brelic

He has a concussion.

Kovalchuk WAS a finisher. He's got 3 goals in 17 games. Jake has 6 in 33. Pretty much a wash. Kovy is 36. Jake is 30. Jake is a 9-year Flyer. Kovy is a paycheck chaser, recently waived by one of the worst teams in the NHL. I can get behind the argument to move Jake at some point (expansion, future-looking trade) but this is not that point.

I don't like Kovalchuk the player or the person. So I want no part of him in the dressing room.

I don't know, it's hard to say. There's so much uncertainty around Patrick and Lindblom. Patrick might play this year, but it's looking less and less likely as time goes on. Lindblom, I hope he beats this. If he does and comes back to hockey, I'd guess right now that it's not before the 2021-2022 season. So does it make sense to trade solid assets and give Hall a 7 year contract? He will be 29 early next season, so he'd be on the books at probably $9.5M or so until he's 36. Doesn't feel like the smart move to me, but what do I know? Maybe Hoffman, if you can get him cheaper and for 5 years or less.

Sure, but 6 of the 12 forwards are rookies. And not very good ones. Farabee and Frost *will* be good, but they've hit a bit of a rookie wall and make a lot of mistakes. Farabee made a poor decision last night, and that took the wind out of the Flyers' sails, who had just scored and had some momentum. I'd challenge any NHL team to take out 6 regulars - including their top scorer and top point getter - and dress 6 rookies (4 of them no better than career 4th liners) instead, and somehow not miss a beat. We're as close to 6th in the Metro as 4th (and the 6th place Rags are 3 pts behind with a game in hand). The season isn't over by any stretch... but they need some healthy NHL bodies back soon. Sure, our stars need to step up, but also, they need competent players for the other 40 minute of the game.

The Flyers are in real trouble here. They just don't have enough NHL talent. Take out TK, Lindblom, Laughton, Raffl, and Pitlick. Replace them with Twarynski, Vorobyev, NAK, Kase, and Stewart. Results are not going to be positive.

Wow. Terrible news. Love ya Oskar. You got this.

Yes, he's apparently a very tenacious, hard-working player. I'd prefer him over Stewart any day, and that's without even seeing him play! NAK, meanwhile, was a healthy scratch on a severely depleted Phantoms team, so there's that. I think it's probably safe to say he will never be a regular NHL player.

David Kase got called up and is available for the game tonight, though not sure he will get in.

Per official Flyers channels. Also, Myers left practice with back spasms again. He's out for Wednesday, and the plan is not to call anyone up for the 3-game road trip, at least for now. Stewart and Hagg will be in. They will have no extra healthy players on the trip.

That was a fun game. Except for the potential injury to TK. Laughton was a true leader tonight. Chirping, hitting, being a pest, starts the play on the Provy goal, and then buries one himself to take the lead back. And then tells off the entire Sens bench? Hell yeah. I hate that punk Tkachuk. Borowiecki is a punk too. Fun, emotional hockey! I'll take 10 games like that over just about any other game this season. This is probably a good learning game for the kids. Develop some passion. It was a playoff-lite kinda game.

Yeah, I just meant that even without Niskanen, they're running away with the division. The two teams were coming at the trade with different needs.

It's probably a win-win. Caps get cap relief this year by taking Gudas AND getting the Flyers to retain, and Gudas comes off the books at the end of the year... and the Caps are still running away with the division.

Good question. Our lines in general just aren't generating any scoring. Jake is my least favourite player to watch.

Yes, it did become an accepted norm. And it's now becoming an unaccepted norm. They've gone from over a fight per game to one fight every five games. https://www.tsn.ca/fighting-continues-to-fade-from-nhl-1.1216252 The same trend is happening in the lower leagues in almost identical proportions. So, whether or not you go on and do other things, fighting is going away.

Football is a contact sport and doesn't tolerate fighting the way hockey does. It just has a long history with hockey and is a generational change before it's completely gone. But, yeah, I really do miss the intensity and chippiness that made me care about my team and truly hate the other team. Now, it's just a bunch of dudes skating around and I like the orange ones lol. As I said in another post, though, it could really be a function of having sooooo little Flyers playoff action in the past 7-8 years. I enjoyed watching the Lightning/Jackets playoff series last year and the atmosphere on the ice and in the stands is what we just don't get as Flyers fans when they're golfing in early April.

