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toughbrotherlylove

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  1. toughbrotherlylove
    Just thought I would share this info that I just read from @HockeyyInsiderr on twitter:
    "#Flyers an Jagr have a VERBAL AGREEMENT in place. 1 year extension #DONE. Salary agreed upon, still discussing bonuses, announced next week."
    "MORE on #Flyers: Talks with #Preds for Suter seem to NOT be going well. Reason? From source close to Suter: He does NOT want to play in PHI!"
    "PRONGER update/ #Flyers trying to downplay it, but Prongers status is VERY BAD as of right now. Career in jeopardy. Long recovery road."
    "To offset this major problem, #Flyers trying HARD to land #1 d-man (Suter/Enstrom main targets); also AGREED to extension on Carle #OFFICIAL"
    "Carle and Jagr resignings should be announced sometime next week. #Flyers"
    Ok fans, what do you make of all this news?
    follow me on Twitter: @EbbonDerr
    Check my blog daily: www.toughbrotherlylove.squarespace.com
  2. toughbrotherlylove
    The last few weeks there have been articles relating of this topic. One was John Bourke’s on finding a veteran backup for Bryz. Another was Bill Meltzer’s on HockeyBuzz where he stated the Flyers should hold onto Bob because he has not been backup long enough to affirm he is not suited for that particular role. I am just going to answer this right away Bob should be traded. Now before the Bob supporters jump over me for saying this I have my reasons.
    Last offseason when the Flyers signed Bryzgalov to his $51 million contract, they made it clear to their players, fans and the NHL that he is going to be the goalie in Philly for the foreseeable future. Whether you like it or not it does not matter. If you ask me, who are we to funnel Bob into a backup role? The only thing we can do is support the team and trust that our GM knows what he is doing. With all that being said, why should we hold Bob back from what he could be? It would be doing a disservice to Bob and to the Flyers to keep him pinned on the bench and only starting roughly 20 games. Why not explore the options of trading Bob to a team that can utilize his skill set and get something in return for him? Plus in trading Bob and signing a less expensive more experienced backup, who accepts his role as a back up, will save some small but crucial cap space. Considering Philly always works towards the ceiling, it could be bennificial. I also understand with negotiations of the new CBA there could be talks in regards to bonus cushions and could reduce Bobs cap hit. Also rumors of Philly being involved in trying to acquire Vokoun (which I am glad they did not) also would have us believe Bob is on his way out at some point, possibly at the draft in a package deal to move up? Some notable goalies that would be available via UFA would be Clemmensen, although reports say Florida has offered a contract extension to him recently (previous cap hit $1.2), Mason (previous cap hit $1.85), and Biron (previous cap hit $875k) to name some.
    Another scenario Bill Meltzer brought up in his article on HockeyBuzz was the possibility of letting Niko Hovinen challenge Bob for a back up spot and then make a decision from there, on what to do with Bob. Personally I am not a fan of this for one reason. I believe it will hinder the development of Hovinen. When is the last time you saw the Flyers fully take their time and develop a goaltender? It happened to Bob also. I still believe Bob needed some seasoning and experience as a starter in the AHL to hone in on his skillset. If that was done I think Bob would have been a much better goalie than he is today. Hovinen had an excellent year over in Finland with the Pelicans, 41 games started 21 wins a 2.26 gaa, .921 sv% with 5 shutouts. He is a monster, being listed on some sites as 6”7. That big body allows him to cover a large portion of the net, he is very athletic, great technique and is said to have a great work ethic. He is primed to make the journey across the Atlantic and assume a hefty workload in the AHL next season. If the Flyers take their time and develop this kid properly, watch out. But that is a big IF.
    I understand Bob is a likeable guy, and by all means I am not saying he is a bad goalie, because he is not. His reaction time and side-to-side movement are unearthly. With that being said Bryz’s contract puts Bob out of the future plans with the Flyers and they would be wise to cash in on some of his value, whatever that may be.
