Blog - Internet The Case Against A Trade

[mojo1917]

@SoCalFlyfan

Looks to me like there isn't a whole lot of room for exchanging ideas... you don't like the offesive style, i'm pretty sure most of us get that.

I'm also pretty sure Laviolette isn't suddenly going to install the jacques lemaires trap. he's got fast forwards with a fair amount of skill and thinks he can use that to make his "pfffft get the puck and keep it" style work and dictate the terms of the contest.

so pray Lavy get's hit by a bus or something ?

for the record i think if we suddenly start to play a more hiitchcockain system, we'll lose a lot of games 3 to 1 due to the way our goaltenders tend to lose their concentration, so if we're gonna lose anyway i'd rather have the game and style be exciting.

[SoCalFlyfan]

@mojo1917

-So what do we do ? You keep mentioning 'Lavi's style' like it's the only option he has as a coach. Shouldn't a coach be able to adjust his style a bit ? I watched the Rags like a hawk the last few games and did some scouting from the sofa. There is NEVER more than two guys down low in the offensive zone along the boards. They are playing a very sound 2-1-2 and it's working. The Flyers on the other hand sometimes have 4 guys down low battling for pucks and which means they have to haul *** to get back in position. I've even seen both defensemen down low with Couturier and Sestito back on defense for a brief moment. I watched games all across the league and NO ONE plays as loose as we do.

My point is instead of trading the farm away to try and fit Lavi's river hockey style, why not just change our style a little bit ? Is that asking too much ? If Tortorella can do with those stiffs on defense what's Lavi's excuse?

[Podein25]

I watched the Rags like a hawk the last few games and did some scouting from the sofa. There is NEVER more than two guys down low in the offensive zone along the boards

Inconceivable!

[mojo1917]

@SoCalFlyfan

5 on 5 i haven't seen a whole lot of things that the team has been doing poorly in all honesty, this past weekend we were undone by poor penalty killing, forwards running around chasing the puck and not staying disciplined and simply pressuring in the area they're responsible for... that we kill penalties with 2 rookie forwards on the top 2 pairings makes me think there's some learning to be done and i'll bet that's happening.... the other thing i keep thinking about is Laviolette won a Stanley Cup tournament with a mish mash of guys on the blue line, they were serviceable but aside from Wesley and Hedican who played his best ever that year they were just okay. some of that was having a hot goalie and luck but that team and our coach have their names engraved on a ring of that trophy.....i think we're seeing some growing pains , and i'd rather have these guys grow into an aggressive offensive threat ,have that speed and skill know what they're to be doing dictating the play instead of reacting to the other teams tempo.

i read the meltzer blog today and totally recommend it. he lays forth some good points as to why the team is struggling.

[canoli]

Thanks for the reminder about Meltzer's column Mo - an especially good one today. I recommend everyone who doesn't normally read him at least check this one out - it's well worth it.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?blogger_id=45

[RonJeremy]

Wide open system or not, the problem is when we are actually in the defensive zone, our defensemen suck. The coverage is horrible,they leave guys wide open, theres heavy traffic in front of the net ,they arent physical and they dont block shots. So its not that were getting burned on the rush so much as it is just breakdowns in the defensive zone. Its just poor fundamentals or just a lack of defensive skill.

The bottom line is we are gonna lose Carle to UFA, Pronger is done and, Timmo is old. so we need to find 3 defenseman via trade and FA. So that means someone like JVR will probably have to go, unless we somehow unload some of our older big contract guys like Briere and Timmo, and pick up some good young dmen.

[Flyguys03]

Serious contender, maybe not. I don't think they're going to win a Cup this year and I didn't think so before the season started either. But they're a playoff team and have been closer to the top of the conference than the bottom.

Who cares about the regular season? They don't play crap teams like the islanders in the POs. With this defense and goaltending, they are most like one and done.