King Knut

It's not that they're not winning by enough to suit me, it's that I think the lack of a 3C is forcing 2 of the top 3 lines to underachieve. I hope what you say happens. Frankly, I think he might be able to come up in the spring and be a real curveball for the stretch run and playoffs. I wish Laughton hadn't gotten hurt and I wish Patrick wasn't dealing with these Migraine issues. I really wish a lot of things. The team went from having too many centers to not enough pretty quickly. What's happening now is only acceptable because they're winning and I'm concerned about how much of the responsibility for that is falling on Lindblom Coots and TK. We can tell the others to step it up as much as we want, and Giroux's line is at least looking better. So that's something.

I mean, it was never going to work out with Hakstol. It wasn't a bad idea to try it I guess. Hextall knew he was going to be leaning on a coach to make men of a bunch of boys and Hakstol had a good record of doing that. But that neglects the fact that he was also doubling down on some already men who he was going to be putting in a tough spot for the prime of their careers. I think the experiment proved what it needed to a year and a half before anyone took action. Before Homer lost his mind in 2012 he did a lot of really good things and jumping on Laviolette when he became available was one of them. I still believe that firing Laviolette was more for Laviolette's sake than for the Flyers' sakes and I think it was a gentleman's understanding between coach and GM that lead to it. Hextall was already in the process of being groomed to take over for Homer himself. Anyway... I thin AV is a good choice. He actually is an NHL minded coach, not just a hockey or hockey player minded coach. He doesn't seem to carry or even acknowledge any of the baggage at play. He sees the players he has doing what they're doing. He doesn't even seem to gage the level of frustration or anticipation of the fans. He's in this to win a cup for himself. I think we'll see more of a connection with the players and the fans develop over the course of a season. It doesn't seem like Fletcher's going to give him Frost any time soon and now that Morin is out of the picture completely He's kinda stuck with the players he's got (at least he will be once Laughton returns). Hopefully Laughton's return can either shake loose an actual 3C or be that 3C himself. Lindy Coots Teeks Giroux Hayes Farabee JVR Laughts Jake Raffl Misha Pitlick that works for me for now hopefully they start seeing what they need to from Frost soon and maybe we can see him in 2020. To me that leaves the biggest weak spot being Braun and Hagg. And I don't know what to do about that because I don't see anyone trading a good 4D anytime soon. Maybe come deadline time if the Devils are completely out of it, you might be able to bring in a Vatanen as his UFA year is coming... but I'm not terribly interested in giving the Devils anything helpful.

He leads the team. It's not even close really. He got manhandled and still managed to score a goal. I'm not saying you don't have a point. And I'm not saying he couldn't do with more time. I'm saying that 3C is a very big question on this team right now that's causing more problems than are currently evident because they're still managing to win games. Frost may not be as complete an answer to that question as he could be in March or this time next year, but he's the only answer to a very important question that the team doesn't seem to be asking. Laughton will be back soon. Maybe that'll help. I don't know. I do know that the team could be playing better than they are and scoring more than they are right now and 3C is the most apparent reason why they're not.

There isn't a single team in the league who can afford Ghost and Jake. Honestly, The idea of trading either one of them before bringing up Frost and benching Braun is short sighted insanity to me.

Sanheim is going. He's even staying on his feet. That's all he really needed to do differently. He doesn't need to be scoring to be helping the team win and when he stays on his skates, he does just that. He did some fantastic stuff last night... just didn't result in a point. I don't think Ghost gets shopped around. At most, I think he just won't be protected in the Seattle draft. What? you say, Give him up for nothing?!?! What are they going to get for him that they need? The thing this team needs most is a 3C and they have one crushing it in LHV and they're just refusing to bring him up. Alternatively, they could have claimed Spezza off waivers for a mere 700k which also could have fixed the problem. I'd consider sending him to the west coast for a decent enough draft pick, but I wouldn't necessarily think we're getting a first for him. In the meantime, with Morin done for the year again, what are they going to do? replace him with Hagg? The larger issue IMHO is his usual partner (and someone who could theoretically be replaced with Hagg), Braun. Seems like he's always the one on the ice and the one directly missing a clear or coverage when a back breaking or game tying goal gets scored. I'd like to see Braun sit for a few games. Maybe platoon with Hagg more. Braun's 32, which isn't old by any stretch but when they have 4 games in 6 nights and he's struggling in the first 2, maybe he doesn't need to play BOTH the back to back games? They're winning, so it's hard to complain too much, but they're just barely winning (albeit against VERY good teams that are -or at least were- above them in the standings).

