brelic

Georgiev is starting, so let's light him up!

Time to piss all over their playoff dreams. Need 3 of 4 points. 5-3 Flyers. G, Sanheim, Coots (2), and NAK.

People who have money and want to drive their expensive cars. Plebs take public transpo.

Shesterkin was in a car accident. Broken rib, out for a while. We need 3 of 4 points. 13th ranked Carolina and 16 ranked Rangers out of playoff spot, and 18th and 19th ranked West teams in a playoff spot. Bonkers.

Not a fan of Laughton on the 2nd line... but not a fan of Raffl or Grant up there either. JVR makes the most sense, but I seem to remember he and Hayes not really meshing.

Lol hard pass on Marner. I just don't think he's worth $11M for what his game brings, and it would break apart our roster too much. Plus, he's made it pretty clear he's a me-first guy. AND his dad represents him. No effin' thanks. Been there, done that. Not that it would ever happen anyway! Kapanen for Ghost, I'd do. The Leafs have Muzzin and Barrie, true, but both are UFAs after the season. Ghost is cost-controlled for a few more at $4.5M. Pretty reasonable.

Enjoy it while you have it! We haven't had a 40 goal scorer in over a decade. We haven't even had a sniper. Simmonds and Couturier are the closest things to it, and they ain't no snipers. I think there's a few things happening. First, I believe that for the majority of NHL players, they wouldn't fight tooth and nail over some of the negotiation salary gaps if left to their own devices. It is driven by agents who want to maximize their own money, and the players' association that wants to apply upward pressure on wages. Not at all suprising, but I doubt it is driven by the players themselves to that extent. I know they live in a different reality, but if I demanded $50M over 8 years and you offered $42M, I'd be perfectly happy anywhere in that range because that kind of money can guarantee a high quality of life, period. But like I said, I get that it's a different reality. I know Matt Carkner and he was telling me that what a lot of people don't realize is that the lower-paid guys need to fight tooth and nail for those 8-12 years they are in the league, because they need to make enough to sustain their family after retirement. And he also mentioned the pressure of having to keep up with your high-earning teammates - there's almost an expectation. Secondly, there's been a shift to players wanting their big lifetime contract to come as soon as they reach their first RFA year (as opposed to UFA). Marner and Nylander are prime examples. On one hand, it makes sense, because generally those will be a player's statistical peak years. So it's more like you're paying for future production rather than past production, which is the UFA model. On the other, it's a much bigger risk for GMs because these guys are typically the most heavily relied upon players (contrary to high-cost UFA guys who get paid a lot but generally past their prime years and not the best player on the team at that point), and they get stuck if the player doesn't perform. Either way, you're stuck with a bad contract, but the RFA guys have much much less of a proven track record of success and are typically expected to be the best players. Anyway, I apologize for the long digression lol.

The rumour with the most smoke is Jeff Carter with salary retention. On top of that, if Carter retires before the end of his contract, the Kings and Preds get cap recapture penalties, and the Flyers would get a negative cap hit (i.e. bonus cap space). If he retires after this season, Flyers would get an extra $600k in negative cap space per year, and if he retires after next season, Flyers would get $3M in negative cap space IIRC. The cost I saw was Ratcliffe and a 2nd. The other rumour that makes sense is Eric Staal, especially because of the Minnesota connection. The difference is that he has an NMC. Either one of those guys would be upgrades to our bottom 6, and Carter could even split C duties with Frost. I think he'd be a great linemate and mentor for Frost, actually.

Sure, that makes sense on the surface. And you could make an argument that Tavares and Matthews are among the top centers in the league, so mission accomplished there. But then there's Marner at $11M and Nylander at $7M. And both of them showed exactly where their priorities lies - with themselves. Compare that to Crosby who took less money so that the team could be more competitive. Absolutely. I would say it's harder to trade Tavares because a) that's a lot of salary for a player who has in all likelihood already hit his career statistical peak, and b) the return would have to be something like a #1 defenseman, which teams know are more important (and harder to find) than top offensive player and might be reluctant to trade. The next 4 days will be interesting for both our teams!