I really think they will. It's the only major sport that allows fighting. It's at odds with current social norms, and with the announcement that the PA is getting involved in monitoring and rooting out player abuse by coaches, it's the way things are going. There's barely any hitting in today's NHL, and very few organic fights. It's quickly becoming an anachronism.

For sure. At least temporarily. But look at the young players coming up. They didn’t grow up on what we did. They grew up in a different time, different social context, different idols. I wouldn’t be surprised to see fighting eventually banned under heavy suspension. Which is fine, because it’s becoming nonsensical to see grown men fight playing a sport (at least one that isn’t a fighting sport). But, yeah, the kids are learning a different game at a very young age.

Exactly. There used to be storylines. Now there’s fancy stat lines.

Well said. Can’t say I really disagree with anything. Kick back, grab a beer, because this is gonna be a long one. We’re goin’ down one of uncle B’s rabbit holes. The biggest thing “missing” in my opinion is that there are no longer events that cause emotions to rise and elevate my own emotional investment in the team I love. Fights are gone, except for the odd token bout. Normal hitting is very gentlemanly. Game-changing hits are non-existent. Chirping and chippiness are gone because there’s nothing to chirp or be chippy about. It’s basically down to goals. I don’t want to go back to that because we now know how freaking damaging it can be to players. I’ll never forget Lindros curled in the fetal position courtesy of a Stevens hit, or Primeau getting a cheap shot elbow to the head that was the beginning of the end for him. It is completely at odds with how we see things today. At the same time, I hated the Penguins because of Malakhov. I hated the Devils because of Stevens. I hated the Rangers because of Avery. And all of the smaller cheap shots those guys would take during the last of the true rivalries. And our players truly hated them too. So when we struck back with a cheap shot of our own, or delivered a clean bone-crunching hit that got every freaking Flyer fan on their feet, **** that was fun. Then they would fight back and ratchet up the intensity. Start a fight in a scrum. Both teams would chirp endlessly. Little shots after the whistle. Snow the goalie’s face on a whistle and get everyone’s back up. We would ratchet it up one more. I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what would happen next. That’s what I don’t feel from hockey anymore. Those regular season games with true rivals were intense. Even as recently as 10 years ago, before all of these real significant changes to contact started happening. There was a reason to hate them. Now, do you truly hate the Devils? Rangers? Why? Because they sometimes score more goals than we do? There’s still some of that left with the Penguins and Bruins. But once Crosby, Malkin, and Marchand are gone, what’s left to hate?

Hey, every 4-5 years I say something worthy lol.

That's fair. And millions of people feel that way, obviously, as the game keeps growing in fanbase and revenue. But to me, it's like the difference between watching someone who is technically proficient on their instrument versus someone who is more visibly emotionally invested in their performance. Of course both can co-exist, and for the NHL, I think that's basically just the playoffs now.

I mean, a bit part is that we no longer tolerate dangerous hits to the head, or just downright dangerous hits period. The league is not perfect, and definitely inconsistent, but the overall message is clear - it is no longer acceptable.

Goals are rare events in hockey - sometimes you only get a few per game. That's a lot of waiting (2.5 hours) for very little excitement, and it might not even be your team. Hitting used to occur regularly. There was emotion in the game and chippiness. That's all pretty much gone now. I've seen exactly one Flyers game this year that felt like a playoff game. There's another one that felt close (the NJ shutout). So yeah, I agree that hockey for the most part is boring to watch. Or maybe more accurately, it's just that we haven't been treated to enough playoff hockey to enjoy. That's where real hockey is played.

The metrics are so weird with this team. They are 5th in the Metro (would be 2nd in the Atlantic) and hanging on to the last wildcard spot. Their PK is 3rd in the league and PP is 12th. They allow the 2nd fewest shots per game and allow the 8th fewest goals against per game. They put up the 7th most shots per game, yet are 17th in goals scored per game. With all of that said, they are 26th in team shooting % and 20th in team save %. There are only 4 guys >= .900 on ice save %. Myers, JVR, Ghost, and G. Pittsburgh has 13, Canes have 3, and Isles have 17. Canes have slightly worse team goaltending than we do (.905 vs .906). Yet we are 10th overall in the NHL. Still a work in progress but doing very well considering.