Broad Street Hockey: FanPosts

Strength of Schedule

2009-11-19T18:38:09Z

The Flyers are getting it done despite a difficult schedule, a real good sign. With the upcoming road trip many people are saying, now the Flyers are really going to be tested. As a matter of fact they have been getting tested throughout the season having the 8th most difficult schedule in the NHL and the 5th most difficult in the East. If the season were to end today 10 out of 18 games would have been played against playoff teams with 7 of them against teams leading their respective divisions, the Flyers are 4-3-0 in those games. The overall winning percentage of the Flyers opponents is 52% it is much higher if you take out the two games against the dreadful Hurricanes whose 28% winning percentage really drags down the average. Even more is impressive is the NJ Devils who have played the hardest schedule in the entire league. To note the hated Pens have had a cake walk of a schedule opponents winning percentage of 47% good for 28th in the league. Making matter worst the horrible Canes can't win games with the easiest schedule in the East opponents winning percentage of 45%.

JVR for ROY.

2009-11-18T18:50:14Z

From what I have seen this season, JVR has produced at a rate even I couldn't personally imagine. I could easily see him to begin to run away with rookie of the year in the coming weeks. Tavares is the only rookie currently with more points with 19, but he has played 6 more games. He is only going to get better, and if he keeps playing at this level I could see him as a sleeper pick for the USA Olympic team. 16 points in 14 games played. It's nice to see the number 2 overall pick after Kane finally paying dividends after the long wait. Go Flyers!

Pelle Lindbergh

2009-11-15T17:32:41Z

Great article today on the former Flyer goalie.

I still remember him from the 81 series against Adirondack.

Lindbergh Story

Danny Briere/Team Inconsistancy

2009-11-15T15:40:29Z

This is not meant to be a "stir the pot" post, just more of a "Food for thought"

Through the first 10 games the Flyers played, Danny Briere played in all of them and the team won half of those games. (Win-loss record of 5 - 5)

Then Briere suffered an injury and was scratched from the lineup for the next four games and the Flyers won all four (Win-loss record of 4 - 0).

Briere returns to the lineup and played in the last 2 games and the Flyers again win half (Win-loss record of 1 - 1).

I remember something like this happened last year, when the Flyers started off the season 0 - 3 - 3 (win-loss record of 0 - 6). Briere goes on the injury list and then the Flyers suddenly start to win consistantly.

I mean it's hard to complain about a guy who has scored 7 goals in 12 games played, but it's kind of ironic that Danny Briere parallels the inconsistancy.

Like he returned to the lineup and played well against Ottawa, and then against Buffalo, the team started the third period down 2 - 0 and then the Flyers get something going. They score to make the game 2 - 1, then get a power play opportunity that is suddenly wiped away when Briere gets a double minor for high-sticking. It was during Briere's penalty that the Sabres would score their 3 goal and put the game out of reach. And the Flyers go on to lose at home, against a team they thumped on the road.

I know Briere only plays one side of the ice....what do you think, about the Flyers inconsistancy mirroring Danny Briere?

Now the Flyers enter a stretch of games against some of the strongest teams in the NHL: New Jersey (who is not the same team you thumped 5 - 2 back in October; wow think about it, you thump Ryan Miller 5 - 2 on the road, then lose to them at home; you thump Martin Brodeur 5 - 2 on the road & now come home and possibly.....), Los Angeles (who are no push overs this season), San Jose (who the Flyers haven't beaten in at least the last 4 attempts), the Phoenix Jets (dangerous team), the Colorado Nordiques (playing very well), and then the New York Islanders (Ray Emery better watch out, Martin Biron will beat him up again).

The Flyers, who are currently 4 games over .500, could easily find themselves below .500 following these next stretch of games.

Does anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is being sold without the "C" on it?

2009-11-13T23:59:16Z

WINTER CLASSIC JERSEY QUESTION

Does anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is beiDoes anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is being sold without the "C" on it?ng sold without the "C" on it?Does anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is being sold without the "C" on it?Does anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is being sold without the "C" on it? Does anyone know why the Richards Winter Classic Jersey is being sold without the "C" on it?

Last Five Games: 10/31 to 11/12

2009-11-13T13:50:54Z

If someone else has posted any of this I'm sorry. I looked around and didn't see anything, so please forgive me.

This is just a progress report on some basic catagories on how the team is doing.

