King Knut

You really have to get over Bob at some point here.

Why on earth would they ink Kimmo to another year to ostesnsibly retire here and then trade him at the deadline?

I can agree with your assessment of the defense being the major problem. But only because there have been so many injuries. Quite frankly, Timmo, Coby, Mezo, Grossman and Schenn ARE nhl caliber D men and they should be enough to make this team successful even if one of them has to share minutes with Gus or Walker or Gervais. I'm also wondering if this is why Lavvy doesn't seem all too concerned about winning and losing right now, which quite frankly is the thing that upsets me the most about him at the moment. He doesn't seem to give a **** that they're blowing the season. The fact that he doesn't seem to give a **** (combined with the fact that he just bought Simon Gagne's old house) suggests to me that Lavvy knows he's not on the hot seat. Holmgren and Snider may have told him at the start of the season, "Look, we're giving you a **** D because the weber thing didn't work out. We're not going to hold you accountable for this season. Do what you can. See what you can instill in the young guys and we'll work on it next year when we can buy out Bryzgalov or Briere and have a little more money to play with." This seems like the most likely scenario to me. To be honest, Holmgren doesn't seem to worried about how much they're sucking right now either. If he was concerned he'd be all over the press, having closed door meetings, taking questions but no prisoners. He's done that before. I think they may have known going in that this season was probably going to be a wash because the Defense was simply not up to par. The reason the D was not up to par is two fold: Ilya Bryzgalov and the Weber deal. I like the way Ilya's played so far this year (I may be the only one here, but I do) but his salary is simply too high for what we're getting from him and it's handcuffed the team. If the goalie cost less, they could have kept Carle. The Weber move was just idiotic. Homer didn't know what the result of the new CBA would be, but he knew one would be coming. Why go all in on an RFA at the cost of a solid D man (or two if you signed someone else in addition to keeping Carle). That said, we can say homer should have signed Carle all we want, but the real question remains as much as we could use Carle now, is he really worth 6 million per for the next 6 years? I still say that this off season you trade for a goalie, see if you can sign a D man and then look into trading for Bouwmeester -if Calgary can swallow some of his salary under the new CBA as suggested. J.Bo has not panned out to be a 7 million dollar D man, but I'd pay 4 or 5 to have him replace Gustafson or Matt Walker.

At this point I'm beginning to accept the theory that Clarke and Homer are both just beholden to the whims of snider. The Bryzgalov thing was the most public of Snider meddling and I have to assume at this point that it's been that way all along. Maybe that's why he only hires people with a history in the franchise... so they feel beholden to him and can't seem to tell him, "No. That's not how to build a team Ed."

Timo is a problem as much as he is an asset anymore. The main reason to keep him around is to hope he can teach L.Schenn how to be a good defenseman in this league. Of course I thought he'd done that for Coburn, but Coby looks lost like a babe in the woods half the time at this point too. We can blame it on being an unformed inexperienced and young team all we want, but even the vets look lost and confused out there. That's what concerns me. Lavy's the kind of guy you really want to like who seems like he should be a great coach. Right now he doesn't even seem concerned that they suck as badly as they do. And boy... they really suck badly right now.

I don't want it to be Peter, but these problems of lethargy and not getting up for big games and perhaps most importantly, having no solution for a shut down defense have been consistent throughout Peter's time in Philly. We blamed it on Richards and Carter, now who do we blame it on? The only players you can possibly blame it on are guys we used to see playing awesome and being up when nothing else was going right. Maybe they can have a miracle turn around like the year we made it to the finals, but it's not looking likely. This team is lost in the woods right now. Unless something changes soon, expect to see Briere gone, Bryz bought out and no matter what they do with those two, Homer HAS and I mean DEFINITELY HAS to sign or trade for something major on Defense for next season. This can't keep going like this. It's pathetic. I never thought I'd see another Flyers team that missed the playoffs twice in 5 years. That's not allowed in Philly.

Congrats to Carter. He was #3 and now has 17 goals.

