The Ended Flyers Thread

[Austinfan]

Actually, they didn't struggle to score goals after the first couple months, once they got used to Hakstol's system and they got "normal" luck on shots going in.
They struggled in the playoffs, but they were running on fumes with top players injured.
Konecny will help, so will having Raffl and Weise on the 3rd line, which won't have to be protected this year.
And having mobile defensemen will help more than anything, with Provorov, Ghost, Streit (healthy), and eventually MDZ, they won't get stuck in the D-zone on a regular basis.
I expect a couple defensemen to be moved and Morin/Sanheim to come up at some point. When that happens, this will be a heck of a defense.

[xogfog]

I expect a couple defensemen to be moved and Morin/Sanheim to come up at some point. When that happens, this will be a heck of a defense.

I don't know if Morin will be ready, he might be a longer term project, but Sanheim should be ready if needed, and next year Myers could also make the team. I'm also interested to see if Hagg makes good progression this year. They are certainly loaded with defenesemen prospects.

[Austinfan]

Morin looked pretty good in preseason, he's not going to "flash," he's a bit like Coburn, a big strong defenseman who can skate, he's fast once he gets going, still has to work on his first step quickness and lateral movement. But he has tremendous reach, is impossible to move, and can envelope people in the corners.

It looks like they may pair him with Sanheim, Morin can play the stay at home D-man role, because his speed allows him to get back and his reach even gives him a chance to disrupt 2 on 1s, so Sanheim can gamble more and use his offensive skills as a "4th" forward.

[xogfog]

Gudas will be suspended for 6 games. Manning has been cleared for contact so he should be able to play in the opener on Friday. Now Hextall needs to decide if he wants a 7th defenseman from the Phantoms, or just 6 with an extra forward to start the season.

[bkeich]

Morin looked pretty good in preseason, he's not going to "flash," he's a bit like Coburn, a big strong defenseman who can skate, he's fast once he gets going, still has to work on his first step quickness and lateral movement. But he has tremendous reach, is impossible to move, and can envelope people in the corners.

It looks like they may pair him with Sanheim, Morin can play the stay at home D-man role, because his speed allows him to get back and his reach even gives him a chance to disrupt 2 on 1s, so Sanheim can gamble more and use his offensive skills as a "4th" forward.

I went to 1 LHV game last year, but I did notice that on every offensive face off they tried to get Morin to blast a slap shot. Another use of him (to duplicate Ghost

[xogfog]

There will be a couple moves that have to go through for cap reasons, but the Flyers roster going into the season will be:

Forwards (14): Bellemare, Cousins, Couturier, Giroux, Gordon, Konecny, Lyubimov, Raffl, Read, Schenn (suspended 3 games), Simmonds, VandeVelde, Voracek, Weise

Defensemen (7): Gostisbehere, Gudas (suspended 6 games), MacDonald, Manning, Provorov, Schultz, Streit

Goalies (2): Mason, Neuvirth

LTIR: Del Zotto, Laughton

[xogfog]

Nice start to the season for the Flyers, they beat the Kings 4-2. Konecny and Provorov both had nice games to start their careers. They caught a break in that Jonathan Quick was hurt and they faced the Kings backup goalie, but they still played a solid game, Neuvirth was steady. Ghost escaped a serious injury when his face was cut by a skate, luckily it missed his eyes. Being a hockey player of course, he got stitches and missed a shift.

Mason will start tonight against Phoenix.

[xogfog]

So, a handful of games in, things don't look great so far. The goalies have both been okay, but the biggest part of the problem has been the defense. There might just be too many offensive minded defensemen on the team. Also, they are still trying to get used to playing together with the new lines, I suspect that will improve. They aren't getting blow out by teams, but they are coming up short too often.

On a side note, I hate NHL scheduling. It is obvious that they are cutting back on saner traveling schedules in order to be able to pay the players, but there are too many, off 3 days, then under 48 hour back to backs games. I wonder how much it bothers the players and if it is something that needs to be addressed in the next collective bargaining agreement.

