brelic

Apparently he's available. I'm not advocating for a trade... hell, we made enough roster moves to last us 5 years, but given that Staal is available, would you make a move for him? Maybe look at Schenn and Bob in a package... EDIT: OUCH! Just saw his $8.25M cap hit! No thanks! http://www.thehockey...-tradeable.html The ongoing soap opera of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the free-fall of the Carolina Hurricanes and the Toronto Maple Leafs search for goaltending depth is providing plenty of fodder lately for the rumor mill. Here's a sampling of the latest from the blogosphere. ERIC STAAL NO LONGER “UNTOUCHABLE?” The early collapse of the Hurricanes sparked considerable gossip they will make a coaching change or a trade. Media reports from Raleigh and Toronto suggest GM Jim Rutherford could shop one of his defensemen, perhaps Tomas Kaberle or Bryan Allen, in hopes of landing scoring depth at forward. This report, however, indicates Hurricanes captain and franchise player Eric Staal might also be available. Staal has had a terrible start and with wunderkind sophomore center/left winger Jeff Skinner now the Hurricanes top scorer, the suggestion is the Hurricanes are better off shipping out Staal and his $8.25 millionper season cap hit for a return of young players, prospects or high draft picks. One possible destination would be the Toronto Maple Leafs. On Oct. 18, Leafs GM Brian Burke scouted the Hurricanes, leading to speculation he'd have interest in some Hurricanes players. The possibility of Rutherford trading any of his scoring forwards, when he's reportedly seeking more scoring depth up front, is unlikely. He's certainly not about to trade his team captain and franchise forward on the basis of one slow start.

It's good for hockey to have him back. Not so good for Eastern Conference teams, especially the Flyers.

I would agree with Simmonds... he had a really nice start to the season, but has tailed off. I say put him on the 4th line with Couturier and Rinaldo or Z when Schenn returns.

Yup. To me, that's the equivalent of Pronger or Briere saying Richards or Carter "had tail on their minds over goals" or "always needed a little liquid courage" to cope with being spoiled millionaires. Just not something you say about former teammates.

Kinda thought this was interesting. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockeynightincanada/hockeynightonline/video/#id=2168062571 The bit on the Flyers starts around 1:20. The question was: who will get into the HOF first, Lindros or Bure? The guy answers neither, lol. And he agrees that H/G/J is the most exciting line in hockey right now. He also thinks that Phoenix will either move to Quebec City or Kansas City.

Wow, Derek Morris sounds kinda douchey:

Way to tough it out there Jeff.

Read is awesome. I was watching the game with my dad (who is a Wings fan), and throughout the game, he kept saying "who is that #24? he is tenacious!". And that's exactly it. On one play last night, he drove to the net, was pushed behind the net by a Coyote player, and then still reached back with his stick enough to just poke the puck loose and keep the play alive. He has great hockey sense combined with tenacity.

Too bad... he seemed to be making a case for #6. But, I gotta say, Lilja has been ok the past few games.

8 pts at the AHL in 4 games, yes, he seemed to be tearing it up. And he has 0 pts in 4 games and is -5 with us, and 2 pts in 13 NHL games and is -7 over his 'career'. The point is that nothing in his NHL play (however minimal it may be) makes me think we should disrupt what is a winning NHL roster for a prospect. I hope Schenn turns out to be great and lives up to his 'best prospect in the world' billing. But what is the rush to get him into a winning lineup? A number of moves will have to be made (salary and roster spots) and that means demoting guys who have proven with their play that they belong. It's just a case of not having any logical spots for Schenn on our roster at the moment. That will change, I'm sure

No, I think it's that he shouldn't be given a roster spot "just because". He hasn't earned anything, and the guys in there are playing well. Why would you disrupt that?

Good points, and I would add that the biggest problem with Carter (and @Spinorama hints at it in his post) is that he didn't seem to learn to correct some of the flaws in his game. He's got the talent, but whether he was stubborn, uncoachable, or just dumb, he didn't evolve his offensive game.

Yes, someone will have to be sent down. My guess is Z. If you *had* to put Schenn back in, here's what it could look like: H/G/J JVR/Briere/Schenn Voracek/Talbot/Read Simmonds/Couturier/Rinaldo Kinda crappy for SImmonds to be on the 4th, but he's kind of the odd man out if you force Schenn back in. The 3rd line has shown nice chemistry, while the JVR/Briere/Simmonds line has been ineffective. In any case, that's not your typical 4th line that will get 5-7 minutes... they'll get upwards of 10 and be a scoring threat and defensively responsible. Plus, they'll give the other guys more rest.

