Mad Dog

Florida will really be a gift. The Flyers will sweap them. I think the Devils would be easy too, and so will be the Caps... I just think with our luck, we are going to draw the Rangers, unless Ottawa finishes them off. I don't want to play Boston either, but will take them over the Rangers.

Anybody but the Rangers - terrible matcup for us. Plus, Lundqvist is the best goalie on the league. The Bruins are not the best matchup but better than NY.

If he was injured to the degree that he would be more of a liability than help, he would be sitting, trust me. Knowing how crucial these games are, the fact the team felt they could put him in net tells me he is not really injured that bad. Otherwise, he would be sitting and Bob would be in net.

I was wondering that too. In a small samples of games we saw him, I thought he looked defensively sound. Nothing flashy, but I thought he didn't do anything to deserve the treatment he got by the team. I can't imagine either him or Manning could possibly much worse than Lilja and Kubina... Fricking stiffs!

Reported!

Because both Ottawa and Washington are doing it with defense and goaltending. Add Florida to the mix as well. And that's where it hurts the most to realize that Anderson, Hatlby and Theodore are outplaying our $5 mil "franchise goalie".

Sounds direly familiar.

Fair enough. But here is the thing: Bryz didn't play consistently anywhere before either. I agree that Bryz didn't cost the Flyers the game yesterday. He didn't quite cost us Game 4 either, although he was brutal in that game. And the first three games the Flyers almost won despite him. But that's not the big picture here. He was signed to win games, or at least being instrumental in winning games. Fair or not, his salary is in line with the salaries of elite goalies in this league. He hasn't come anywhee close to the expectations people had for him - I think we can agree there. In these playoffs, he is being outplayed by the likes of Brden Holtby, Scott Clemensen, and Craig Anderson, just to name a few. His GAA is second worst amongst the netminders playing in this post-season. Brian Boucher could've given us equal, if not better, performance. Sorry, but as a Flyer fan I cannot accept that.

But that's just it. What separates great goalies from average goalies is that great goalies are consistent. But more importantly, they are capable of stealing games and coming up huge when the team counts on them. That's where a great goalie makes his legacy. Not in March, not in February, not in October, but in the playoffs - when it counts the most. I don't know if his mechanics are bad. I mean just because he was playing well in one out of 7 months in a regular season doesn't lead me to conclude he is a good goalie. And frankly, I don't care what his issues are: physical or mental. What I tend to believe is that he is just incapable of helping a team to accomplish anything significant. He came up very small for Phoenix last year, and he is coming up even smaller for the Flyers this year. Mike Smith, who is earning a third of what Bryzgalov is earning, is Phoenix's MVP. To me this is simply astounding and, from the Flyers' perspective, is somehting that's supposed to be difficult to swallow. His resume looks very, very unimpressive so far. And I don't know if it's about to change.

Sometime in February, I believe, there was a column in one of the local papers (can't remember the author) about that exact topic. I think the players don't trust him even a little bit. His resurgance in Marhc *may* have changed that, but it's quite possible the way he plays now makes players feel really vulnerable in front of him.

But it's unfortunate that only a few years ago, he was pretty decent. I wonder what happened to him and why he deteriorated so quikcly.

There is no doubt in my mind, if all three are present, we finish the Pens in 4 games.

Would be even better if he were healthy to play. You can't compensate for the loss of a d-man like that.

Does anybody know if Grossman is playing on Sunday?

Game 6 is a must-win. No question in my mind. The longer this series drags, the more it favors the Pens. Never before when the Flyers had a 3:1 lead in the series I felt so unsure about their chances. If they don't come out of the gate swinging, with a determination to blow the Pens out of the building, this is going to be a trouble. They can't come out looking tentative. They need to pressure and attack and for once, at least *try* to cover people.