Defense usually does win down the stretch and in the playoffs. I saw at tweet about the Leafs this morning, saying that in the history of the NHL, no team has ever won the Cup being ranked worse than 20th in goals against. The Leafs are 26th. From an outsider's perspective, I believe it was a mistake to sign Tavares. You had everything you needed on offense already. Toronto just needed a bit of time to have them all develop, and then in the meantime, use that money / picks to address a top pairing defenseman. But now Tavares is gonna be 30 at the start of next season, signed for another 6 years at $11M. The Leafs have $40M tied up in 4 forwards. Your entire defense corps is paid less than Matthews. The alternative was to leverage Nylander's hold out year and trade him for much needed help on defense... not sure why there was a pressing need to sign him as well. Bottom line is that Dubas has not allocated resources very well so far.

Ever been to HF Boards? That place is a cesspool and Flyer on Flyer murder!

That's a fundamental change to the playoff format that I'm not sure would be well received by fans, players, and owners. Fans lose out because there's less chance their team makes it. Players lose out because fewer will make the playoffs. Owners lose out on revenue. I'd say they are different accomplishments. Being great for 82 shows you can be consistent on a daily basis for 7 months. But being great and coming out on top in four best-of-7 matchups is a different kind of accomplishment - one that I personally place much more value on. Team are rewarded for their excellence in the regular season - they draw supposedly easier matchups. But the beauty of hockey is that it has the highest level of randomness and chance of any of the major sports, which I would argue builds much more excitement across the board. How awesome was it to watch Columbus beat the Lightning last year? That, as a storyline, was way better than if the Bolts had steamrolled them in 4 games. But they didn't. They couldn't even win one game. Columbus absolutely deserved to win last year, and the Bolts didn't. I guess I don't truly understand why you want to remove teams from the playoffs. For me, no other sport comes close to NHL playoff hockey, but of course, I find other sports boring, so I'm biased It's an interesting thought experiment, but my guess is that would be a non-starter for the owners and players' association, let alone fans.

Haha, well, to be fair, I just think I'm no longer the target demographic of the NHL. I'm also not a fan of televised sports in general. And with hockey as I've mentioned before, I'm a Flyers fan, not a hockey fan. I rarely if ever watch any other games. I can only name one NFL player (Brady) and one NBA player (Embiid but only because you Philly guys mention him lol). And zero people from the other sports lol. Maybe we're just getting old, rux! Here are some interesting stats about demographics across sports. The NHL targets approximately 20% of the American population, who have attained the age of 18 years and over and who are fans of the game. Moreover, most targeted fans are under the age of 45 years. In addition, the majority of the targeted NHL fans are well educated and are paid well compared to the non-hockey fans. The NBA has the youngest audience, with 45 percent of its viewers under 35. It also has the highest share of black viewers, at 45 percent—three times higher than the NFL or NCAA basketball. Major League Baseball shares the most male-heavy audience, at 70 percent, with the NBA. The NHL audience is the richest of all professional sports. One-third of its viewers make more than $100k, compared to about 19 percent of the general population. Nascar's audience has the highest share of women (37 percent) and highest share of white people (94 percent). The Professional Golfers Association has the oldest audience by multiple measures: smallest share of teenagers; smallest share of 20- and early 30-somethings; and highest share of 55+ (twice as high, in the oldest demo, as the NBA or Major League Soccer). Major League Soccer has the highest share of Hispanics by far (34 percent; second is the NBA at 12 percent) and the lowest income of any major sports audience. Nearly 40 percent of its fans make less than $40k.

Some package that includes Nylander for Doughty. Done. Cup = Yours.

I'm the same, really. I love the Flyers and watch them to be entertained. In past years, I'd watch no matter what the score was or how boring the game was. But ever since Hex/Hak took over, I found myself tuning out for large parts of games and seasons, honestly. I'd rather write music or go to the gym or go out with friends. If we can make the playoffs this year, and show some real competitiveness, that will go a long way to rekindling my interest!! Man, ain't nothing like playoff hockey.