Penalties: 32 (6.4 per game; 6 Fighting-Majors, 0 Majors, 0 Misconducts, 0 Game-Misconducts, 26 Minors) *Penalties are up from previous 5 games*

Penalty Kill: 12 for 15 (80%); 5-on-3: 0 for 0 (0%) *No Shorties*

Power Play: 6 for 23 (26%); 5-on-3: 0 for 0 (0%) (I believe the Flyers have had only 1 opportunity at a 5-on-3 advantage all season long) *No Shorties Allowed*

Face-Off Attempts: 289 (58 per game)

Face-Offs Won: 157 (31 per game)

Face-Off %: 54.3% (This is WAY up! from the last 5 games in which they were 46.8%)

Give Aways: 42 (8.4 per game) *up from the last five games*

Take Aways: 29 (5.8 per game) *about the same as the previous five games*

Hits: 81 (16.2 per game) *down from the last five games*

Blocked Shots: 84 (16.8 per game) *up from the last five games*

Shots Against: 152 (30.4 per game) *up from last five games*

Shots For: 159 (31.8 per game) *down from last five games*

#29 Ray Emery (Goaltending): 145 for 152 (Save %: .954, Wins: 5, Shut-outs: 0, GAA: 1.40) *Emery's numbers are much improved!*

Goals Against: 7 (1.4 per game) *Way down from the 3.2 per game from the last five games*

Goals For: 23 (4.6 per game) *Way up from the 2.6 per game from the last five games*

Record: 5 - 0 - 0

Points: 10 (out of a possible 10)

My own Observations

Mike Richards: Continues leading the team with 8 goals, but has only scored 1 goal since the Anaheim game (fifth game of the season)

Chris Pronger: I think so far this guy has been playing as advertised. He leads the team in Blocked Shots with 42 and Assists with 13. His Plus/Minus of +12 is second on the team, only to his partner Matt Carle. He leads defensemen in hits with 18. And he has 3 goals on the season (scoring 1 goal every 5 games so far).

Timonen & Coburn: Through the First 10 games, their Plus/Minus were like -9 & -10 (-19 combined). Since then, they've both played a lot better and have improved their Plus/Minus on the season to -3 for both. This Pairing needs to continue to improve and play the way they are capable of playing.

Simon Gagne & Danny Briere: When Simon Gagne's Team Canada injury finally caught up to him, I was initially worried because I remember the last time the Flyers lost Gagne to an injury, they lost 10 games straight.

As for Briere, I remember last year the team started off the season slow going 0-3-3 and as soon as Briere went down, the team started winning consistantly. Here we go again, Briere went down with an injury when they team was playing .500 hockey and suddenly they win 5 in a row. (I know Briere returned and played against the Senators..so the team won 4 in a row without his services).

Blair Betts: His return to the lineup has improved the Flyers Face-off %.

Overall Record

Record: 10 - 4 - 1 (10 - 5); Winning %: .667

Third Place in Division with 21 points!

If the playoffs started today they would have the fifth seed and be playing.....PITTSBURGH! (Can you believe the Devils are in first place?)

Lindros HOF

2009-11-11T13:35:52Z

Don't mean to be starting too many posts here guys, but I just read an article about it and I figured I'd be the first one to bring the debate to BSH (I think). Is he in or his he out. As a young Flyers fan (only 18) I don't remember the very early years of the 88 saga, but I am old enough to have 2 different Lindros jerseys. I am also young (and lucky) enough to not have cared about his off ice problems. If I get a say "Vote Lindros for 2010 Hockey HOF"

Too much fuss over nothing?

2009-11-11T12:18:59Z

The left column is point percentage. Middle is faceoff percentage. Right is point minus faceoffs. If there are any stat guys here I would love to know if there is any mathematical correlation between the two different stats.

P%    FO%
0.737    56.9    0.168
0.625    53.4    0.091
0.529    52.6    0.003
0.412    52.2    -0.11
0.526    51.9    0.007
0.706    51.7    0.189
0.679    51.6    0.163
0.567    51.5    0.052
0.588    51.4    0.074
0.5    51.3    -0.013
0.444    51.2    -0.068
0.536    51    0.026
0.469    50.5    -0.036
0.625    50.3    0.122
0.567    49.9    0.068
0.5    49.6    0.004
0.367    49.1    -0.124
0.733    49.1    0.242
0.344    48.9    -0.145
0.467    48.8    -0.021
0.719    48.7    0.232
0.679    48.5    0.194
0.667    48.2    0.185
0.611    48.2    0.129
0.6    47.7    0.123
0.588    47.6    0.112
0.219    47.5    -0.256
0.583    47.4    0.109
0.5    47.3    0.027
0.722    45    0.272

Pronger's accomplishment

2009-11-10T19:03:22Z

Hi all - new poster. Just had to share my thoughts about what everyone, I'm sure, already has seen:

From the NHL:

Pronger led all defensemen in scoring with five points (one goal, four assists) and posted a +5 rating as the Flyers (9-4-1) posted three consecutive victories. Pronger recorded two assists and a +2 rating in a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 2, tallied one goal, one assist and was +3 in a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres Nov. 6 and finished the week by notching one assist in a 2-1 shootout victory over the St. Louis Blues Nov. 7. Pronger logged a personal season high of 31:56 in the win over St. Louis, increasing his League-leading average ice time figure for the season to 27:37. He ranks third among defensemen in scoring with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) and ranks fifth among all players in plus-minus (+11).