Jake got an assist on JVR's PP goal last night and he and Hayes' corsi numbers were through the roof last night. Long story short is that if they can just do that and keep the puck in the other end, then they're doing their jobs to help the team win. It would be nice to see a few more pucks poke through once in a while, but neither player is terribly off his normal scoring pace. As much as it may frustrate fans, and as boring as it ends up being for the hockey card stats, Hayes and Voracek mostly do their jobs to help the team win. Their Corsi's were atrocious agains the Canes though... but really so were everyone's The canes dominated the shots in that game, Ghost was the only on above 50%. We don't disagree about the system. The problem is that Ghost is an X factor player. Or at least he should be. They've been trying to get him to commit and buy into the system, but there are situations when your system has to allow for opportunity when it presents itself. When the puck bounces out to Giroux coming on for a change and he has a breakaway, you gotta let him take it. Ghost should be a player who can see those opportunities and take advantage of them with his skates and his stick when he sees them. It shouldn't be a normal part of his game, but when they need a goal and he sees a seam, he should absolutely have the ability to take it and know that his team mates will compensate for him doing so. This is the kind of thing that they develop into now, see happen once or twice a week, make some mistakes on, get burned once in a while so that they can pull it out when playoff time goes from push to shove. He's a tool in their box, they need to keep him and them sharp for when they really need it. All that said, taking Ghost off PP1 isn't helping him or PP1.

Preach. Lindros too (or have the protection Clarke got for that matter). That said... let's get him a cup or two and remove all doubt.

I am merely providing context as evidence that my hatred of them is EARNED and not remotely a partisan irrationality. It's like hating a politician for their policies and toxic character, not their party affiliation. They deserve every ounce of my ire.

I never had a problem with the Penguins until Kasparitus tried to kill Lindros. I even supported them when Mario, Rex, Tocchet and Borrasso won those cups. Things changed when Mario got sick. Even when he came back, the league seemed to really want to help them. The debacle of the way the league cheated it's own rules to keep them in Pittsburgh and eventually get them Crosby (and 4 other top 5 picks in a row) makes everything since then illegitimate in my view. The way they played in the '08 and '09 playoffs and what they were not only allowed to get away with, but were seemingly encouraged to get away with was an embarrassment to the league that echoed through other teams for years to come and I think the NHL has yet to reckon with that. It's mostly gone from the league now, but it still rears its head occasionally. Malkin is the sleaziest player in the NHL and Crosby will forever be the guy who sucker punched another player in the stones from behind as far as I'm concerned. Orpik may be gone, but I'd have some words for him too. By my own admission they played more cleanly and respectably for their recent runs, but the damage is done and the franchise will forever be shamed in my estimation. I can only hope they'll start sucking again soon so their miserable fans (2nd most vile home crowd I've encountered) can once again abandon them and the league can finally move on and put them in a new city. But that's not likely to happen any time soon.

