caluso

it's funny but i was thinking that this team has some of the dumbest group of d-men i have seen in a long time. really! schenn, coburn, mez have such low hockey IQ's that if the wonderlic test existed in hockey, they would put up frank gore - like numbers.

i am not grumpy, just realistic. it's the same garbage every year. like colorado al posted, the effort simply isn't there and, like it or not, brayden schenn is one of those players who takes way too many shifts off. to say schenn is a top 6 forward "because he is," is nuts. let's face it, schenn didn't earn that spot - he was gifted a top 6 spot because Gomer gave up a lot to acquire him. schenn doesn't play like a top 6 forward and his stats show, that on any other team, he would be no better than a third liner. schenn is on pace to score 49 points in 82 games. mediocre, at best, and certainly not top 6 numbers! schenn was given every opportunity to prove himself and has failed time and time and time again to do so. as for couturier, i really like his moxie, but his skating is so poor that i wonder how high his ceiling really is?

you should be sorry to break it to us that schenn is a top 6 forward. only on this team would that be possible. and, what are you basing your assessment of schenn on? his play off the ice? he disappears for weeks on end even though he is playing with 2 guys who create tons of space out there for him. you say he should play with "a jagr type or a briere type". he did - and that didn't turn out so well for him. i know schenn's young but he doesn't work hard enough out there, and effort has nothing to do with experience. as for Couturier, he has an active stick and tries hard, but his skating is very, very poor.

The young kids are a huge part of the problem. Gomer has a lot invested in B Schenn and Couturier and both have been wildly inconsistent. I don't think either will ever be a top 6 forward.

i agree with you, in 5 years it will look like highway robbery. i love the way simmonds plays the game - he should be our captain. having said that, it's been so long since we won a cup ...

good thing i dodnt bank on it

the players he has to work with are terrible. l schenn, meszaros would be healthy scratches on most teams. i cringe when i see them out there. streit is overrated. another bad signing by Gomer. coburn, wildly inconsistent. that leaves timo, who is showing is age, and grossmann. can you say that we have a good d-corps? heck, can you say that the corps is close to average?

Mason has really shown me something. He stole tonight's game! The way he has rebounded after a few subpar outings says a lot about his makeup. We might actually have our goalie of the future....

I agree. real gutsy effort by a lot of guys - not named Meszaros and L Schenn.

i couldn't agree more.

exactly. they don't know how to win. and if fans on this board want to say how great they look while they are losing, they are missing the point. this is a wins and losses business.

CORRECT! and, if you are able to understand what you read, i never talked about the first 50 minutes because i don't care. what difference does it make? you actually care about how they look while they LOSE??????? SERIOUSLY???????????? maybe you don't know this, but you don't get style points. i repeat: you don't get style points. and while you and aziz are talking about great they played, everybody associated with the team, is saying what a dreadful loss this was....

who is ranting? who denied that the flyers played well FOR 50 MINUTES? all i said was that bad luck was not why they lost. they lost because they stopped playing. good teams find a way to win, bad teams find a way to lose. period. but then again, you repeated MY argument when YOU wrote: " ... definitely well enough to win if they had continued attacking the last 10 minutes instead of sitting back on their heels.... aziz blamed the loss on bad luck, i blamed it on bad play. w

your logic is hysterical. really. thank you for making me laugh. kids run, kids fall. kids get hurt. if kids run with scissors, they could get really hurt. your point? my logic is less convoluted: if you spend less time in your own zone there is less chance of a goal being scored against you. simple! you want a platitude that i agree with: good teams make their own luck. by the way, mason and the flyers got very very lucky on a deflection from the point late in the third. mason got a toe on it otherwise the game would have been tied sooner. so it wasn't that the flyers were simply victimized by bad luck.

So, bad luck cost them the game? That is a loser's lament, my friend! Clearly, your take on the game is different than everybody else - players, coaches and fans. After the game, EVERY player and coach talked about "sitting back." Once they went up by 3, they did not generate any offense (outside of voracek having a great chance) and spent most of the time trying to clear their own zone. Whatever you want to say, however you want to put it, the reality is this: the more time spent running around in your own zone, the higher the likelihood of a goal agaInst. Even you must be able to see that. According to the Hockeybuzz, the Flyers have a winning percentage of only .862 over the last two years when leading after two periods. It is clear that this team has no idea how to close out games. Bad luck didn't cost them the game, bad play did.

i am not implying anything. it's very black and white: total points, not moral victories, determines who gets in and who doesn't. but, you knew that. well, maybe you didn't...but benefit of the doubt and all. and while they did look good for long stretches, this might be their worst loss of the year. 4-1 lead with 10 minutes to go, i do not care who you are, you have to win the game. in my opinion it's not good enough to look good - you have to achieve results because that's what you are judged by. hopefully, you can see that.

no, a loss is a loss is a loss. i love your ability to think in an "abstract" manner but i have a simple question for you: how do they determine who gets into the playoffs? use your abstract thinking skills and explain that to me....

they blew a 3 goal lead in the third period of a game they easily should have won. things might have been fine at one point in the game, but who cares. you are what your record says you are - not how you "look" losing. it is clear to me that the team needs to be gutted. it is also clear to me that Gomer needs to not be in charge of the rebuild. lastly, i think chief's precepts about how to play the game are right - he just needs better players. faster, tougher...

he is the team's second line center who has been invisible. and this, after he returned to his "natural" position. how is he not dragging the team down? however you look at it, he certainly isn't helping the team.

has anybody seen brayden schenn? and, if you find him, tell him to tell his brother that its bad form to keep deflecting pucks past his own goalie. man, these guys suck.

i hate to agree with you, but you are right. it's time to start holding all of them accountable: giroux, voracek, hartnell are all continually guilty of truly horribly, lazy stupid plays - time and time again. oh, wait, that's our first line......

i agree this is the worst flyers team in many years. and i agree that gomer is largely responsible for this mess. having said that, how can you blame Berube. he has done a terrific job despite this miscast collection of idiots. seriously, this is a DUMB team, led, appropriately by their captain. then there's hartnell, voracek, read, streit, rinaldo, hartnell (yes, again)....all with low hockey iq's. not to mention that they are not talented. gomer has seriously overvalued certain players: giroux, hartnell, schenn x 2, voracek. the team is not talented or smart enough to have continued success - but dont blame the Chief.

i agree with you, howie, the team lacks a consistent, 60 minute effort. their forecheck is sporadic, at best, and they lose so many little battles that i really believe they need a heart transplant. simmonds is the only guy i see busting his ass on every shift. giroux and voracek (one of my favorite players) should be ashamed of themselves for the number of shifts they take off. and, while i applaud the chief for instilling defensive principles, those said principles mean nothing if the team doesn't work hard ALL THE TIME. the tampa loss was really alarming because the flyers looked inept breaking out of their own zone and couldn't handle tampa's forechecking pressure - simply because they lost all of the battles along the boards. i am not exaggerating - they lost all of them. it's not rocket science here. the team that battles hardest usually wins and yet time and time again, the flyers get outworked. i really love what the chief is doing but i really think this team needs to get grittier and tougher. the third line of couturier, downie and read is by far our best unit because they have the guts to battle for the puck EVERY SHIFT (and i have been one of couturier's biggest bashers). sadly, the same cannot be said of giroux, hartnell, voracek, and b schenn. the next time giroux forgets to backcheck, he should be benched; i think that would send a message to the rest of the team.

let's see about mason...