[bkeich]

Fun game to watch tonight as the Flyers are completely outplayed by the Bruins, score 2 early and once again give up the lead in the 3rd. Goes to OT, Bruins continue to dominate getting all the shots until the last 4 seconds when Giroux gets off a great one timer on a pass that was almost impossible to hit, but the Bruins goalie makes an unbelievable save (prompting Giroux to smirk and I believe mention something about his parentage).

Shootout goes 8 rounds, with Vorachek scoring in the 4th but then the Bruins match it. Finally, in the 8th Ghost chips a shot over the goalies shoulder in a play that you should never try unless you are that talented, hits his shoulder and floats into the goal. Mason, who I believe had 47 saves in the game makes a glove save to win the game.

All I have to say is I know Ghost is a defenseman, but trust me he is not your 8th best player in the shootout... earlier please

[xogfog]

So, 9 wins in a row, Flyers are hitting on all cylinders. If you lost interest early due to the ho hum play, check them out now, night and day difference. Mason is playing well and the team just scores when they need to, and the defense is leading the league in points from defense. Just fun to watch right now.

[Philsmania]

The Flyers really hit their stride down the stretch last season. While its doubtful they stay this hot, hopefully, they'll have good momentum the rest of the season. I also hope that the annual Disney-induced long grueling late-December early-January road trip doesn't blunt this momentum.

Of all The Processes here in Philadelphia (all the teams seem to have one now except, maybe, the Eagles), the Flyers are definitely furthest along in theirs.

[kmc1019]

"The Process" for any team is a lame way of excusing present mediocrity for an unknown but presumably better future.

For the Flyers, their "process" has been hoping their vaunted defensive prospects and Konecny pan out while they wait for the series of albatross contracts that have hamstrung them with the salary cap to expire.

I'm not sure they are among the elite teams in the league, but glad to see them on this streak.

If they are serious about going far this year, they should consider offering one of their defensive prospects - e.g. Sanheim or Myers or Morin - plus a future first rounder in exchange for a sniper, as our offense still lags compared to top teams. Though they'd have to shed a contract, e.g. Streit or another high priced veteran, in the trade to make the cap work.

[bkeich]

Not sure that "our offense lags compared to top teams" is correct. We are currently 2nd in the NHL in scoring but 29th in defense (next to last). One of the issues is that we have some defensemen that are better offensive players than defensive. I am not sure our upcoming 'D' Prospects are going to help that as they also fit that mold (except Morin, who I question ever making it in the NHL).

We need some shutdown players as our 3rd and 4th lines are really filled with lesser offensive players (except Bellamare). I certainly would not trade a 1st round pick at this time with this number of young players, you do that when you are a strong contender. I believe we are in the last year of the horrible contracts we had and should have some flexibility to get some things done.

The NHL has greatly changed and I give the Flyers credit for not sticking with the "Bullies" method. We now have a team that leads the league in creating power plays and are near the bottom in being shorthanded, resulting in a huge special teams differential (sadly it is somewhat offset by giving up a league high 7 shorthanded goals, but honestly some of that is just bad luck).

[Austinfan]

Snipers, we have 3 of the top 15 scorers in Giroux, Voracek and Simmons, Schenn is getting hot and Couts returns by January. Oh yeah, this kid Konecny can play, he's going to end up with 40+ points at 19 years old.

The real key to this offense is that the defensemen are outscoring every other teams' defensemen by a wide margin, despite some marginal talents. This may also explain some of the problems on defense (along with some horrible goalie play to start the season), they're still learning the balance between gambling and playing it safe. As the talent improves on the defense the next two years (Morin, Sanheim, Myers, maybe Hagg and Friedman) they should be even more dangerous offensively while reducing the mistakes that lead to good scoring chances for the other team.

Hextall is being patient because next year he finally gets out of cap hell when Streit, Schultz, MDZ, Bellemare contracts expire, and Ghost is the only major resigning (RFA) that has to be done. Lindblom is tearing up the Swedish league, at 20 he's on the first line of his team and scoring a point per game - look for him to make the jump. What they really need is a 3rd line center so Schenn can move to RW.