Hayes has been trailing off in recent games. I think he could help balance things if he centered a line with JVR and Jake (which would be the most beautifully overpaid line in the NHl most likely), but that would leave Frost for the Giroux and Farabee line (I'm only thinking of things in terms of Frost being up and G being a LW again). I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but I'm not sure it's a good thing... I think it's a thing worth trying though. Ghost and Voracek will respond fine. It's going to be a process. They're going to get notes and things to work on and they're going to get better, then worse, then better than worse and better again. One of the things you're seeing now is both of them kind of chilling out and focusing on their defense a bit. Ghost in particular needs to not be paired with Braun. Braun isn't very good at this point but doesn't offer any offensive upside either. They're the weakest pairing for a reason. The other two pairings have been okay... or at least when Sanheim doesn't fall over they're okay. Fletcher should never have picked up Braun. And at the very least, AV should not be playing him every night. I said this two years ago, and I'm saying it again now... you want Ghost to be good? You gotta let Ghost be ghost. sacrificing what he does well in favor of marginally improving his D will not help any team. compensating for his defensive holes while he does what he does well will do this and that wasn't something Hakstol was interested in or couldn't accommodate with the talent he had. AV is doing it on paper, pairing him with a guy like Braun, but frankly, I think Braun should be out of the lineup. Someone with size who can take up space and cut down lates, who can skate and play well in his own end is who should be paired with Ghost so to my eyes, that's Myers or Morin. Hagg in a pinch, but the size and skating of the other two helps a bit more. I'm just not sure Ghost remembers how to do what came so naturally before at this point.

He's on pace for a 23g, 65 point season with a Corsi for of 56.4%. ...and I for one assume that will actually improve between now and the end of the season. There are 4 Flyers with a better Corsi and one Flyer with a higher point total (which means there are 19 Flyers with lower point totals and lower corsis). Jake's essentially having a similar year to Lindblom (who is also -2) but who also has a slightly better Corsi with similar minutes per night. That said, there are 4 Flyers on pace for a 65 point season plus TK who is on pace for I think 84. 3 players are on pace for 20+ goals in addition to TK and Lindblom who are on pace for 40+. I happen to think (based on past years) that Coots, G's and Jakes point totals are likely to surpass the paces they're each currently on, but even if they just hold steady, and the season ends with 5 Flyers scoring at least 65 points and 20+goals each, are you really going to sit here and tell us the offense was the problem? If the Flyers aren't remotely in the playoff hunt by the deadline and Fletch can find a taker, then yes. I agree. Trade him, but trade him because it's complete and utter rebuild time, not because Jake's not pulling his weight. Trade a lot of people at that point if you can. But in the meantime, they have 5 out of 6 points since the clunkers last week and he's far from the biggest disappointment on this offense, let alone this team. JVR and Hayes are producing much worse in most aspects of the game than Jake is so far and they make nearly as much. At the very least the $1million dollar difference between their salaries and Jake's doesn't nearly make up for how much less they're producing right now. To me, they and their contracts are much MUCH bigger mill stones around this team's neck. But even WITH them under producing, this team's offense is putting up numbers and controlling the flow of a lot of games.

In ten years, we'll see what history says. I remain convinced, for better or worse, when the hockey world talks about the best Flyers... they'll say Lindros could have been the best, Clarke was the best and Giroux was the 2nd best overall. Hopefully they say it because he took them all the way at least once. Hopefully at that point Farabee and Frost will also be in the discussion for what people will be saying in the next ten years (dare I dream)

Yeah, this also goes back to my point about how they're not just young, but for all of them, (and you can add in Ghost too) they only have half a season of NHL games played NOT under an NCAA coach masquerading as an NHL "mind".

He's won one. that's it though. That's not good enough, but again... that's why I wrote the rest of my post. He's third in games played, he's 2nd in assists, he's 10th in goals and he's 4th in points. He'll likely be 2nd in points if he finishes out his contract. We may not like it, but history will almost assuredly remember him as the 2nd best flyers forward. I'm not trying to defend him or celebrate him. I know what I think about him and I'm not certain he should be captain myself. Regardless of his own play and the B.S. his GM's and coaches have put him through (HE'S NOT A CENTER!!!!!) he doesn't have that thing that a team like this needs from it's captain where he inspires guys to go out and play their butts off from the opening puck drop. Is that his fault or is that something you can't just conjure up? I'm not sure. I don't care. He doesn't inspire the rest of the team to be better than they are. He silently tries to set an example by himself. Not sure that's going to cut it. Problem is Coots is pretty similar (I guess I tore my MCL), Jake is a clown, Hayes vanishes for games on end and the entire defense is still trying to figure out how to iron it's game into shape. So who should be the captain? Just saying... Justin Williams is technically available and I assume waiting until January to accept an offer.