It was a really great week to watch Flyers hockey and Pronger deserved 3rd star honor. We keep seeing this and we will be able to say "money well spent". Cheers!!

Stu

Re-Thinking the Standings / "The Teams Will Now Play for the Extra Point"

2009-11-08T04:25:49Z

Disclaimer: I've been thinking about this for a while. Even though the Flyers are somehow 2-1 in shootouts this year, I still like this idea enough to present it to you all.

Back in the not-so-hazy, lazy days of March 2009, the NHL's GMs met in Naples, Florida. While there, Detroit's Ken Holland suggested that regulation wins should carry more weight in the standings than shootout victories. Holland's proposal was meant to encourage extra effort in regulation, and I think it was also aimed at teams who "played for the shootout" once they got into overtime. (The Rangers were particularly egregious in this regard when Tom Renney was their coach, and it seemed to me that the Blues did the same tonight.)

I agree with Holland more than I do the author of the above-linked article, for what it's worth. I personally feel that, if you manage to play 60 minutes of hockey and do not lose, you deserve to get a point in the standings. If you play 65 minutes and still do not lose, you deserve a point in the standings. And eliminating points for overtime losses would likely lead to less drama and excitement in March, because fewer teams would be scrambling for the last playoff spot or two. I find shootouts enjoyable to watch but I do not like them as a way to determine whether a team wins or loses a hockey game. That should be determined when two teams are actually playing hockey, not taking penalty shots and hoping for the best.

Unlike Holland, I feel that a win should count as a win in the "W" column whether it is in regulation OR during the 4-on-4 OT session. This is because you are actually playing a hockey game during these 65 minutes; you are not hoping that one team scores on more penalty shots than another. As for losses, I feel that a team should receive a loss in the "L" column whether they lose in regulation OR in overtime. However, you would still get a point for losing a game in OT, as I mentioned above.

Before I get into shootouts and confuse the hell out of everyone, let me illustrate my idea. The standings column would look like this under the Mikefive Proposal:

W L T OP

W stands for "Wins" as it always has. A team who wins in regulation or in the 4-on-4 OT gets a number in the Wins column. Wins are worth 2 points in the standings.

L stands for "Losses" as it always has. A team who loses in regulation or in the 4-on-4 OT gets a number in the Losses column. Losses are worth 0 points in the standings. (See below re: OT and shootouts.)

T stands for "Ties" like it used to back before the league decided that ties sucked. (Note to the NHL: Soccer is the world's most popular sport, and it has Ties. Just sayin'.) Each team is awarded a tie if neither wins during regulation OR in the 4-on-4 OT. A tie counts for one point in the standings, like it used to.

OP stands for "Overtime Points." A team is awarded an Overtime Point if it loses during the 4-on-4, OR if it wins the shootout. Each Overtime Point counts for - you guessed it - one point in the standings.

Under this system, it would be easier to use actual wins as a tiebreaker in the standings. Teams who win in a shootout would still receive points as they do now, but the points would be distributed differently. This would likely encourage teams to press for victory in regulation and/or the 4-on-4 OT. Additionally, fans would see a clearer picture of how good their teams are since losses in the 4-on-4 OT create losses in the "L" column, even though the OT losers still would get a point in the OP column. In other words, the only time losses would not technically be "losses" would be when they happen in the shootout.

Under this system, the Flyers would be 7-4-3-2 right now because 7 of their wins came either during regulation or in OT. Their 4 losses all came during regulation. They would have 3 ties since they made it to the shootout 3 times, and they would have 2 Overtime Points since they won two of their shootouts and got the "extra points," as many commentators say. (Their one OT loss this year came in the shootout; under this system, that would be represented as a tie.)

What do you all think of this? Do you love it? Hate it? Feel indifferent?

UPDATE: ***IN LIGHT OF THE COMMENTS, HOW ABOUT THIS?***

Three columns!

W L OP

2 points in for a regulation or OT (4-on-4) win. 0 points for a regulation loss, 1 for an OT or SO loss, 2 for an SO win, just like we have now. But Regulation and OT wins go in the W column, Regulation and OT losses go in the loss column, 1 point goes into the OP for an OT or SO loss, 2 points go into the OP column for a SO win.

Easier, non?

3rd Line Nickname

2009-11-07T19:15:48Z

Does the Betts, Carcillo, Lappy checking line need a nickname? I think they do based on the way they have been especially after the Buffalo game. Nice to see the coach using them as a true checking line giving them the ice time against the opponents number 1's. Richards is too good to forced to be worried about checking all game long. Post your suggestions below and we can start this thing moving before the beat writers come up with something lame.