    Follow me on twitter @EbbonDerr
    and check out my blog site www.toughbrotherlylove.squarespace.com
  3. toughbrotherlylove
    Wanted to start off by saying sorry for the long absence with posts. With summer being here and Flyers not playing, work and vacations posting is hard to come by.
    I decided to make this next post about, in my mind, the most impressive rookie in the orange and black this season, number 14 Sean Couturier. I admit when the Flyers decided to keep him up in the NHL after his allotted games were completed, I was a little nervous. Couturier showed amazing promise, especially with his time in the Q, but I was nervous for two main reasons. First reason was his role on the team. A kid with that much talent, I felt, should not be subject to a 4th line role seeing scarce minutes. Thus I thought it would have been better for his development to play one more season in the Q to refine his skill set and give him a proper workload. I did however understand that it would be a “man playing among boys” and probably would not be much of a challenge for Sean back in the Q. However on the reverse side, how I stated previously, it might be too big of a jump to play in the NHL and hinder his development with low minutes.
    I had the pleasure to watch Couturier in action when the Flyers prospects played the Capitals prospects down at the Wells Fargo Center. You could see his potential with every shift, but also could see there is a lot of work to be done in his development. I paid close attention to him throughout preseason and early on in the regular season, one of his glaring weaknesses was his strength. Watching highlights/games of him in the Q you could tell a big part of his game was protecting the puck while being hard to knock off the puck and then making plays from there. Only being 18 years old (at the time) I did not expect him to come in at the NHL and be a powerhouse on the puck but you could easily see his was not where he needed to be physically. Early on you could see Couturier getting bodied off the puck easily an unable to shield off defending players simply because of their maturity and strength compared to his.
    Whelp I had my foot shoved in my mouth by the end of the season. The amount of progress in this young players game was phenomenal. You could tell very much Couturier gained strength throughout the season and was more of an animal along the boards. Every time he ended a shift it always left me saying, “how is this kid doing all this at 19 years of age?” Now while Couturier did not put up flashy numbers or make crazy highlight reel plays, he still put up respectable numbers for a 19 year old (13G, 14A, and a +18) while also being the teams best defensive forward. Now I know Matt Read was crazy good this year as well (as a rookie), but the amount of improvement and poise that Sean Couturier had as the season progressed really impressed me, and is why he is in my mind the Flyers most impressive rookie. Also I have recognize his face offs. There were only 5 other rookie centers in the league with better face off percentage then Couturier and four of them took at least 400 less face offs. Couturier operated at 47% while attempting 804 face offs this season.
    Looking forward to the upcoming 2012-2013 season (hopefully), I would love to see Couturier move away from a strict defensive role and be more involved with the offense. We are talking about a kid who at age 17 and 18 put up back-to-back 96-point seasons in the Q. This kid can be an offensive beast, and he will be in the NHL at some point. I truly believe throughout the offseason Couturier will work his rear end off to become stronger and faster. He is too much of a smart, respectable and modest player not to. As far as I am concerned after Giroux, Couturier is the next name on the “Do not touch list” (meaning trade). The Flyers would be doing Sean, the team and the city of Philadelphia a disservice if they did not tap into the offensive potential of this kid.
    Other notes:
    Keep voting for Giroux to put him on the cover of NHL13, 24 hours left for voting! Lets get a Flyer on the cover!
    Follow me on twitter: @EbbonDerr
    And as always check into my blog site: www.toughbrotherlylove.squarespace.com
  4. toughbrotherlylove
    Last off-season the Flyers brought in Ilya Bryzgalov to solve the dreaded goaltending issue that has been one well, for about as long as I can remember. When news broke that the Flyers acquired Bryz’s rights and then finally signed him, I will admit, I was pretty excited. I agree with most people that his contract length is too long, but if Bryz plays to his full capability, the cap hit of $5.6 million is very reasonable, and I will certainly see the glass as half full rather than half empty.
    Moving onto the actual season. Bryz started fine beating the defending champs 2-1 making many big saves. Then he continued his strong play in game 2 of the season against the Devils, bringing the first shutout to Philadelphia in a very long time. After these strong games, Bryz started to slip a little, and then a little more until it snowballed and he ended up finishing his first month as a Flyer badly.