Once again (because both myself and reality are gluttons for punishment who don't know when to quit) Voracek's salary is league standard for his production. If he were a UFA right now, he might get more. There is nothing wrong with Voracek's salary vs. his production. If you condemn his salary or his production, you're just making yourself look silly. You can go ahead and claim that he's lazy or needs to shoot more or only scores when they're up or down by a lot already or whatever the flavor of the week whiny crap is, but the reality is, he produced at a high level for his position and players who make more than him do worse and players who make less than him do better. He's really just at an acceptable salary. Kevin Hayes? Not so much. JVR? He was at an okay salary until this year. we'll see if he warms up and heats up. Coots? He's a steal. Simmer was highway robbery. NOW that that's out of the way, if we want to talk about the wisdom of keeping him vs. trading him for first round picks and doing a harder reboot of the team, I'm all ears. In hindsight, I think it may have been the way to go. Hextall did well in the draft each of his years here, but when I think of how well he'd have done if he'd had even more first round picks... it starts to seem like the hard rebuild would have been the way to go. Especially with the talent we see coming out of the first round in the last 6 years. NOW that said (as with all my perpetual complaints about Homer) has to be taken in the context of an aging dying Ed Snider... a factor which apparently influenced EVERYTHING happening behind the scenes with this team from 2010 onward. I know people claim he wasn't sick yet when Homer lost his mind in 2012 and blew up everything (but oh yes, let's please talk some more about how it's too soon to say LA won the Richards trade). But desperation was clearly screwing with people's minds.

While I appreciate your vigor in defending Giroux, I will point out that Hextall's dilemma upon taking over (and he admitted as much) was that the contracts and cap hits that Holmgren had burdened the team with made it so he literally could not surround Giroux with better players. It took some wizardry just to get it so he could ice an NHL team in the early running. Hextall did however screw Giroux by saddling him with a bad NHL coach in Hakstol. The team could have been a playoff team the last two years at least and should have won the Penguins series two summers ago. Goaltending was a major problem (again, something I really find it difficult to blame on Hextall for necessary reasons no one ever likes to talk about) but they were simply very poorly coached and for that I will blame Hextall. Two seasons of Hakstol was an acceptable experiment, but it was clear at that point it wasn't going to work out. There's nothing wrong with Giroux as a player. He's going to go down as the Flyers 2nd best forward ever. If they can manage to win a cup before he retires, he's a HoF lock. He got saddled with Holmgren's mistakes for the meaty part of his career and for him that's a crying shame. But for us, it's left the team just good enough for us to think maybe they could succeed. Thing is, they actually are good now. They're a very talented bunch. But guys like Provo, Ghost, TK, Patrick, Laughton, Hagg... remember. They've never played NHL hockey for NOT HAKSTOL before. Which means they've never been coached by an NHL coach before. They've been coached by an NCAA coach their entire professional careers and for Provo, TK and Patrick, that's their entire professional careers. At least some of them got some time in the AHL under Gordon. AV, Therrien and Yeo have a lot of brainwashing to undo. It ain't gonna happen overnight. That said... they need to get Giroux off center. Period.

