SoCalFlyfan

Not for nothing, but St Louis has 12 shutouts under Hitch. TWELVE!

I'm not saying I want Hitch, but it's a trademark of his system. And I think we're seeing the trademark of Lavi's.

SO, will a different goalie really change that?

How dare you actually acknowledge the real problem. Don't you know we can just keep plugging in new parts and this whole thing will be easily fixed ?

Seriously though..you are right. Until Lavi figures out a different way to win games not much will change and he'll still be chewing the crap out of his gum on the bench and calling his trademark timeout after we're down 5-2 .

...cue the "But Lavi won a Stanley Cup with this system" comment.

... Sure a change of venue couldn't hurt him...

So Philly is the place NHL goalies come to to rejuvenate their career ?

Since when ?

Timonen/JVR for Nash ?

. I think his "talent" was smoke and mirrors deception from a defensive system in Phoenix.

Well, since Bryz isn't going anywhere wouldn't it make sense for the coach to come up with a more 'defensive' gameplan ?

We can't win every game 7-6 although Lavi seems to think so.

Is Nashville a cheap organization or has cheap ownership or something? I feel like I get that impression or may have heard that. Is there any truth to that?

I thought I read hockey was doing rather well in Nashville. It is a blue collar type town with mostly white people so it's kinda' the perfect demographic.

@Howie58

-Homer just looks worn out and broken down as a GM. Maybe it's a poker face, years of heavy drinking, or the realization that Bryz and Pronger situations have handcuffed him. but he just looks like a man that no longer gets any enjoyment out of anything, let alone running the Flyers.

The 2nd was on the defense? A high school goalie could have stopped that shot. That was awful, all on Bryz.

Absolutely it was a bad goal, but that was a direct result of guys trying to force the issue on offense and getting burned. So it's ok to keep giving up odd man rushes ? That's the type of goal the Flyers need to score on the transition. Instead we're still playing river hockey.

@mojo1917

-I firmly believe our problem is tactical, not personnel related. We will just have to agree to disagree on that one. Watching the game though, that 2nd goal was a direct result of what I am talking about...guys pinching and then giving up an odd man rush with no one in position. Not to mention no one was in position on the first goal. That is coaching.

Any chance we could unload Bryz to Chicago? Would they take a chance on him?

No way. They went through the same thing with Khabibulin.

No one has any suggestions. They'll just tell you tha Lavi won a Stanley Cup with Carolina and That we just really miss Chris Pronger right now.

-My suggestion is to play a 2-1-2 style and use our speed to score on the transition instead of an ineffective dump and chase that gets everyone out of position. But that may be asking too much, because Lavi apparently only has one system up his sleeve.

"How I overcame my ankle issues and played productive hockey as a Philadelphia Flyer" -By Peter Forsberg

"The art of playing sound positional defensive hockey" - by: Peter Laviolette

"My times with Jeff carter and Mike Richards" -by: Any random girl they picked up at a bar in Sea Isle City

@mojo1917

-So what do we do ? You keep mentioning 'Lavi's style' like it's the only option he has as a coach. Shouldn't a coach be able to adjust his style a bit ? I watched the Rags like a hawk the last few games and did some scouting from the sofa. There is NEVER more than two guys down low in the offensive zone along the boards. They are playing a very sound 2-1-2 and it's working. The Flyers on the other hand sometimes have 4 guys down low battling for pucks and which means they have to haul *** to get back in position. I've even seen both defensemen down low with Couturier and Sestito back on defense for a brief moment. I watched games all across the league and NO ONE plays as loose as we do.

My point is instead of trading the farm away to try and fit Lavi's river hockey style, why not just change our style a little bit ? Is that asking too much ? If Tortorella can do with those stiffs on defense what's Lavi's excuse?

Everyone likes to talk about which player sucks lately, but at the end of the day it's the coach who puts these guys in position to succeed. Look at the Rags smothering defense this year: :Ryan Mcdougnah who?. Michael Sauer wha ? Anton Stralman huh ? and what's that guys name who's sucked on every team he's played on ? Eminger ?and who the hell is Stu Bickell ? not to mention a relative rookie Del Zotto. If Lavi was coaching the Rangers they would be a mess with his wide open crap system.

Thoughts ?

@SoCalFlyfan - LOL

Richards isn't alone though. The cliched hockey player interview is, well, a cliche. Bit of a shame really, since some of these players actually have a personality. Although not Carter.

Richards and Carter have to be the worst as far as interviews. It's not just the cliche's..it's the delivery. Richards is the master of delivering cliche' after cliche' without EVER changing the tone in his voice or moving his lips. I'm sure they're more fun and animated at the beach house though doing shooters and chasing skirt.

Not for nothing, but he already does better interviews. Not sure he has a clothing line yet though...