My Vote: LCB 2.0 (the ordering doesn't match positions but it does continue the retro theme)

Over/Under

2009-11-04T18:54:53Z

Now that were twelve games into the season, we are starting to see some scoring trends. I would love to see everyone's opinion on the trends that were starting to see. With that what do you guys think...

Simon Gagne (Already has 10 GP): Over/Under 27 Total Games Played

Danny Briere (Already has 10 GP as well with 7 points): Over/Under 60 GP and O/U 1 point a game

James van Riemsdyk (13 P in 10 GP): Over/Under 65 points

Danny Carcillo has played good so far (well way over my expectations), and has done a great job at being (sorry guys) a poor man's Scotty Upshall (even if it's only about .05 mil less). After leading the league in PIM for the past few years, he only has 21 in 12 games. Is there any way that he can keep his disiplined hockey up? Who will lead the Flyers in PIM: Danny Carcillo or anyone else (Richie has 23 and Lappy has 25)

It seems like for the past two years the duo of Carter and Richie have been around a PPG. Who will score more this year, the Captain or the defending NHL leading goal scorer (Ovechkin doesn't even count anymore- he's unreal)?

When we brought Pronger here we all though that he would make everyone around him better. We also knew when we brought Matt Carle to Philly he had a ton of potential. What we didn't know is that Pronger's ability would be the catalyst for Carle's potential and we would witness an explosion. In the 12 games they've played together Carle has 12 points and Pronger has 11. I have two questions here: First off, who will finish with more (this one is Pronger for -175, not a strait up bet because Prongs is obviously the favorite). Secondly, we know they wont both finish at a PPG, although it would be awesome, i think 120 combined points is reasonable: Over/Under 120

You know what your going to get with Scottie "The Bird Dog" Hartnell: around 25-30 goals and 55-65 points. If he plays all of the games (he has shown great durability as a Flyer) he's going to play well offensively no matter who he plays with. What I want to know is does he wind up as the league leader in minor penalties this year. The Flyers have preached dicipline this season and I guess there has been a slight improovment (a la Danny "The Hitman" Carcillo), but can Hartnell stay out of the box? O/U 130 PIM (159 two years ago, 143 last year, only 16 this year).

Kimmo's poor play early on has been a bit of a shocker but he's starting to turn it around. He's a minus-6 thus far: O/U plus-10 (He was plus-19 last year)

Bradon Coburn has been critisized most of this year, but he (as well as Kimmo above) has started to turn it around. With three goals in his last two games, he is starting to show his awesome slap shot. O/U 10 Goals (9 in '07, 7 in '08)

There was a lot put on the shoulders of young Claude Giroux to fill the scoring void left by Lupul and Knuble. He's played very well so far, but it hasn't nesesaraly translated into points on the stat sheet. Danny Briere said that he has better "pure playmaking ability" than himself, and I have to agree. The kid has great hands and amazing vision. O/U 40 assists (19 in 42 games last year, 5 in 12 games this year)?

I could go on all day picking stats apart for every Flyer, but I'll leave some of that to you guys. With no hockey yesterday, today, or tomorrow i figured that this post could make for some serious time killing in the dorm room if it gets hot. Feel free to post your own O/U or to answer mine. I'm very interested on what MarioD thinks. I hope this post wasn't too much, I'm just trying to create some discussion. GO PHILLIES! (and of course Flyers)

Boycott

2009-11-04T17:16:24Z

I tried hard to say away from the BSH over the past 5 or 6 days but I did miss my daily Flyers discussion. When the world series ends later this week I am going to miss it more and more. In an attempt to bring the BSH back to the realm of intelligent and rational Flyers discussion I am calling for an all out boycott of MarioD. His posts have dominated the discussion since the start of the season and it is apparent that is is never to going to stop pushing his agenda of hate. This weekend the Flyers won 2 game by a combined scored of 12 to 3 a seemingly good weekend for our Flyers. However as usual MarioD comments have forced the discussion away from game as a whole down to one or one or two seconds of play where his targets Svyert, JVR, Emery, or Powe made mistakes. The remaining conversion then centers around attacking or defending these players. Enough is enough I am tired of seeing this theme on every post. It is long season to continue to harp on and on about the same crap game after game no matter how well the these players perform or whether or not the team even wins the game. For example after the 6 -2 victory over Tampa Bay where JVR has 3 points, is a +2 and leading all rookies in scoring averaging over a point per game to start his career the post game discussion thread still revolves around sending JVR down to AHL and how bad he is going to be playing 5 months from now. It is has become clear that no matter how many statistics or how much evidence you present to the contradict MarioD's statements he is not going to change his opinions or stop his attacks. I say stop wasting your time with MarioD he is not going to get banned (I am not that lucky) but maybe just maybe if everyone stops replying to his posts and adding fuel the fire he will get bored and find somewhere else to promote his agenda. If that happens we can all get back to having meaningful hockey discussion about our favorite sport and our favorite team The Philadelphia Flyers.

