radoran

I think Leino was saying the "we'd like to stay" thing as well, with the added part that he played "good soldier" when they stopped negotiations midseason to let them pick up Versteeg. Then was left holding the bag. Quite frankly, I think when Leino's people came to the Flyers with the Buffalo deal the Flyers said "take it!" and they would have been fools not to. Carle may want to stay but when someone unloads $5.5M per and the Flyers counter with a little north of Coburn...? Depends on the numbers, but IMO he'll take the better offer.

I knew Adam was sent down (why I said next season). But he started off well before getting into the doghouse. I don't mind much of Ruff's approach, but his tendency to cut off his nose to spite his face is evident on occasion. I did forget about Ennis a little. Probably because he is little (lol). My predilection for being "big down the middle" showing itself a bit. They have a nice top two lines and some good defense in front of Miller. They should be able to pick up a nice forward in the offseason. With this group, regardless if they make a run at the playoffs this season they definitely need to be in it next season or look for some changes behind the bench and in the front office.

I think the point is that with the right breakdown of the brackets and the right players stepping up a team like Edmonton could ride to the Cup Finals before losing their goalie and falling. Or the Flyers could make the playoffs on a shootout on the last day of the season and run to the Stanley Cup Finals where their goalie lets in the softest of softees. It's not dumb luck, it's specific luck. More often than not the teams that have been the best in the regular season do better in the playoffs, but there's a reason teams don't want to parade around with the President's Trophy. Since the lockout you're more likely to lose in the first round than even make the Cup Final. Only two winners have made the Cup Finals since the lockout and only one has won the Cup. Of the 25 winners since inception, only 11 have even made the Finals with just seven winning. Three since the lockout haven't even made it out of the first round.

I have to imagine Hodgson is going to get a chance between Vanek and Pominville at some point, which is as good as it's going to get for them. I can't believe Darcy got a 1 for Gaustad+4. Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville Leino-Roy-Stafford That's not too too shabby. Or some mix thereof. It puts Leino back on the wing where he belongs. If this team finds it's wheels (six points out with 20 to play, two in hand on the 8 seed with Washington and Tampa in the way) they could still sneak into a first round debacle against the Rangers. They'd need to outright win at least 12 and probably more, IMO. Clear $7.5M on Hecht and Boyes in the offseason. Have the same defense next year with a year experience together. What's up with Adam and can/should he replace Roy on the second line next season? Would he be good as a 3 given his size? Would it surprise you to see Gaustad back in the postseason? Especially if Nashville disappoints? I always got the impression he liked Buffalo.

Different teams are in different places. Nashville is trying to keep Weber and Suter by showing them they are willing to make big moves like bringing in Gaustad who is widely touted as exactly the type of player you want to bring in at the deadline. A lfelong Sabre, he's had one deep playoff run. Wouldn't surprise me if he came back in the offseason. I don't agree with Polie's decision, but that's the spin it's getting. The Flyers simply weren't in that position and obviously didn't get an offer on Carle they wanted to take. The last thing Homer wants to do is have questions on defense heading into the playoffs. Given the goaltending, doubly so.

He gave his sanity a No Trade Clause and then moved it before the clause kicked in.

I think we're only now getting to the point where a lot of teams are effectively scouting Europe and there's the natural predilection for Canadiens developed by the... Canadians that dominate the sport. Europeans also have had more of a "will he actually come over" aspect to them, making them slightly more of a risk. Likewise, the adjustment coming from style of play and ice surface. On another note, they don't have a 10th round anymore. But they used to...

Carle for two firsts and Nash. Seriously, do you think they could even get ONE first for Carle? I wouldn't give up JVR for that pile of fetid dingoes kidneys, either.

That's the magic. Win today, walk together forever.

Agreed. A player's career has nothing to do with what kind of coach he might be. Scotty Bowman says "hi" Wayne Gretzky is probably just as happy if you didn't mention it.

I have no issue with the possibility of including the two in a deal. That will *not* address "the goalie problem" as Bryzgalov still has eight years on his deal. $500K is not enough, IMO, to make the deal worthwhile.

Four out of five threads surveyed are about the goalie problem. In terms of trading for Dustin Brown, what on Earth does "the goalie problem" have to do with it? There are only two realistic ways out of "the goalie problem" - Bryzgalov is bought out or plays to the level we all expect. Both mean we have to wait for the end of the season. The third option of "another fool GM decides to make the Flyers' life easier" simply doesn't exist in any real sense. The Flyers have no reason to pick up Bernier with Bryzgalov signed longterm and Bob under contract for next season, so including him in any trade isn't among the likely things to happen. If one wants to talk about "the goalie problem" then talk about it in one of the threads about "the goalie problem" - there's no need to bring it up in the discussion as to whether we want to trade our "disappointing" forward for their "disappointing" forward as if no one on the planet - or, indeed, the huge universe - was considering it. @brelic only for the phrase "Agreed" (lol)

I'm just looking at the glass half full. Of whiskey, granted. But half full nonetheless. When Bryz gets hot in the playoffs and lea... cough, cough, ack, erp... ahem... couldn't even finish typing it.

Good point. They've only scored the most goals in the league (197) and have the highest GFA (3.24). Who knows what could happen if this team's offense wasn't "squashed" by a goalie.

the whole "team policy" angle, to me, is a bunch of horsebleep. Buffalo didn't re-sign Briere and Drury during the season due to "team policy" and both walked without a second thought. How's that good for a franchise (not because of what Drury or Briere did with the teams they went to but because of the effect it had on the Sabres)? The ONE advantage teams have with a UFA is the ability to deal with the UFA during the season. And then they have a "team policy" that takes that ability away? That's just nuts. The deadline hype in this league is ridiculous and, IMO, a creation of the media. They need something to obsess over. When was the last time a true deadline deal made the difference? (I am sure there are examples, but I haven't Googled for it). Too often it destroys team chemistry (as Quincey is saying). A team like Detroit? No one is sitting around obsessing about "what's going to happen to me??" but on a bubble team they certainly are. And that's team policy.