The Ape from '2001- A Space Odyssey' could give a better interview than Richards. He's not getting any better either.. I watch almost every Kings game and he gets interviewed at least twice a game and it's still brutal. .."We just need to work hard, do the little things, put pressure on their goalie, get shots, take care of our own end and minimize chances, get the puck in deep", etc etc...... I bet you if i bumped in Richards on the streets of LA and asked him where a good restaurant was he would say .. "We just need to work hard, do the little things, put pressure on the goalie, get shots, take care of our own end and minimize chances, get the puck in deep" etc. etc.

Paul Holmgren: " I'm very happy with the work ethic of our team and have no concerns with it's direction under Peter Laviolette. Lavi has been a coach that we have coveted a long time and we firmly believe he's the right man to helm this team and set forth a style of play that we have all come to know as 'Flyer hockey."

SoCalFlyfan : F*#k Homer, he has no clue and Lavi has no system whatsoever. We're screwed.

@Adamflyers

-Well now Rinaldo is having a hearing the the NHL's 'player safety' supervisor ...... uggghh.

It seems more like the league is targeting guys like Rinaldo and Sestito because they are one dimensional and are trying to eliminate that type of player from the league. On the other hand it's OK for Lucic to drill guys because he can actually play. Same with Ovechkin.

I'm kinda torn.. to be fair, when Rinaldo is out there he's 'looking' to make a big hit and that's really his only purpose. I think it would be different if he was a productive player who could hit when the opportunity presents itself..but is not out there headhunting like he seems to do. On the other hand his hits are, for the most part, pretty clean textbook hits that do not deserve these suspensions/fines. Again, it's more about the league trying to dictate the type of player they want to see out there than enforcing an actual written rule.

The only way Poile makes money in Nashville is if the team goes deep in the playoffs, and that means they will not trade either D-men...especially for Briere who's underacheiving and Carle who will jump ship in the offseason.

We have to get rid of Briere to move Couturier up to where he belongs ( centering a third line ). However Montreal's GM stated that they need to get bigger forwards, not munchkins like Briere so that isn't happening.

What we need is to somehow get Lavi to trade his system for something more effective, dump Berube and McCarthy and hire Desjardins as the defense coach.

..25th in the league in goals against.....

"This team has played much better on the road than at the wells faraway center"

So it's the fans fault we're terrible at home ? Tickets don't come cheap at MSG and the Rangers are unbeatable there. Cmon' , sure the Philly fans blow, but you can't blame them for Lavi's inability to adjust his broken system or the fact that a goon is responsible for our special teams.

Thank you very much. Wait until I really get going.

I have a feeling that after tonights game you'll be able to "really get going".

If they get blown out by Detroit, a likely scenerio, then the Snider Holmgren Comcast spin will start in earnst. If Laviolette is the fall guy I will divorce this team forever and move to NHL Center Ice. When you don't have a farm system that deveops players like the Red Wings do, and have done consistently with excellence, you get the slop that we have consistently seen the past 20+ years with this Flyers franchise. Excuse after excuse year after year. It makes it hard for a local hockey fan to get on board with this franchisee's as their local NHL team. I am so tired of hearing Snider say he does everything to win, then does not do everything to win because of the stupid personnel decisions of this franchise. Ok, let's see what this genius Holmgren does. The Pronger situation masks the real situation. Dump and chase does not work in the NHL today with the size and skill set of our forwards. We do not have an Alpha Male beast center on the whole team. There needs to be a better defensive puck control system with better backchecking and defensive scheme. The D is truly porous and lightweight, no grit or meanness. No blue line fear. Thrown around like rag dolls. By the NY Rag Dolls. Start moving pieces now like Carle, Colburn, Lilja, Gus. Get a mean SOB crease clearing D Beast for the Pronger money. Even if Pronger comes back, you get a washed up 37 year old with a bad pumpikin head and a financial lead anchor. Pronger was arguably the second greatest D man after Off, very diffent styles, but The Alpha make D Beast. But, time to move on. Tell him to retre and Comcast take the insurance money. Goalie? This is on Holmgren. This was his defining off season moment. Maybe with a D in front of him Bryz would look better. Let's see if the Flyer Homerism gets a back seat to Comcast greed here. Got to sell the seats and merchandise. Flyers Hockey is Big Business.

^^ Nomination for post of the year. The only people who can argue with that are Snider and Holmgren.

@Poulin20

I completely disagree with everything you said. Lavi is responsible for the positioning and style of play of the defense. I cringe evrey time Timonen or Carle is grinding the boards in the offensive zone like they're Trent Klatt and Shjon Podein while Briere is back playing defense. Also, when was the last time we blocked a shot ? Is that homers fault ? Lavi IS the guy we should be holding responsible right now, not Homer. Sure Homer botched the goalie situation but he otherwise assembled a pretty decent team.