I like real parity, but the current NHL points system is tilted towards artificial parity by having some games worth 2 points and others worth 3. To me, that makes no sense, and you should never ever ever get a point for losing. You lost. Period. Lasting an extra 5 minutes in said loss is not worthy of a participation point, IMO. But that's never going away, so... So, you mean they don't play the games on paper? I think I understand what you're getting at, but the truth for me is that the best team is the one that lasts 4 rounds and wins 16 games. Period. To me, the regular season is just one long entertainment and revenue-driven machine to determine seeding in the playoffs. I don't care if Tampa can win 65 games in the regular season playing LA, Detroit, SJ, NJ on a random Tuesday night in December. If they can't win 16 games when it truly counts, then they aren't the best team. Period. (With the caveat that the SC champs are the best team in that 8 week period - nothing more, nothing less. If you had another playoff start right after the SC was awarded, you'd end up with a different result almost guaranteed.)

In the 10 year sample I posted, that’s simply not true. 4/10 cups were won by teams ranked 8th or lower. It would be interesting to see a 25 year sample. I suspect the further back you go, the more likely it is that a top 4 team wins simply because of the way the NHL has changed over the years. Disagree for many reasons, but primarily, because you are bringing a normative viewpoint to an empirical situation. They already do

I mean, the reality is that over the last 10 years, the #1 ranked team has won the Cup ONCE, and that was Chicago in the lockout year. Over that period, it's been - 9th 7th 2nd 4th 7th 10th 1st (lockout) 12th 8th 3rd Your regular season standing simply doesn't matter as much as many other factors - getting hot at the right time, getting the right matchups, no injuries, hot goaltending or a hot goal scorer, coaching, special teams being hot, luck, luck, and possibly some luck. The median value is 7th, and average is 6th.

Yup, TB is 20-1-2 in their last 23 games. Also, since January 8th, TB has the most points in the NHL (27). Philly has the second most (21). We also have the most goals for (52) in that stretch. Our PP is at 18.8% over that time, and TB is at 5.3%. That's not a typo.

That seems kind of crazy, no? The only team they really have to watch for is Florida. Also, you're welcome for this past week

Um, Giroux said exactly that.

Apparently Doughty is quite the partier. He showed up super hungover for the Olympic gold medal game in Vancouver (Richards mentioned that on Spittin' Chiclets). Don't remember ever hearing any criticism about him.

That's pretty much it. This is who they are right now. I don't think losing last night was an urgent 'problem.' It's not good, it certainly doesn't help their chances for the playoffs. But they went in with a 5-2-1 record over their last 8. If they go 5-3-1 over a few nine game stretches, there's a good chance they will be in. That's a .556 winning percentage, which is better than their current .519. It's just the Metro that is all out of whack.

That was pretty much a garbage game. Worst of the season. Also 2nd worst shutout loss in team history when they have over 40 shots and keep the opposition under 20. THe only one worse was in 1969. Burn the tape and move on. The Devils, as bad and depleted as they are, are simply not going to lose every game. They just came off 3 straight games in which they led but ultimately lost in OT/SO, including a 3-goal 3rd period lead against the Habs. There was some anger and pride on their side. That first goal was sloppy and then the second goal was deflating. Line changes in practice today - G is back on Coots' wing. Just call up Frost already. Enough with either G at center or woefully underskilled AHL guys in the middle.

https://www.inquirer.com/flyers/dave-scott-philadelphia-flyers-alain-vigneault-ron-hextall-kevin-hayes-improvement-20200131.html FWIW, the article has quotes from Scott and Fletch saying they're looking for a 4C, so bottom six upgrade. That tells me Ghost would not be the one going the other way. Potential players mentioned in the article - Bonino, Staal, Eriksson Ek, Carter, and Pageau. Pageau would be the most expensive one and riskiest, as he could end up being a rental. Given this season as a statistical outlier for him, I wouldn't go near it. Like @radoran says, these next 12 games will make or break the season, and let Fletcher know what makes sense to do given where they are in the standings at that point.