There's not benefit of the doubt going on as far as I'm concerned. They're playing much better. If you look at more than just the record, in terms of some actual concrete numbers (faceoffs, shots, PK, corsi, expected goals) they're literally playing these games better (with the exception of three absolute clunkers). I don't disagree with anyone's assessment of anything or where they'll end up. I can hope the defense gets it's act together. I will say that after the islanders game, they started having some more intense position and player specific practice sessions. All I guess I am saying is that Giroux really needs to be back on LW, I'm glad he's playing the left side on PP1 and if it hadn't been for Sanheim pooping the bed a few times, Saturday would have looked pretty good. As it was, he scored the tying goal to make up for one of his ill timed bowel movements. I'm not saying I have faith in them or am giving them any benefit of the doubt. Just that I don't have reason to condemn them just yet. The Penguins game was pretty damn close though.

I mean, yeah. Absolutely. If they don't show a lot more by the end of the year, then something definitely needs to happen. But they put Jake and G on the right sides of the PP and they scored two PP goals. Sanheim was ridiculously bad on 2 1/2 of the three goals (can't blame him on the third, but he was out there, so at that point it's just a jinx factor). If it's not for that, the handily defeat the Maple Leafs on the back end of a back to back. Giroux and Jake are not going to play like Prime Legion of Doom without a center. That much is obvious now. At least Therien's sorted them out the PP and I just hope he sticks with it. PP2 on the other hand... yikes. When Laughton comes back, they can have Coots or Hayes. I just happen to think in the intervening month, it makes sense to be playing Frost rather than forcing your top line to not be as strong as it should be. You're taking away your best weapons and putting the blame on them if they can't overcome it. Seems like you're shooting yourself in the middle toe and blaming the other toes for your foot not working right. Yes. Giroux's the big toe, but damn... it still hurts. Right now, they're hanging in at just above .500. That's not good enough even remotely, but if they can stay above .500 while they sort out the kinks, then at least they're not trying to drag themselves out of the grave yard like in recent years. . All the divisional leaders are likely to cool off to be sure. But Tampa, Toronto, the Penguins and even the Devils aren't going to be out of the hunt all season. The silver lining as far as I can see is that the defense is better than they're showing, the question is why are they showing what they are. The offensive upside is that lindblom, coots and tk have been carrying things and there are pretty simple and obvious things that can help the top line. To me, JVR is the odd man out. If I could trade him, I would. I also don't think it's entirely his fault. Hextall brought him in because he was the 2nd best player available that off season and the best player (Tavares) was only ever signing in TO. Hextall had cap space for the first off season since he took over, the organization wanted him to spend it, the fans wanted him to spend it, the team wanted him to spend it and specifically lobbied for JVR. The only problem is that they didn't have an obvious hole for JVR skills to fill. This year, with Simmonds gone they actually could have at least a PP net front slot for him to fill, but with the emergence of Lindblom & Farabee to go along with G, Jake & TK, there just isn't a puck hammering top 6 spot. That's not the game they're going to play and his skillset doesn't jibe with the other 3rd line players.

#sanheimdown is awesome and must now be a thing until it isn't. I think this should be a mantle passed down from Flyer to Flyer. There must always be a #flyerdown!

I’m in agreement especially with the last sentiment. I guess my point is, imagine how bad THE problem is if your 2nd leading scorer-who is playing on a line without a center, and on his off wing on the PP-is the one getting singled out.

Look, it's early but Jakes on pace for a 67 point season at this point...and he's clearly not playing as well as he can. He's historically been a .83PPG player for the Flyers and averages 69 points per season since coming to Philly and he's scored 80+ (or the equivalent in a strike shortened year) 3 times. Is it more ridiculous to give a guy who does that 8.25 million per year or to give a guy who's never topped 55points 7.14 million? If he's playing poorly, continue to cut his minutes or bench him to try to wake him up. Right now, Jake's second on the team in scoring. It's a little silly to say he's the problem. G? One might be getting warmer there, but I for one think they need to gethim the hell off center. Also... on the PP (on which they're once again not scoring) Jake and G are STILL playing on the wrong sides. I don't disagree with the suggestion that they have a complacency problem, but the PP isn't working at all and they have no center between them. I think it's disingenuous for AV or anyone else to be a **** about it when he's not giving them the obvious tools to succeed yet. Until he does, AV can share the blame with the two of them as far as I'm concerned.