I couldn't disagree more. If the rest of the team was playing like an NHL team, they'd be at the top of the division. I can point to 2 losses all season that I could even remotely hang on Bryz. We've had bad goalies that have made the rest of the team bad and Bryzgalov is not that. He coughs up rebounds, but they aren't as dangerous as many and what's more, he's usually in a decent position to make the next save. Sure, you'd love to have a guy who doesn't give up rebounds, but there just aren't that many of them. Trust me... a half decent & healthy defense and a bit more experience at forward and this team is at the top of the division with this goalie. He's not good enough to get the team there without those things, but he's just not bad enough to be the reason they're in the position they're in. The Flyers got to the cup finals on mediocre goaltending. They lost in the cup finals because Leighton and Boucher were both hurt and the rest of the team couldn't compensate enough to make up for that and still score enough goals to win. You put this version of Bryzgalov in net for that Flyers team and I have no qualms suggesting things go differently. He's a good goalie. He's not a great goalie. He's a complete head case who you can tell has a mental state hanging by a thread, but he's played well this year. I'm sorry, but you start to sound pretty silly when you blame the curent state of affairs on him.

...probably because there wasn't a hit. If you call a guy for a hit that never happened, then I think you deserve an earful... ...From the coach or a player with a "C" or an "A" on his shirt. That said, ten for Rinaldo for complaining about a hit that never happened is excessive. The problem is if you give him 2, then it's a double minor... so there is no "lesser" punishment really. They should have a 2 or 5 minute misconduct for being an idiot. We can call it the "Don't be a Carcillo" rule. Your team isn't short handed for that time, but you still have to sit.

I don't know why players do this. It's insane. Soooooo many dangerous "boarding" hits have come from the player getting hit turning in to face the boards at the last second. Sure he draws a penalty, but half the time he gets a concussion. The Simmonds hit on Ines yesterday is a perfect example. Somehow they didn't get fooled by it and knew it was essentially just a routine check that turned into a dangerous play because the Sabre getting hit made a really really bad choice. It's been this way for a few years now. You can penalize a guy for not letting up if you want to, but you can't give him extra misconduct minutes or a suspension when his "victim" makes the play 1000 times more dangerous with a stupid stupid stupid decision like turning into the boards.

Gotta keep Timmo too. Much as he's been screwing up (game winning goal in penguins game was all Timmo) They still need him to hold crap together back there. Outside of Coburn, what's left outside of Kimmo is very very unsure at the moment. Maybe this time next year they'll be stronger, but right now they still don't know how to play defense. The problem is of course that Timmo knows how, he's just not really on top of his game enough to execute it.

So for whatever else we may want to say about them, it truly seems now that Richards and Carter weren't the motivation problem. Seems like the whiz kids have the same slacker mentality on the ice. Okay that's harsh, but they seem to have the same trouble staying "up" for 60 minutes very similarly to the way the team did two seasons ago. Losing streaks at inopportune times. They seem to get down on themselves. They seem to stay down on themselves. When do we stop blaming the likes of Giroux and Hartnell for not being awesome enough? When does it become a larger issue? I don't know how we're not all blaming the coach after having seen the same style of play develop over two and a half drastic roster shifts. I don't want it to be the coach. I want to think Lavvy's awesome. But I don't get much of a sense of urgency from him in his post game comments anymore. He doesn't really seem to give a **** lately. What I will say is that the team is either super young or super old. Jake is playing great, but he's been around a little while and maybe finally getting over his (three year) sophomore slump. But the Schenns (who have each showed moments of brilliance and each... well not) Couturier, Read (injury exemption if you ask me) and others just aren't quite relaxed yet. Giroux is once again trying to figure out how to deal with being automaticall double teamed and the rest of the team is maybe just a little too old or hurt to play the way we need. Or Do we blame Homer? The defense isn't good. It's not really an NHL defense. Too many injuries don't help things, but it wasn't solid coming in and I think we all knew that was the major flaw in Homer's off season. We lost Carle and we all know Pronger's done and nothing much was done to secure those holes except for Schenn who is probably another year away from being terribly reliable. Does Lavvy just know the team is too young and incomplete to expect much from? Are they sensing that and just not expecting much from themselves? Does everyone (including Homer) just not really give a crap about this season? What gives?