Flyers after 10 games

2009-10-28T05:57:40Z

I haven't posted in quite awhile. But, this post isn't going to be a "stir the pot" post.

I looked around and the site and didn't see any of the following reported so, I am making this post to show where the team is at. So, please forgive me if I'm either raining on someone's parade or I overlooked a post.

This is just a stat report, some stats can be found on the site (like goals for/against, assists, plus/minus, etc. But other catagories like Face-offs, Turnovers, etc. I haven't found, so I'm just throwing everything together in my post here.

Last Five Games

Penalties: 24 (4.8 penalties per game; 4 Fighting-Majors; 1 Game-Misconduct; 1 Major; 18 Minor) *this is an improvement from the first 5 games*

Penalty Kill: 14 for 18 (78%) **no Short-Handed Goals** (This has declined from 88% through the first 5)

5-on-3 Penalty Kill (spent a combined 3:41 with 2-men down): 2 for 2 (100%)

Power Play: 4 for 18 (22%) **1 Short-Handed Goal Against** (This is down from 27% through the first 5)

5-on-3 Power Play: No opportunities

Face-Off Attempts: 331 (66 per game)

Face-Offs Won: 155 (31 per game)

Face-Off %: 46.8% (a very minor improvement from the first 5 where the team was 146 for 341: 46.5%)

Give Aways: 32 (6.4 per game)

Take Aways: 30 (6 per game)

Hits: 88 (17.6 per game)

Blocked Shots: 82 (16.4 per game)

Shots Against: 136 (27.2 per game)

Shots For: 185 (37 per game)

Goaltenders: 119 for 133 (Save %: .895; Wins: 2; Shut-outs: 0; GAA: 2.80)

Ray Emery: 95 for 105 (Save %: .905; Wins: 2; Shut-outs: 0; GAA: 2.50)

Goals Against: 16 (3.2 per game)

Goals For: 13 (2.6 per game)

Record: 2 - 3 - 0

Standing Points: 4 (out of a possible 10)

After 10 Games

Penalties: 63 (6.3 per game; 7 Fighting-Majors; 1 Misconduct; 1 Game-Misconduct; 1 Major; 53 Minor)

Penalty Kill: 37 for 44 (84%) **No Short-Handed Goals**

5-on-3 Penalty Kill (spent a combined 7:03 with 2-men down): 5 for 5 (100%)

Power Play: 13 for 51 (25%) **2 Short-Handed Goals Against**

5-on-3 Power Play: 1 for 1 (100%)

Face-Off Attempts: 645 (64 per game)

Face-Offs Won: 301 (29 per game)

Face-Off %: 46.7% (This needs drastic improvement)

Give Aways: 70 (7 per game)

Take Aways: 76 (almost 8 per game)

Hits:160 (16 per game)

Blocked Shots: 146 (almost 15 per game)

Shots Against: 285 (28.5 per game)

Shots For: 345 (34.5 per game)

Goaltenders: 254 for 282 (Save %: .901; Wins: 5; Shut-Outs: 1; GAA: 2.80)

Ray Emery: 230 for 254 (Starts: 9; Save %: .906; Wins: 5; Shut-Outs: 1; GAA: 2.62)

Goals Against: 30 (3 per game)

Goals For: 32 (3.2 per game)

Record: 5 - 4 - 1 (.500 winning %)

Standing-Points: 11 (out of a possible 20)

Team Leaders

Goals: Mike Richards with 6 (Keep in mind Richie & Carter have not scored in the last 5 games)

Assists: Matt Carle with 8

Plus/Minus: Matt Carle with +7 (Kimmo Timonen is the worst with -10; Coburn is right behind him with -9; Carter, Hartnell, & Briere are -5 each; Richie is -3)

Shots on Goal: Jeff Carter with 51

Fighting-Majors: Ian Laperriere with 4 (Riley Cote in 3 games has yet to find a dance partner)

Minor Penalties: Ole-Kristian Tollefsen with 6

Face-Off Attempts: Jeff Carter with 198 (Richie & Carter are the only Flyers with 100 or more FO Attempts; 5 Flyers have more than 50, including Blair Betts who has been out the past 7 games; All other Flyers have less than 25 FO attempts)

Face-Offs Won: Jeff Carter with 99

Face-Off %: Jeff Carter, Danny Briere, & Blair Betts are tied at 50% (No Flyer is better than 50% in the Face-off Circle)

Hits: Mike Richards with 12

Blocked Shots: Kimmo Timonen with 15

Give Aways: Braydon Coburn with 12

Take Aways: Claude Giroux with 9

The Injury Bug

As it's been reported, Simon Gagne's injury with Team Canada has finally comeback to haunt him. Since Briere's arrival to the Flyers, the team has not had Briere & Gagne healthy for an entire season. The injury is the explanation for Gagne's lack luster in offensive production. However people should recognize how his defensive play will have the greatest impact and that is what will be sorely missed, he is one of the few Flyers with a Plus/Minus above 0 (+2).

