The Flyers announced this afternoon that Harry Zolnierczyk has been sent back to the Adirondack Phantoms. He's been a strong player on the fourth line for the Flyers for most of the season thus far, but apparently he's lost his spot on the roster to Tom Sestito, who has played in Harry Z's place in a few games since the All-Star break.

Zolnierczyk was a healthy scratch last night against the Islanders, on Saturday against the Devils and last Tuesday against Winnipeg. It's evident that Zolnierczyk has been marginalized by the play of Sestito, and I'm not going to pretend to understand that considering they play completely different roles.

I don't absolutely hate the move from a sending-down-Harry-Z perspective, but the impact it has on Sean Couturier is what worries me. He's now all but forced to play with some combination of Sestito, Zac Rinaldo and Jody Shelley on that fourth line... and well, that sucks. Maybe the alternative is to put Max Talbot on the fourth line, but I'm not sure how I like that either.

Essentially, losing Harry Z forces the Flyers to lose some versatility in the lineup, and that's the part that's more bothersome than anything else.

Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers-related news and notes...

• Recaps from last night: [BSH] [SB Nation Philly] [Lighthouse Hockey] [CSNPhilly] [Daily News] [Inquirer] [delcotimes.com] [the700level] [Flyers Faithful] [The Checking Line] [Bill Meltzer]
• Kimmo Timonen said he's "happy with the effort" and that "the effort was there" for the full 65 minutes. I'm waiting for the shouts of "doesn't care about losing" to come: [CSNPhilly]
• James van Riemsdyk spoke about his concussion and his recovery: [CSNPhilly] [Daily News] [delcotimes.com]
• Rich Hoffman says Danny Briere looked good last night, but it's how he feels today that matters: [Daily News]
• Ever hear of laces bite? Admittedly, I hadn't. It's apparently a problem for Marc-Andre Bourdon: [Daily News]
• Debating the Flyers' likely moves at the upcoming deadline: [Flyers Faithful]
• A nice story on what Kevin Marshall brings to the Bears: [PennLive.com]
• Looking at the most expensive bluelines and their teams' goals against average. Chris Pronger makes the Flyers look bad: [Puck Daddy]
• Frans Nielsen signed a four year, $11 million extension with the Islanders: [Lighthouse Hockey] [Puck Daddy]
• An interesting idea here: looking at the 80 players who deviated most from their average ice time in last night's games: [NHL Ice Time]

[Complete Coverage] - [New York Reaction] - [Discussion Thread]
[Event Summary] - [PBP Log] - [TOI Log] - [Faceoff Report]
[Shift Charts] - [Head-to-Head TOI] - [Shot Differential] - [5-on-5 Faceoffs]

Once we reached about five minutes into a scoreless third period at Wells Fargo Center tonight, you just knew it was going to be one of those games that'd end up either wonderfully satisfying or brutally heartbreaking. One where the Flyers would either be rewarded for a relentless effort, or forced to slug back to the locker room with a dejected feeling they wouldn't really deserve.

Sometimes you just don't get the result you deserve in this game, and tonight was Exhibit A. The Flyers peppered the New York Islanders net with 45 shots -- compared to just 18 on goal for the Islanders -- but Evgeni Nabokov had an answer for each and every chance the Flyers could muster and New York left the building with a 1-0 shootout victory.

Make no doubt about it: Nabokov got exactly the result he deserved tonight, but he's probably the only guy on either team who can say that after this one.

The Flyers top line really poured it on tonight. Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr combined for 16 shots on their own, and at even strength, they each had an on-ice shot differential of at least 20. Dominating stuff, really, and the only reason several pucks didn't find the back of the net was Nabokov.

Special teams were even more impressive. The power play was (obviously) held off the board for the first time in seven games, but it was still a potent unit that generated quite a few chances. The penalty kill was even better, at times getting more chances while shorthanded than the Isles were getting with the extra man.

But none of it matters, thanks to Evgeni Nabokov and the shootout. It sucks, but there's really no sense in getting upset about it. Some times, you just have to tip your cap to a guy and move on. Hey, look on the bright side: Second shutout of the year for Ilya Bryzgalov!

Continue reading this post »

New York Islanders (21-22-8, 50 pts) at Philadelphia Flyers at (30-16-6, 66 pts)

7 p.m. tonight at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia

Catch the action on CSN Philly, MSG Plus and 94WIP

[Game Preview] - [New York Perspective]

Tonight's goaltenders:

Stats widgets are giving me a hard time, but it's llya Bryzgalov vs. Evgeni Nabokov tonight.

Continue reading this post »

It was an embarrassing weekend on just about every level for the Flyers, losing to two New York-area teams and acting like idiots in the process. Hair pulling, slew footing, getting beat up by Ilya Kovalchuk. It was ugly. But it's time to turn the page now, and what better way to do so that with a game against our favorite whipping boys -- that other team from the NY area, the Islanders?

Sure, the Isles finally beat the Flyers last time they met, just a few weeks ago on January 19. The Islanders were far and away the better team in that one, but tonight is a chance for the Flyers to get back on track. Danny Briere's addition to the lineup is the biggest plus for the team, as it gives Peter Laviolette's lineup two legitimately strong scoring lines yet again. Oh, and Briere is almost a point-per-game player against the Isles in his career.

Continue reading this post »

Many regular readers of BSH know that many here put a lot of stock into the so-called "advanced statistics" -- both as a way to understand what we're watching on the ice night in and night out, and as a way to predict future events.

For example, Fenwick tied -- a measure of unblocked shots directed at the net while the team is tied -- is known to be an excellent way of estimating future winning percentage. This has been shown several times over the last few years, like the Devils getting more points than the Dallas Stars over the last half of the season, and the Minnesota Wild being awful this year despite spending quite some time at the top of the Western Conference.

Peter Laviolette may be unaware of the statistical powers of Fenwick numbers, but we know that he puts a lot of stock into scoring chances -- and we also know that there is a correlation between Corsi/Fenwick and scoring chances. You can decide whether or not you put any stock in Fenwick numbers, but scoring chances are simple to understand and their importance is pretty obvious.

That's why we've been tracking them here at BSH over the course of the season, and it's time to get caught up on some trends over the first half of this year.

Continue reading this post »