You're nuts. Bob wasn't a promising young goalie. He was a younger Roman Cechmanek with better personal hygiene. He needed A LOT of work to be a capable NHL goaltender. Two years later and there is absolutely NOTHING about him that says that this team is any worse off with Bryzgalov than if they'd been playing Bob all year. You can look to the past and blame Bryz all you want, but no capable hockey mind would look at this team, this year and the games they've won vs. the games they've lost and say, "Bryz is the problem." Looking into the future with his salary and the cap, I can see thinking ahead and wanting to go in a different direction and I'd support that. But if you look at the three losses last week or even the win last night and say that Bryz is the reason they lose or Byrz is the reason last night got close, then you're just fooling yourself and I don't know why. Bryz is fine. he's saved their asses a few times. Long term, his numbers and his age create a problem, but the TEAM (and probably their age) is the problem and the reason they're 2 below .500 again.

Y'all must have only been watching the past week. Dude's been carrying the team on his back. They were only ever at .500 because of him. And as much as I would have liked to have seen better from him this past week (especially in Pittsburgh) they didn't lose those games because of him. They STUNK! They team played horrible uninspired hockey against decent teams that decided to show up. That said, I'm not in love with the guy or his salary. I like Bernier and some others around the league (Reimer's backup in TO looks good too - up until a week and a half ago that is) That's all beside the point though. The point is: Get rid of Bryz, dont' get rid of him, it won't make a difference. He's not this team's problem right now and I think you all know that.

If the team looked better than they do and like they were a single player from being over the top, I'd go for him. He could fill the roll that Jagr did last year. The fact that he's not productive means nothing to me becuase the Flames are terrible. But we're more than just a scoring winger away from a cup. Maybe he's the "Jagr" type signing this off season to help the team in leadership and experience and what not and punch in some goals here and there. Give those covering the Giroux line something else to worry about? He could be that guy, but right now, like AlbertaFlyer said, we need a defenseman (anyone who thinks goalie is a problem had better be looking a few years into the future because overall, I think Bryz has been pretty awesome -give or take a period here or there- and I wouldn't hang most of our losses on him at all, which is a huge difference from last year). Right now, Calagary's gotta be in rebuild mode. I'd rather take a crack at J Bo (with the caveat of CBA approved salary swallow) but I don't think that can happen until the off season... anyone know? We need size on defense. J Bo hasn't panned out to be the next Pronger, so for 4.5 million or so I'd take him to be something in between Pronger and Carle.

We do need a big Defenseman... but even a kid like that, it's going to take him a few years to get up to NHL speed. The Flames or the Panthers will get him and Homer can get a crack at him in 4 years when he's an RFA... or Homer will just make it so that he stays where he is against his will for his entire career. One or the other.

This team will not win if both of these guys don't show up. The D is too weak to start, and now it's really banged up. We need these guys playing 22+ quality (almost perfect) minutes every night to succeed.

Wow, you're really good at eluding the point. There really is no point in trying to talk to you, you really have a bee in your bonnet about this and you're refusing to read what I'm writing so I'm going to nip this in the bud and say good day.

Every team does it but I'm sorry, it's not a systematic institution at every team. It's not part of every team's overall strategy. If the Devils get a lead, they switch to shut down mode and they're really tough to beat because shut down neutral zone hockey is their strength. That's simply what they do. It's how they win. If the Penguins fall behind, they manufacture penalties against the other team by creating high sticks and hooks out of thin air and they score on the power play because the power play is their strength. That's simply what they do. It's how they win. I'll say this, at least both those teams found something that works for them. Something that plays to their strengths. Not many teams in the league are able to do that (i.e. win the same way year in and year out) with such consistency.