    Bryz then rebounded in the month of November going 5-2, with a little over a 2.00 GAA and a .918 save percentage, pretty respectable numbers that regained the confidence of the Flyers Faithful.
    Then December came upon us, HBO’s 24/7 started up and the hype for the winter classic bolstered into a frenzy, and we saw the worse Bryz we would ever see. Putting up numbers (30 goals in 10 games and an abismal .878 save percentage) that would have any fan base question, “why did we sign this guy?” It seemed after his horrible play that month, the fans took a turn for the worse on him.
    In actuality after the month of December Bryz started to improve month after month.
    In January he posted a 2.75 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
    In February he posted a .909 save percentage and only let in 21 goals in 8 games.
    In March, well I do not have to tell any Flyers fan about Bryz’s month of March, it was absolutely phenomenal.
    Bryz faced a lot of scrutiny over his first season here in the Orange and Black. Fans and media were never happy with anything he ever did (generalizing of course, I realize there are some that are excluded from the majority). Bryz recently came out in an interview and made some questionable remarks saying he would not wish on his enemies what he went through this season.
    I still am a Bryz supporter and maintain, now that he has a full season under his belt with the Flyers and knows what its like to be in a city that has intense passion for the sport he will be better next year(Mentioned this a few days ago on my blog site “Season over..” post). No HBO 24/7 and hopefully with less scrutiny from the fans and media, this guy will be able to focus on stopping pucks at the level we all have seen from him.
    I understand as fans we have the right to speak our minds freely, complain and rejoice on all different sorts of occurrences. But does Mr. Universe have a point? I mean also as fans we want our players to be the best they can be, and if us not getting on Bryz’s case makes him his best, shouldn’t we refrain from it?
    Follow me on twitter @EbbonDerr
  5. toughbrotherlylove
    At first glance of the title people probably think I am losing my mind, but there is a method to my madness. For the whole year I have been saying one thing about the Flyers, this team lacks the correct makeup. While they are surely on the correct path on building this team to be solid there is still work to be done in my mind.
    In one of my semesters in college we learned about sports psychology and what the make up of a team is all about. While I do believe the Flyers improved their team bond and comradery amongst each other I still believe team cohesion is not quite there and could be absent because of their scoring depth. To make team cohesion fully blossom each individual needs to know their own identity and their roles to the team (example- Giroux has to put points up for the team, Couturier- used as a defensive specialist).
    If we look at teams that won the Stanley Cup from the last 4 years, Detroit 07-08, Pitt 08-09, Chicago 09-10, and most recently Boston 10-11 they each had an identity to their team. They had their top 6 players who would put up their points and their bottom 6 players who knew they were role players and embraced that role for the good of the team. Here are some stats for theses teams during the regular season:
    Detroit 07-08: had 6 forwards reach the 40 or more point mark.
    Pitt 08-09: had only 4 forwards reach 40 or more point mark
    Chicago 09-10: had 6 forwards reach 40 or more point mark.
    Boston 10-11: had, the highest, at 7 forwards to reach 40 or more point mark.
    Flyers 11-12: had 7 forwards reach 40 or more point mark, and lets face it if JVR was healthy they would have had 8 forwards.
    Even the 5 teams still left in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, benefit from good team cohesion and identity. Their regular season stats were as follows:
    LA- 4 forwards with 40 or more points (5 if Carter would have been there the whole season)
    PHX- only had 3 forwards with 40 or more points
    NJ- 7 forwards with 40 or more points
    NYR- 4 forwards with 40 or more points
    WASH-5 forwards with 40 or more points
    To me those stats are saying you have your first and second lines contributing offensively and your third and fourth lines chipping in offensively sometimes but mainly out their for great energy and defensive reliability, along obviously with good team defense and goaltending. With all this in mind I think the Flyers need to set better expectations on who is going to be their go to guys and who are going to be their role guys and if guys like Read, JVR, Schenn are going to be bottom 6 players I think it would be in the teams interest to trade some of their offensive depth for defense along with some role players to help this team come together.