Goaltending

There's nothing at all to be impressed with here. Emery has been ok. I think there's a lot of room for improvement here.

John Stevens

The ability to play with the lead is again continuing to haunt the team. Out of 10 games played, the Flyers have only trailed from begining to end in 2 games, the Pittsburgh & San Jose games. The Flyers have had only 2 games in which they've gotten the lead and protected it for the remainder of the game: the Caroline and New Jersey games. That means there have been 6 games in which the Flyers had at least 1 lead at some point during the game; of those 6 games the Flyers have won 3 of them. Remember how the Flyers had a 2 - 0 lead in last nights game against Washington, ahh the memories?

The play with the lead is still troubling the Flyers. And even with the new Goaltending & upgrade at the Defensemen positions, this is still a problem.

In general the Flyers are struggling to keep the opponents from scoring. For a team that's suppose to be better on Defense, it's certainly not showing.

Face-offs: This was a concern coming into this season and the team overall is 46% (so there isn't any improvement here). The team captain, Mike Richards, is something like a pathetic 46%. I wish there was a stat for this, but from my own observations both Richards & Carter (Who lead the team in Face-off attempts) get kicked out of the circle an awful lot. which may contribute a lot to the poor performances here. Winning Face-offs would contrbute a lot to keeping the puck out of their own net, and protecting leads. It's hard for the opponent to score when they don't have the puck!

The Special Team units aren't all that impressive, except 5-on-3. The team that lead the league in both Short-Handed goals for & Short-Handed Goals Against last season, has yet to score a shortie and has given up 2 shorties.

How long until John Stevens gets canned? I mean Pittsburgh canned their coach last season and went on to win the cup.

Coburn & Timonen

Two years ago this Defensive Pairing was very good. They've reunited this season, but the results aren't there. Together they are a combined -19. Timonen has the worst Plus/Minus on the team at -10 & Coburn leads the team in turnovers. Since Tollefsen has joined the lineup, I'd dare say that the pairing of Tollefsen & Syvret/Parent has even out played Timonen & Coburn (although that may not be a fair assessment, since Coburn & Timonen are usually going up against the best players on the other team).

Do you split them up? or give them the opportunity to try and recapture the chemistry they had 2 seasons ago?

Where they sit now

A Team with such high expectations coming into the season, has not lived up to them. I for one had (phrasing the late-great Harry Kalas) "High Hopes".

I got chastized for calling them forever .500's...but after 10-games they are exactly that. .500

Road Record: 2 - 2

Home Record: 3 - 3

Over-all: 5 - 5 (well 5 - 4 - 1, but that Ducks' game was still a loss)

Standing-Points: 11 (out of a possible 20; that's close to 50%)

Fourth Place in the Atlantic

Eighth Place in the Conference

Keep in mind, even though the "lowely" Islanders only have 1 win on the season, they have 7 points (5 over-time losses), so the Flyers are 4 points away from last place.

Eddie Snider is probably writing his pink-slip as I'm typing this.

These lines are a joke

2009-10-26T01:37:57Z

------Carter, Briere, and Hartnell should not be on the same line together. We have two shooters and a power forward. No playmakers and no defense. WTF is Stevens thinking putting three bad defensive forwards together. No wonder our first line's +/- sucks.

------Carcillo got more ice time than Gagne or Asham tonight. I'm not even going to explain this one...

----- Why are Coburn and timmonen together, they have not been well all season.

----- Lapierre should not be on a line with giroux and gagne, and most definitely not centering it.

Flyers Dilemma

2009-10-24T17:54:09Z

Reports are saying that Blair Betts is a week away from returning to the Flyers, which is great news, but who do the Flyers send down for him? The guy that was brought up was Asham, and i think he has locked up a spot on the team. the only two Flyers with two-ways i believe are Mika and Powe, but i don't think that Powe is going to be sent down. I like Mika, but he does seem like the odd man out right now. Does anybody have any other idea of who the Flyers will send down for Betts?

Winter Classic

2009-10-24T02:44:41Z

Got a phone call this morning regarding the winter classic sweepstakes. Got home and the company was closed for the night. Did anyone else recieve a call from Van Wagner Communications?