I've been clear in saying that Bryz played a part in the defeat. He was the goalie. They scored twice. There was a bad goal. For me, he wasn't the primary reason they lost. I don't even think he was the secondary reason they lost. Once we get into tertiaries I have flashbacks to people talking about Primeau's "third assists". Does the bad second goal have the potential to "deflate" a team? Yes. Does a season of questionable goals possibly lead to a team questioning everything they do? Yes. Now, my question: Does that excuse a team going down 2-0 against the 29th ranked team in the league with more than half the game to play and still not scoring one blessed goal? I'll go with "no" - your mileage may vary. If a team is so deflated by a bad goal that they fold up the tents and skulk away against the 29th ranked team in the league when they went into the game as one of the top point-getters in the league and talking about how important two wins in a row was to them, then they're not probably going to amount to much anyway.

So you're saying 1.95/.919 just isn't good enough to beat the Jets, Isles and Oilers? What else would you have liked him to do? Take away the second goal last night? Fine. Now you're at 1.62/.932. And the Flyers STILL just score 1.67 goals per game and scored ZERO against Dubnyk and the 29th ranked team in the league. He lost a SHUTOUT, for Pete's sake. The Flyers couldn't score for 65 minutes plus two shootout rounds. I hate the contract, I hate the play, I hate watching Bryz still on his knees on one side of the goal when play has gotten back to the other side, I hate the softee between the legs, I hate the goal off the glove, I hate watching Bryzgalov stare up at the ceiling with a red glare on the back of his neck. I hope they buy him out or he decides to go back to Russia. I think they're idiots for making the deal and I have little confidence in those SAME PEOPLE to make the right choice next time... None of that means I'm not willing to look at a game in which the Flyers scored zero goals and correctly identify that the goalie's play was anything but the deciding factor in the loss.

In no way do I think he's worth the contract or the hype. But his deficiencies get magnified and his successes get diminished.

Goalie is, for me, the most important position on the ice. The only person who can stop you from losing a game. But in the last two games we've had a game they won in which Bryz "didn't play well enough" and then a game in which they didn't score in which it's "Bryz, Bryz, Bryz" And Bob, who's 4-6, 3.62, .822 since January 1 is "the new #1" while Bryz (7-4-3, 2.46, .913 over the same stretch) "isn't good enough." This isn't directed specifically at you, but at a fanbase (of which I am a card carrying member) that ALWAYS likes the backup better than the guy who's playing. We have people calling for LEIGHTON, for Pete's Sake! *Should* Bryz's play be good enough to beat the Islanders, Jets and Oilers? Yes. And, you know what? It has been.

I've watched more Kings games recently than probably before (I added Brown to the ol' FHL squad so I'm no hater lol) and I've tried to keep an eye on him and just haven't been wowed. It could be a "change of scenery helps" situation? That top line in LA has just never really gotten untracked.

LA still owes us the future considerations from the Roenick deal. Done. Seriously, though, I don't see the point in Brown. And I wouldn't give up JVR for him straight up. Having watched some Kings, I just think his effort sometimes makes JVR look determined.

So, the only moves that might still be made involve players with No Trade and No Movement clauses? Thanks for clearing that up for us...

When you think about it... does this make him the Chris Therien of his day?

I like a great deal of this, but as my previous post showed, there are your own lying eyes to worry about. "Not a single game" - well, he opened the season with a 2-1 win over Boston and shutout the Devils. At the end of October there were three stright wins over Carolina, Buffalo and Columbus with the tight 3-2 win over Buffalo and blowouts over the other two masking that he didn't give up more than two goals a game. A six-game win streak in December including a tough 5-4 win over the Sabres that was the only game in the stretch where he gave up more than two masked again by he offensive juggernaut that never scored less than three goals a game and had five in three of them. The 37-save 3-2 win in Ottawa we might forget about for the 6-4 loss at home that followed it. Did Bryz help "win" any of those games or did the offense just blow them out? Even now he's 3-2-1 against the Division despite being 2.28/.909. He's 2-0, 0.40/.983 against the Devils. Yes, the Rags and Pens numbers are a cause for concern. Who does have good numbers against the Rags? Quite frankly, looking at the splits suprised the hell out of me. My main point, to address @canoli valid and "likeable" post I got while writing this, is *not* at all to absolve Bryzgalov or whitewash his "effect" on the lockerroom or on the ice. The point is that the focus on one guy - the goalie - can lead to a myopic fixation on that being the problem when, as noted above, it's a team game and the team wins or loses as a team.

Bryz is 2.23/.915 in 7 starts and 8 appearances in February. True story. His record is 3-2-1 over that stretch. In one of the losses and the OTL loss the Flyers scored a total of zero goals. In the shootout he made no saves and the Flyers scored... no goals. He's been giving up a bad goal a game, yes. There were two bad goals in Winnipeg, yes. The Pittsburgh game was a travesty, yes. But, one might argue 2.23/.915 is enough to "steal" a few wins against the dregs of the league like Edmonton, Winnipeg and the Islanders (1-1-1). Well, Bryz put up 1.95/.919 combined against those three teams. True story. The Flyers scored 1.67 GPG. The one they won they scored five goals and Bryz gave up four. And they won. The two they didn't score any? They lost.