    So I'll ask the question to you, is too much scoring depth a bad thing? Does having players, like JVR who has potential 30 goal scoring ability, being stuck with bottom 6 minutes hurt the team more than help?
    Be sure to check in on my blog daily at: http://toughbrotherlylove.squarespace.com/
    Thanks for reading!
  6. toughbrotherlylove
    Obviously everyone knows that the Flyers major concern this offseason will be defensemen. Not only is Pronger’s health a huge concern, but also Timonen’s age. The Flyers already loss Pronger, in my mind, for the rest of his career and you could see Kimmo slipping a little bit down the stretch and in the playoffs this year. With these two staple defensemen basically done in the orange and black, it is up to Homer to right the ship on this position. He can start by going out and getting another big time d-man and also draft heavy at the position so we have a deep line of prospects there to develop.
    When I say get a big name defensemen everyone is going to turn to Weber or Suter, my opinion on this matter is, go Weber or go home. Weber is the type of defensemen Philly needs more than anything. He is 26 years old, big body at 6”4 230, and he is not afraid to use it with crushing hits or blocking shots. He has a ROCKET of a right-handed shot and to top it off he has leadership qualities that you look for to stabilize the back end. Homer needs to do whatever he can to get this guy, even though it could be a stretch, because Philly desperately needs him.
    The reason I say “go Weber or go home” and disregard Suter is because if the Flyers can sign Carle, for rumored less than market value because he wants to stay in Philly, then there is no reason to spend a lot more money on Suter when the two are comparable. Yes I said they are comparable. I have read tons of articles on this over the past months and it is true. Carle gets a bad rep from Philly fans because they watch him for 82 games of the season and the duration of the playoffs, but how many times do they watch Suter. I have heard people say Carle was only good before cause Pronger was on the opposite side of him. Well who is on the opposite side of Suter? What is Shea Weber, chop liver? Carle is a fairly reliable defensemen with good ability to get the puck going the other way. Yes I understand he has costly turnovers at times, but what defensemen doesn’t? I know for a fact Suter does because I have watched him. If the Flyers were to bring Suter in at $5-6+ mill cap hit, compared to Carle’s $4-4.5 mill, and see him make the same mistakes as Carle would for that much more, well I have a feeling all would not be well.
    I do understand to resign Carle and to go out and get Weber some how, cap would have to be relieved and that is where our offensive depth comes into play. Right now, according to Capgeek.com, we have a little over $3mill in cap space for next season. Homer said earlier he expects the cap to go up to $69 million, plus LTIR relief of Pronger when season comes around, would allow Flyers cap space/relief of $73.9 mill, which would increase the Flyers cap space to $12.7 mill for the 2012-2013 season. I also understand that the CBA expires and this new cap and LTIR rules are not necessarily set in stone. With that $12.7 mill say Flyers sign Weber (RFA) or trade for his rights, and if he makes same $7.5 cap hit, that brings them to $5.2 mill. Then if they chose to resign Carle at that point for $4.5(same as Coburn cap hit) that leaves them with 700k in cap space, and D parings of Weber-Carle, Coburn-Grossmann, Timonen-Mesz.
    Another scenario is sign Weber; you are left with the $5.2 mill cap hit. Then do a trade of JVR for L. Schenn, which would actually give the Flyers 650k worth of cap space back, bringing total cap space to $5.85 mill. With this money you can then resign Voracek (no matter what they should resign him), and other depth players via FA. D-parings would look like this Weber – Grossman, Couburn - Mesz, and L.Scheen –Timonen. Also I would like to see, in that JVR- Schenn trade, the Flyers try to pry Toronto’s 1st round pick away from them. If we can, then we would be able to draft WHL defensemen Ryan Murray, if he is available still, Morgan Rielly, or Mathew Dumba. All three would be a great start to building prospects in the defensive position.
    Follow me on twitter: @EbbonDerr
    and visit my blog site: www.toughbrotherlylove.squarespace.com
    thanks for reading
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