalov definetly did not live up to his contract in the first half of the season. Many people think that Bob should be our #1 goalie. Let's look at the stats. Bryz is 19-11-6 on the seanson, Bob is 12-6-1 Bryz's save % is .900, Bob's is .905 Bryz has 2 shutouts (one was in the SO loss agianst NYI), Bob has none. Bryz's GAA is 2.78, Bob's is 2.84 So both goalies have performed less than to their best ability. However, let's look at the 2nd half of the season.

Record- Bob 1-2, Bryz 1-1-2

Save%- Bob .812 Bryz-.963 (including NJ game, .953 without)

GAA- Bob 2.67, Bryz 1.2 (NJ) 1.5 (No NJ)

Bryz has been playing great since the All-Star break, Bob has been not so good. Bryz's numbers compared to his record leads me to believe that our problems are not in goal.

Defense

The common blame for our recent struggles. Oh Christ, I have no idea how to do this.

Bourdon-(Carle)-Playing well, for a young guy, but still, he's young.

Carle-(MAB)-Turnovers. Must. Stop.

Coburn-(Timo)-Hasn't been too bad this year. Playing with Timo doesn't hurt.

Gustaffson-(Mez)- Another young guy. Hasn't been playing great, but I expect improvement.

Mezsaros-(Gus)- Mez really needs to play better. If he improves, the defense becomes much less of a problem.

Timonen-(Coburn)- Only All-Star on the defense, deservedly so. Do we need to make a move to shore up our defense? Yes, I think so. Prongers' not coming back this season , and we need to stop letting the other team walk into our zone and scoring. Do we need to trade for Ryan Suter or Shea Weber? No. I think all we need is a solid 3 or 4 defenseman that can come in and play welland make the others playing around him better.

Offense

The offense is definetly the strong point of the team. Claude Giroux, Jaromir Jagr, Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere, Matt Read, Sean Couturier and JVR are all threats to score. so the offense couldn't possibly be the problem, could it? Lets find out.

1st line: 19-28-68: 61 goals this season

2nd line: 24-48-93: 38 goals this season

3rd line: 27-10-17: 37 goals this season

4th line: 36-14-32: 11 goals this season (way to contribute, Sestito)

1st D pairing: 44-5: 4 goals this season

2nd D pairing: 25-43: 6 goals this season

3rd D pairing: 26-41: 6 goals this season

Other players: 21-11 goals, 45-0 goals, 15-0 goals, 20-1 goal, 29-3 goals (Why, Homer?), 47-0 goals, 8-0 goals, 46-0 goals.

Ok. The first line has been absolutely phenomenal. So the team is 31-17-7. That's roughly 3.3 goals per game (5.7 goals per win). The league average is 2.7 goals per game (5.4 per win). So our offense is above average, but we knew that already. Right now we have JVR on the shlef indefinetly, and Sestito in the lineup instead of someone superior such as Harry Z, but that might not happen. So this was pretty much a waste of time, but it was fun. Now we know that our problem is on the defense and that we should (probably) trade for a 3rd or 4th defenseman (in my opinion). also, Bryz is playing well and he should get the majority of starts so he an build his confidence up. He's not Lundqvist, but if he can be playing at the top of his game for the rest of the season, we should be able to cover up our defensive problems and we will be fine.

Poll

What's the problem for the struggling?

Goaltending. Bryz and Bob must play better.

13 votes

Defense. Our guys need to shore up the line in order to win.

81 votes

Offense. We need to score more in order to be a contender.

1 votes

95 votes | Poll has closed

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

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Comments

Hockey is a team sport. It isn’t one person or even one segment of the team. Something has caught up with the whole group and they look very sloppy overall. Their passes are off, either too far ahead, in skates instead of on sticks, or to stationary players opposed to hitting people in stride. They pass a lot, particularly in the offensive zone, and as one who understands that you don’t just shoot the puck because you have it sometimes they make a bunch of good passes to create what looks to be a good opportunity, and then they try to force one and it ends up going the other way.

Special teams has been an issue, and say what you will about the referees (and I’ll probably agree with you), but if you as a team let a bad call, or even a string of bad calls get you off your game emotionally, that contributes just as much as the goal that gets scored on the ensuing power play for the opponent.

This team is pretty bad at playing pucks on the boards and more often than not it seems like battles along the boards end up with the puck squirting out to the side where there are more opponents. Some of this is a result of poor passes, and some of it is a result of getting outworked or outnumbered.

Without looking at stats, I will make the observation that the flyers don’t win many important faceoffs (initial power play draws, pk draws), and when they do come away with the puck it isn’t very often as a result of a clean win (which is actually less of an issue).

To also take into consideration that tonight against the Red Wings was the Flyers 8th game in 14 nights, I can imagine that they could be a little physically exhausted.

This team has shown that when it comes to compete it can play with anyone in the league, and while a particular player may improve some piece of the puzzle, this is an NHL team and any team on any night can win.

I go Bananas for Wayne Simmonds.

by bfrank27 on Feb 13, 2012 12:04 AM EST reply actions 2 recs

My observation is this: Very good offensively. Very good defensively- in center ice and in transition.

The defense in their own zone is an atrocity. Their blueliners are almost exclusively offensive defensemen- Carle, Mez, Bourdon, Kimmo (although he’s OK in his own zone, too), so any time the other teams gets some pressure in the PHI zone no one knows what to do. They add zip to the offense, sure, but it’s too offensive-heavy. Could be the system that Lavy has set up, but this is my observation.

goldomatic, who is King in the art of wishful thinking

by goldomatic on Feb 13, 2012 12:44 AM EST reply actions

I think our downfall all started with the goaltending. As the goaltending became terrible, the players in front of the goalie begin to press. Now they are playing like if the dont’ press and score 10 goals a game, we lose.

by ThatsGoodKoolAid on Feb 14, 2012 8:16 PM EST reply actions