People, seriously... Stop bitching about officiating. This is beyond embarrassing. There were questionable calls both ways... And in case nobody notices, we had 4 PPs, while the Pens had 3. Where is this perceived bias? But let's be candid for a second. We are in a situation we are in right now because a) we have horrid defense and B) we have no goaltending. And on top of that, the Pens were playing a perfect 3rd period in terms of shuttig the Flyers down. We have the worst goaltending of all the 16 teams in the playoffs. Bar none. The idea was that he would be winning us games in the playoffs. Guess what? Not only he is not winning games. He is losing games - all by himslef, almost. Enough already with blaming refs. The Flyers have their own mess they need to clean up if they want to avoid a choke of an epic proportion and send their fans to the summer feeling betrayed.

I don't know if I can say that he was playing head and shoulder better than Bryzgalov. And Special K *may* be right after all: Bob may end up being nothing more than a back-up. Problem *I* have is that Bob has not been given a chance to develop properly and the Flyers may never really find out how good he can be. Going after a legit #1 goalie was not a mistake this off-season. Signing Bryzgalov was.

If that's really the case, and this is his mindset, we are even more screwed than we thought. Of course I have no proof of that, but I think he actually cares and applies himself. I can't imagine he doesn't want to win. Or even if he doesn't, I can't imagine he is stupid enough to think him being that transparent in his lack of desire to play well won't catch up sooner or later. I actually think things are much simpler. He is merely not good enough. It's really that simple. He has always been a subpar goaltender, who did reasonably well in the Dave Tippett's system - the system that stresses the defense first and basically no risk taking. That has been this coach's mark since his early coaching days with LA Kings in 2000. I don't know how ultimately effective that system is, but what is clear is that it benefits goalies in a huge way. When you have both d-men plus one of the forwards almost constantly hangining around your crease, of course the goalie's job becomes extremely, extremely simpler. Laviolette employs a drastically opposite style - the style that takes chances and allows a mediocre goalie to be exposed. In Carolina he got away with that because Cam Ward was / is a good goaltender. Cam Ward is five levels above Bryzgalov. He would've succeeded with any coach. Bryzgalov can't because he is a borderline average golatender, and I am using the term "average" just not to be harsh. I hope this doesn't happen, but if the Flyers lose this series after having a 3:0 lead, I woudl like to believe that Snider will find a way to lose this contract. Personally, I think deep down he realized a long time ago how collosal this mistake was.

Crazy, I know... And to be fair to the Flyers, this year they were actually serious about trying to improve this position. They actually got serious even two years ago, when Nabokov rejected their offer sheet. When they acquired Bryzgalov, I was skeptical. I saw some beats and pieces of the Phoenix - Detroit series, and I didn't see anything special. But I was thinking OK, maybe he wouldn't be a savior, maybe this isn't exactly Martin Brodeur, but he can't possibly be much worse than what we had last year. Boy was I wrong... Not even in my worst dreams I imagined him being that bad. We got barely one decent month out of him. ONE MONTH! And that's when actually the whole team was playing their best hockey of the season. I can't imagine Snider is happy with his doing. Yes, in public he won't critisize any of his players. But I don't know how he can be watching this clown allowing 4 goals per game in the playoffs and not shaking his head. I don't believe in some supernatural power either, but there is no scientific or rational way I can find to explain this goaltending disaster that we are facing for more than 2 decades. I just can't.

Wow...... Holtby 45 saves with less than 5 minutes to go. And I bet he doesn't make $5 mil/year.

@canoli OK, we did OK in March... That's one month, when we managed to held an opposition under 3 goals per game. But of all 16 teams who made the playoffs, only Ottawa and Chicago allowed more goals. And Ottawa is mainly due to their horrendou start to the season. I am not imagining things. I think about 2 months ago we had a discussion and you and I actually agreed that the team D had a lot to be desired. I agree with Jack that you don't to have a team crammed full of Selke Trophy's nominees to be able to play a decent defense. And I still see the same issues that were plaguing the team during the regular season: blown coverages, inability to clear the zone, inability (or lack of desire) to take body, forwards not helping d-men, etc, etc......... If we don't want to think it's a system - fine. Than what is it? Just a collection of players who either can't or don't want to play defense? Or players not listening to his coach? Why did we finish teh regular season having allowed 232 goals? That's 2.8 goals per game. I know our #1 goalie is a jerk. But I tend to think there is more to it than just him.