I just wish they'd bring up Frost. If Patrick is out indefinitely (and he is, let's face it) there's no reason to continue forcing Giroux to play center... especially when it's not working. Calling them out is fine... but give them a center at the same time.

A) It can't be done. He has a NMC. He might wave for some teams, but I'm guessing the only teams that he would waive for that can afford him are the Avalanche and the Canadiens and they both probably need that cap space to sign upcoming RFAs. B) The exact timeline you're talking about is the timeline that some of us who have been paying attention have been knowing would be a complete disaster for the Flyers because of everything that Homer did. C) The man isn't a center. Let's stop making him pretend to be one. He played increasingly poorly at that position and only rebounded when put on the wing. Let's LEARN from that and not put him at 1C again. He's NOT GOING TO GET BETTER AT IT AT 31 years old. D) If you weren't having an absolute break down over this team's off ice actions in 2012-2013 and were wondering why others were, the ensuing 5 years was why. We knew exactly what was coming. We knew the team literally couldn't be good for at least 5 years. In hindsight, perhaps a full rebuild wherein they traded Jake and Simmonds for picks just after they came to town would have been best. But then there would have been at least 2-3 years of not middling hockey and first round exits, but absolute basement dwelling bottom feeding and the organization decided it could not weather that. The merits of that outlook are a philosophical debate for another post. Hextall did his damndest and rebuilt the team while not crashing (if not maintaining flight exactly). Fletcher has acted similarly, clearly trying to complete the vision Hextal set out for the personnel on the ice. Essentially in 2013 when they canned Laviolette (which I believe was done for Laviolette, so he could go get a good job someplace and not for the team... and I'd guess it may have been done at his request), the writing was on the wall. This team needed to rebuild, but because of Homer's contracts, literally couldn't do a hard restart for at least 5 years, so they did a soft one... one built on rebuilding the prospect pool that would take a LOOOOOOONG time to see come to fruition and which could be destroyed at any moment by a foolish signing. Was JVR a foolish signing? Did Hextall give in too soon to the pressures from Comcast and the fan base (and apparently his own players) to "make a splash" the minute he finally had some cap space? Maybe he did. I was never convinced. But the fact remains that JVR was the 2nd best UFA available that summer... and Hextall DID try for the best UFA (Tavares). Did Fletcher make a mistake in bringing in Hayes? (or at least for the dollars Hayes commands now?) I had my doubts... at least in terms of the contract anyway. The long and short is that the team has been doomed since about the time you're talking about. IMHO they have actually been doomed since the Richards and Carter trades / Bryzgalov signing / JVR for LUKE friggin Schenn summer. But others will debate me on that. They'd be silly. That was a bunch of stupid ass moves by Homer that resulted in two cups for the Kings and the better part of a decade of crappy hockey for the Flyers. Anyway, the long and short is that Giroux can't be moved. The question is in my mind whether he has too long been the best player on a bad team and has no sense of urgency. There's no pay check for him to earn. There's been no realistic hope of success for so long and internally, there have openly been no real expectations of success until last year. Does he remember how to play that way? To suggest he's unskilled is a fallacy, so to my mind, it's time to pass the torch in terms of the motivational heart of this team. TK, Farabee, Frost, Lindblom. These guys don't know that they can't win. They haven't been beaten down by 7 years of zero expectation hockey. They should have been better last year and they weren't, I believe because of Hakstol and the sort of motivational issues of which you speak. They HAVE been better this year. They've shown utter domination. So what happened the last two games? That's the question. and CAN AV and his most experienced coaching staff in the NHL figure it out in time to save the season? That's the REAL question.

I can't wait!

I used to ride my mountain bike up and down some pretty crazy stuff 20 years ago. Might take me a ride or to not to fall on my teeth if I tried it tonight. All i"m saying.