But Hextall has done a great job of accumulating young talent and dumping bad veteran contracts, he's also accumulated a bunch of draft picks and will pick up some more at the trade deadline - why? Because their scouts are finding players like Lindblom (5th rd), Sandstrom (3rd rd), Vorobyov (4th rd starting in the KHL), Kase (5th rd, will start for Czech in junior world championship), Bernhardt (7th, having great year for a 18 year old in the SHL), Laczynski (6th rd, tearing it up as a freshman at Ohio State), and a number of others. When you draft that well, every pick has value - and just like the Phillies, rebuilding your talent pipeline provides both cheap players for your team, and trade bait to fill holes.

This is why you need to "trust the process," if you build it they will come.

[Philsmania]

The NHL has greatly changed and I give the Flyers credit for not sticking with the "Bullies" method. We now have a team that leads the league in creating power plays and are near the bottom in being shorthanded, resulting in a huge special teams differential (sadly it is somewhat offset by giving up a league high 7 shorthanded goals, but honestly some of that is just bad luck).

I hate to pick on the dead but I always got the sense that Snider decreed that the Flyers were, had been and always would be the Broad Street Bullies and that Clarke and Holmgren basically followed his orders. I don't know if the change in approach came about because he saw the light or just became too infirm the oversee the organization.

[kmc1019]

The Flyers have spent the past 3 years attempting to catch up to the what the rest of the league knew and did to change 10 years ago. Glad to see them playing well, but - much like the Phillies - the mediocrity of the past 5 years was unnecessary if better front office were in place. Love Clarke and Holmgren the players, but keep them away from any GM positions!

[Austinfan]

The change came when they hired Hextall, who served his apprenticeship with the LA Kings.
So Snider was able to keep it in the "family" while bringing in a modern mindsight.
The real problem I think was two-fold, Snider wanted one more before he died, and gave Holmgren carte blanche to spend before their was a salary cap. Had Pronger stayed healthy it might have worked. Holmgren's one saving grace was the Richards/Carter trades, which started the rebuild (Simmonds, Voracek, Couterier, B Schenn).

Once a hard cap was established, Holmgren was out of his league, and at the same time the scouting department had declined. When Hextall came in, he rebuilt the European scouting group, which has paid huge dividends, dumped bad veteran contracts, and traded veterans. The Coburn/Kimmo trades garnered Gudas and Konency. He's also had 21 draft picks the last two years and has 10 or so this draft, which has rebuilt the talent pipeline.

Hextall is building the Kings' way, with youth and conservative player development (he errs on the side of caution when promoting young players). It's a little frustrating for "win now" fans, but is starting to pay dividends.

[bigegypt0417]

If the league caught on 10 years ago then why isn't the NHL filled with a bunch of teams stacked with young talent?

the Phillies and the Sixers have gotten better by having to get truly awful.

[xogfog]

10 wins in a row, another win last night over Colorado. Schenn scored what would be the winning goal, his 5th in 3 games. Simmonds also scored his 16th and is on pace for 40 goals. Defense keeps scoring, Del Zotto opened the scoring. Gudas made a great pass to spring Simmonds on his goal.

Next game is @ Dallas, which will be tough.

[bkeich]

Had to look WAY down the list to find the Flyers Thread... not a good sign.

Today's trade confuses me. We have a few veterans that are in their last year and are greatly underperforming, the main one is Mark Streit, who has just been bad on this ice this year. He is a penalty killer in the wrong direction, every time he comes on the ice during a power play I just hope we don't give up a shorthanded goal. He has really been showing his age.

So we trade him (hahaha, we fooled someone), but got back an under performing 33 year old forward who still has 1 year left on a contract for $5M, a 4th round pick (almost nothing) and a conditional 7th round pick (nothing).

I was always a fan of Hextall as a player, and have been as a GM as I believe he inherited a ridiculous mess that was going to take years to fix. This seems like his first really bad move, we got a bad player for another year (and a no-trade clause to boot). I am baffled by this move.

Trading Streit good, just get the draft picks or maybe a young player. This actually seems to put a rebuild backwards.
Well, at least we opened up a defenseman spot. Can't wait to see which young guy gets the chance.