And fricking Baden Holtby is playing like Patrick Roy for Washington... Why can't we have a good goaltending at least once? Why???

It all boils down to the fact that we don't have even a decent goalie in the system. It's sad to put it this way, but it's a reality. But here is what botehrs me now... Other than one memorable save on Letang earlier in the series, Bryzgalov didn't play well. And I noticed he just didn't fell comfortable. If the Flyers knew he was not 100% and still went with him, that tells me they have absolutely no faith in Bob at all, of course depending on how badly Bryz is injured. And frankly, I don't blame them as Bob has struggled lately. But let's assume Bryzgalov is in fact injured. What do you do if you are Laviolette? Do you roll the dice and still play him? Or go with Bob, in which case you are *still* rolling the dice? Will playing Bob who is 100% healthy give them better chances of winning than playing Bryz who is at........ who knows...... 70%? 80 %?

@JackStraw I hear you, but then I don't know how else to explain it. Does he instruct his players to play better deffense, and they are just not listening? You and I are both seeing rudimentary, basic shortcomings that a playoff team simply cannot have. On just about every other goal the Pens have scored in this series, there was a guy (either a scorer himself or an assist guy) who is being left wide open with nobody even near him. I mean you can often miss a coverage, you can positionally fall out of play, but not to have anybody anywhere close to a player who is front of the net, time after time after time.......... how can that be? And the most disconcerting thing is that it really looks like the Flyers are not even *trying* to cover that open guy. I cannot recall EVER such a blatant, glaring disregard for defensive assignments with this team, even going back to Wayne Cashman's or Bill Barber's coaching era, or John Steven's coaching, which doesn't say much. I agree with you in a sense that players, even if they are not "defensive speacilaists", shoudl know better. But game after game - going back to te regualr season - we see players........ I don't even know what the right word is........almost choosing not wanting to play defense. I mean......... how can that be? I can't imagine this is coming from the head coach.

@JackStraw To be fair, I tend to suspect that he chose this go-go style based on personnel available to him. In Carolina he had right players who could play stiffling defense. Brind'Amour was a defensive anchor, and possibly the best defensive forward in the entire playoffs of 2005. Forwards like Matt Cullen, Andrew Ladd, Eric Cole, and Craig Adams also knoew how to cross check and bottle up neutral zone. Plus, their entire defense featured players who were simply excellent stay-home d-men, like Commodore, Niklas Wallin, Bret Hedican, and Aaron Ward. And Cam Ward was just playing out of his mind. The Flyers don't have that personnel, maybe with the exception of Talbot, but he can't do things Brind'Amour could. And Couturier, as brilliant as he was so far, is a teenager. I have a feeling that from now forward, Malkin will start abusing Couturier... I hope I am wrong, of course. So in a sense, I think Laviolette *chose* this offense-first style based on the roster. The loss of Pronger was supposed to be huge, and it's proving to be so. After that, our defense is poor garbage. I am sorry to say this, but they are terrible. I have tons of respect for Timonen, but he is aging - that's just the law of nature... He is trying, but he doesn't have much left in the tank. And after that, we have nothing. Carle, Lilja, Kubina... I mean... And our forwards are not much different. This is where teh loss of Mike Richards is felt. Giroux tries, but we both know his game is more about offense than defense. And we no longer have the likes of Joel Otto, Shjon Podein, Laparierre, Sami Kapanen, Gagne, Brind'Amour..... guys who could just lock up defensively and neutralize opposing players. I see the way Ryan Callahan in NY is playing, and this is as perfect of the defensive game as one can play. He basically perfected it. Tortorella built his system around him, I am sure of that.