LOL, sorry rad... looks like we posted at the same time

Hartnell/G/Jagr JVR/Briere/Simmonds Voracek/Talbot/Read (I liked the look of this line, actually) Z/Couturier/Rinaldo Nodl is 13th, Shelley 14th Looking up and down that lineup, where do you put Schenn??

It's not that Carter was bad, it's that Carter was replaceable. His playoff history shows that he doesn't have raise his game when it counts. There are a lot of players like that, and the fewer you have the better. He also didn't make his linemates better and sometimes made his line worse. Kinda like JVR right now At the end of the day, he was expendable. He is not the kind of guy you give an 11 year contract to and build your team around. Richards is that kind of guy. For whatever reason, he lost his way here, but I would still put my money 10 times out of 10 on Richards over Carter.

Something tells me that Schenn will be in our lineup at the expense of someone else. At this point, I think even Nodl has lost a spot.

I think we have two excellent defenseman, three very good ones, and a hole plug. That's way better than mediocre. The problem is that we play a style that is not defensively tight. Other teams do much better defensively with much less talent.

I hereby name him Foracek.

Jeff Carter, 6 GP, 0 G, 3 A, 3 PTS Jakub Voracek, 17 GP, 3 G, 9 A, 12 PTS Sean Couturier, 17 GP, 5 G, 3 S, 8 PTS Homer looks like a genius on this one so far. To be fair, though, Carter *did* have a broken foot.

That's a good point. I think the difference comes down to perception. On the PK, they're not looking for offense necessarily unless the opportunity presents itself. They're 'thinking' defense. When 5 on 5, they're thinking transition as soon as they get the puck, which I think causes some of the sloppiness. They need to think 'protect our zone' first.

That's just awesome! Great for Giroux's development. I bet you G doesn't make quite a big step this year without Jagr.

From http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20111115_Flyers_Notes___Flyers__penchant_for_minor_penalties_irks_Laviolette.html RALEIGH, N.C - Coach Peter Laviolette says the Flyers' early-season penchant for taking penalties is "unacceptable." The Flyers entered Monday tied for last in the NHL by averaging 17.1 penalty minutes per game, and they had committed the most minor penalties (88) in the league. "It's too many," Laviolette said before the Flyers faced his former team, Carolina, on Monday. He said he mentions those statistics every day to his players. "There's a couple of parts of our game - that's one of them - that we're in control of," he said. "We're making poor decisions, and our actions have to be cleaner in what we do. We have to stay out of the box." In Sunday's 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers, the Flyers survived seven minors because their penalty-killing unit continued to play brilliantly. The Flyers not only killed all seven Florida power plays, but they scored a shorthanded goal, thanks to a penalty shot by Matt Read. The penalties "take the rotation out of the bench," Laviolette said. "Guys end up sitting who should be on the ice, and then when you did kill it off and get back to five-on-five hockey, there are guys who are sitting who can't get back on the ice because [the lines] are out of whack." The Flyers began Monday having killed 26 of opponents' last 27 power plays, during which they went 4-0-1. The penalty-killing duos of Max Talbot and Claude Giroux, and rookies Sean Couturier and Read have been especially effective. After a slow start, the Flyers' penalty kill had climbed to 12th in the NHL with an 85.9 percent success rate. Pittsburgh was No. 1, at 94 percent. In Toronto for Hall of Fame ceremonies, Flyers chairman Ed Snider told CSN that his team and the Pittsburgh Penguins would remain in the same division regardless of how realignment plays out. Breakaways Talbot, who lost a tooth and suffered a split lip when hit by Jason Garrison's high stick on Sunday, was in Monday's lineup after undergoing dental work earlier in the day. . . . Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made his fifth start of the season and first start since Nov. 3 as Laviolette continued alternating his goalies on games played on back-to-back nights. Ilya Bryzgalov will face his former team, Phoenix, on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center. . . . Entering Monday, the line of Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux, and Jaromir Jagr had produced 31 points (16 goals, 15 assists) in the last nine games. . . . There is a chance defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who has missed the last three games because of a wrist injury, will play Thursday. - Sam Carchidi

I must have when they played the Wildcats, but I really don't remember... Did you?

I'm very surprised. I thought that with all the roster turnover, it would take about a quarter season to get going, but a lot of these guys found chemistry pretty quickly. The only thing that worries me is that we give up a lot of goals. Not so much a problem in October, but let's see if they can tighten up defensively as the season goes on.