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.