Just curious. I did put in for the lottery for ticket.

New lines for Boston

2009-10-19T18:25:56Z

At practice there was a new line combo out there getting ready for the Bruins. Stevens mentioned he is trying to cut down on all the fancy passing and crash the net more which is a good thing.

Hartnell-Carter-Briere as usual

Gagne-Richards-Asham

Lappy-Giroux-JVR

Powe-Pyorala-Carcillo

My initial thought is replacing Knuble with Gags and Richie is going to be the theme of this season. Good luck Asham you got some big shoes to fill, but it is worth a shot.

Forever 500's?

2009-10-15T03:29:28Z

Editor's Note: Small portions of this FanPost have been edited to comply with the community guidelines.

Ok, they may not be Cellar Dwellars as I originally predicted (although it's a long season, one just never knows). The Flyers thus far are playing like a .500 Hockey club.

It has only been 5 games (1/16th of the season) and the team is 3 - 1 - 1 (one win above .500), sitting in third place in the Atlantic and holding onto the 5th seed in the conference (at this point, Pittsburgh is holding the 4th seed).

Long before the season started, I claimed there was 3 Keys to the Flyers reaching the promise land. This is a look at those three, after the first 5 games.

1. Health

The Flyers have to stay healthy to be successful.

Simon Gagne - suffered a groin injury prior to training camp, while trying out for Team Canada. He hasn't missed a regular season game thus far, despite having 3 assists and a +3 (his +/- is tied for second best on the team with Chris Pronger, only Matt Carle's is better at +4) you have to wonder if the groin is bothering him at all

Brian Boucher - the back-up Goaltender, was injured during the preseason and has yet to see game action here in the regular season. If he's not at a point to where he is capable of playing (and playing effectively), that means starting Goaltender, Ray Emery, will be having to play a lot of minutes and you wonder how that may fair towards his conditioning once the post-season arrives.

Blair Betts - got hurt as soon as he got his 1-year deal. The Face-off specialist is lost for at least a month. When he's ready to comeback, you wonder how long it will take for him to shake off the rust and get used to the speed of the game again. He is an NHL veteran, but defense is the name of his game, and if he can't be effective defensively then what should the team do with him?

James Van Riemsdyk - the rookie sensation got injured, just three games into the season. It's too bad, because he was playing pretty well.

Someone pointed this out in another thread - but, the Flyers haven't won a game since Blair Betts & JVR went down.

2. Goaltending

Defense wins championships.

(Stating the obvious) In Ice Hockey, Goaltending, is the last line of Defense.

So, far, the new Goaltender, Ray Emery. Well after his last 2-games, I think the Flyers need a new "Razor Blade".

For Emery has dulled quickly. Although his numbers aren't bad through the first 5 games, his play has become very shaky, ever since getting burned by Jamie Langenbrunner.

Emery's overall numbers:

Shots Against: 149; Saves: 135; Save %: .909; Goals Allowed: 14; Goals Against Average 2.75; Wins: 3; Shut-outs: 1

His numbers aren't bad, but he needs to be a lot better if the Flyers are going to make it to the promise land. Especially the way the team has so many defensive breakdowns. Of the Flyers 14 goals against, 6 of them have been the result of a breakaway (This is not counting the Selanne Shoot out goal). His goaltending has been so awful against breakaways, that it feels like an automatic goal against whenever the opposing team creates a breakway.

3. John Stevens

The team has stayed fairly healthy thus far. And the goaltending has been ok. But, it's going to be on John Stevens to put these guys in position to be successful.

So, far in his tenure, giving up the lead and giving up goals in under 2-minutes to play in a period or in the game have been chronic issues. In the first 5 games, the Flyers have squandered leads in 2 of them (vs. Washington and vs. Anaheim). (they squandered the lead 3 times alone in the Washington game). And only once, so far this season, the team has given up a goal with under 2-minutes to go (It just so happened to be a game tying goal as well; the game tying goal against the Mighty Ducks with 16-seconds to go in regulation). The Flyers could easily have been 4 - 1 - 0, but noooooooooooo! A complete defensive breakdown leads to a Shoot-out loss.

Despite the same old flaws haunting the Flyers, their have been other bone head coaching mistakes.

Defensive breakdowns, Line changing, match-ups.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the home team get the last change?So, how is it the Flyers are getting caught with mismatches during home games?

For example: The Flyers getting caught with JVR, Giroux, Syvret, and Parent on the Ice with Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom? In a home game? All that inexperience agains the best hockey player in the world? I could understand the mistake if the game was in Washington, where the Caps get the last change.