If that's the point, it's pretty baseless. Briere is a smart player and a veteran in this league... Now think about it... If Briere noticed he was getting called for stuff that he wouldn't have been called for before, isn't it reasonable to expect that he'd either: A) stop doing that stuff as much B) keep doing it, but be more careful and sneaky about it? The alternative that you're suggesting (i.e. Just keep doing everything exactly the same as he always had without changing a damn thing about his game) seems to be the least logical choice from a player like Briere. We're not talking about a player like Dan Carcillo who doesn't seem to be able to control his actions at all or a player like Syd Crosby who doesn't think he should have to. We're talking about Daniel Briere, who has completely changed the way he's approached the game multiple times in his career.

That stuff is totally different than what I'm talking about. Those are two instances of gross embellishment. BUT they're also both instances in which Carcillo (who is no longer a Flyer the last time I checked) had actually been penalized. In both cases I think the correct call was made as he was legitimately cross checked, but the high stick (while technically illegal) was really a no harm no foul type situation. I don't mean embelishing existing penalties to get a call, I mean manufacturing non existent penalties to get a call. That's what pretty much the ENTIRE penguins team does (not one Dan Carcillo) but mostly everyone on the team does systematically -it almost universally starts when they realize they're falling behind in a game that they're not winning by simply "playing hockey". I've been watching them do it since this coach of theirs took over. Before him it was mostly just Crosby being a whiney cheap little brat. After Bylsma took over it became an institution.

Yeah... far and away more than he ever accumulated as a Flyer... far and away outpacing what he did as a Flyer... by a single whole minor penalty. Someone alert the media.

I don't think you review everything. They're always going to miss calls. You just review stuff that resulted in penalties that maybe shoudln't have. The Penguins took two trips to the Cup Finals and one where they won the sucker using tactics like that and it makes me want to wretch. You can say what you want about the bullies, but at they usually tried to skirt around the rules or did stuff hoping no one saw them, or in most cases didn't even care ywho saw them, they just used brutality to their advantage, they rarely used rules designed to protect players as a pawn to give themselves an advantage. You can tell the practice these techniques of manipulating the refs. When their team's down, some coaches tell them, "You gotta work harder, take no shifts off, finish your checks, and execute, beat them to loose pucks, etc!" But you can tell Bylsma tells his team when they're down, "Okay, we can't win this one fair and square, start cheating so we can get power plays." And I'm seriously not okay with that. The other one the penguins do that is my absolute rage inducing favorite is the holding of a defender's stick to make it look like he's hooking you. There's no good way to police that crap, not even with replay like we're talking about.

While we're on the subject of High sticking, this is a recent pet pieve of mine. The pEnguins are geniuses at drawing these. I hate it. It makes me sick. They lift sticks like you say and it should be soOOOOOO obvious to anyone in a replay booth. What's been annoying me more recently as well is players bending over and getting "high sticked" by a stick that is still below waist level. How the HELL is that allowed to happen? There need to be replays reviews of high sticks IMHO and in fact probably any major or double minor penalty. The penguins and some other teams have really started to use drawing these as a tactic like other teams practice left wing lock systems. it needs to be stopped. the rules are there to protect players, not to be exploited in order to get your team power plays late in tight games.

It's best not to look for any of either because when you do, you start to see Flyers being punished more severely than players on other teams. Think about Harry's trouble last week. I actually am starting to wonder if the 4 games is a result of them not being able to suspend him for the "phantom knee" offense. Not as petty as that sounds though. I mean to suggest maybe the league thinks that what Harry did was pretty bad and dangerous, but because it technically wasn't illegal they knew they had to apologize and couldn't punish him for it even though they would have liked to have sent that message about such dangerous plays. Maybe that's pushing it. Either way, that "incident" or lack thereof certainly affected the way they look at him now... and that's bias and that's not right, but it's part of humanity and it's part of the NHL.