The Defensive breakdowns are another problem. Kimmo Timonen not staying in his lane (see the Langenbrunner shortie). The Defense not protecting the middle of the ice or clearing the goal mouth (see the Malkin goal). Not being alert as to who and where opponents are on the ice (Selanne's second goal)? The number of breakaway opportunities for the opposing team. (Langenbrunner, Ovechkin, Semin, Guerin, Jordan Staal, Teemu Selanne).

The sloppy play with the puck. Pronger turn over leading to an Ovechkin goal. Coburn shooting the puck in his own net.

And the Flyers playing sluggish against the team they are trying to beat (the Penguins..at home!). I guess Sidney Crosby is in their head, for even Chris Pronger played awful in that game.

Stevens has a lot of things to clean up right now, this team is not playing smoothly. Especially from a defensive stand point.

As for the rest of the team here is how some of the key players are fairing:

Mike Richards, the captain, leads the team in Goals with 6, but he only has 2 assists and a +/- of 0.

Jeff Carter, the one trick pony, has 4 Goals and 4 Assists, and a +/- of 0.

Danny Briere, the cookie monster, has 3 Goals, 1 assist, and a +/- of -2.

Simon Gagne, has not scored a goal, but he does have 3 assists and an impressive +3.

Scott Hartnell has been awful, despite the game tying goal against Washington, and 2 assists, he's a -1 thus far.

Claude Giroux, has 2 assists, and no goals, and a plus/minus of +2.

James Van Riemsdyk, it's tough to be productive when you're injured, 3 assists, 0 goals ,and +1.

Ian Laperriere: leads the team with 2 fights, 1 goal, 0 assists, and a -2.

Dan Carcillo has the only other Flyer fight. 0 assists, 0 goals, and a -1.

Kimmo Timonen has 1 Goal, 4 assists, and is a lousy -2 (probably because he's paired with Randy Jones *cough* I mean Braydon Coburn)

Braydon Coburn (must have Jonesitus): 0 Goals, 2 assists, and a -2. (sorry I guess ya don't get credit for a goal when you shoot the puck in your own net)

Matt Carle has been the best Flyer thus far. He leads the team in assists with 7, and plus/minus with a +4. He also has 1 goal.

Chris Pronger, hasn't been too impressive although he has 1 Goal, 4 Assists, and a +3

Hopefully this layoff will give the Flyers sometime to heal up a bit and work out the kinks. Although the Stevens problems are continuing to haunt the team, hopefully they can fix that while they are enjoying the Florida keys.

Their next game is in Miami against a Panthers team that has only 1 win on the season. I hope the Flyers don't take them lightly, and give them win #2. This is a big game for the orange and black to redeem themselves after their 2 game slide.

MYMMS Analysis

2009-10-14T14:42:02Z

MYMS (MY Maybe Meaningless Statistics) I thought I would throw this up to have little fun during the long break, at least we got the Phillies to keep our wives/girlfriends from forcing us to watch a full week of mind numbing reality shows. Another Tuesday night with two hours of The Biggest Loser and I am going to jump off my roof. Without the currently voted 11th and 19th most valuable players, JVR and Blair Betts, the Flyers are 0-1-1 and while they remain a perfect 3-0 with them. Can a 20 year old rookie and a late tryout signee be this critical to the on ice success of our team and if so is there anything that can be done to fix that?

Without JVR, a viable offensive threat to pair with Giroux on the 3rd line Stevens has elected to moved Giroux up a go with a two scoring system that was much debated on the BSH this off-season. While that means more ice time for Claude, with better talent, it also means less scoring depth and more ice time for the Asham and Powes of the world without a puck carrying play making center to help out in the offensive zone.. So far this has NOT worked out evidenced by the 0-1-1 in the last two games and might prove be more problematic with Stevens getting the last change on the road.

Without Betts we are seeing more PK time once again for Carter and Richards is it effecting their play 5 on 5 I am not sure but once again looking at the 0-1-1 record maybe it is? The 4th line of Carcillo-Betts-Lappy looked great in the 1st 3 games and was getting quite a bit of ice time, Betts was averaging 13.03 min/game, providing more rest and energy for the scoring lines. With Betts out Cote is in. If you can call 2.02 min per game in? This has meant even more wasted minutes for Carter and Richards as they were rotating in and out on the 4th line playing on jumbled mismatched lines with "offensively challenged" wingers (I think "offensively challenged" that is more PC than "muckers and grinders"). Also in the Carolina and Devils games I believe Betts was on the ice to help close out both of those games, taking crucial draws and providing a veteran defensive presence on the ice. If Betts was available maybe he gets out to Getzlaf and prevents that keep in and Flyers don't end up losing to the Ducks.

I know the above arguments are highly speculative and it is has only been two games both that is how the MYMMS system works, if you have problems with the MYMMS system feel free to include in your comments. Let's Go Phils.