trevluk Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 From what I have seen there is not a team in the league that can touch them. After their Stanley Cup hangover, they are an astonsihing 17-1-2. Wow. I know it's early, but if they stay healthy, anything less than a repeat championship is an underachievemnt for this team. Give the Flyers another year or two, and they could be in the driver seat but right now I think I'll be happy with a decent playoff appearance and conitinue to build for a Cup in 2014? Coming up on 40 years since their last championship. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aziz Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 From what I have seen there is not a team in the league that can touch them. After their Stanley Cup hangover, they are an astonsihing 17-1-2. Wow. I know it's early, but if they stay healthy, anything less than a repeat championship is an underachievemnt for this team.imo, it is 95% thomas. the guy has been every bit of godlike for the last season and a half. if he stays healthy and can keep his game up, i agree with you, the repeat is theirs. if he gets hurt or looses his way at all, all bets are off. 1-18, frankly, i'm not that super impressed with their roster. it's that 19th slot that puts them way over the top. 1.67gaa/.949sv% and 4 shutouts over the last 14 games. that's insane. the islanders would be cup favorites with that kind of goaltending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanflyer Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 imo, it is 95% thomas. the guy has been every bit of godlike for the last season and a half. if he stays healthy and can keep his game up, i agree with you, the repeat is theirs. if he gets hurt or looses his way at all, all bets are off. 1-18, frankly, i'm not that super impressed with their roster.I know you are a big stats guy. There is one that stands out to me: goal differential. Boston is an astounding +47 after 31 games. They are heading towards Oiler SC type numbers in that regard. The fact that they score 1.5 more goals per game than they allow on average, yet only have 20 wins, tells me they are streaky offensively. They will have big games like against the flyers and then die off and rely on Thomas to save their bacon. My point being is that I agree with you- if Thomas is not there, they are a beatable team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trevluk Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 Good point Aziz, I probably did not put enough emphasis on the weight that Thomas brings to their success, but I think you may be discounting their full roster somewhat. It is a very balanced team with a deep combination of skill, grit and toughness. I think the Flyers have more skill (when everyone is healthy) but I don't think we match as well with their grit and toughness. Our only player that I would describe as "miserable to play against" is out for the season. The Bruins have a few players that I would put in that category, led by but not limited to Chara and Lucic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aziz Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 but I think you may be discounting their full roster somewhat. It is a very balanced team with a deep combination of skill, grit and toughness.you are right. they are very well balanced and each player has bought into an extremely strong team concept. i don't mean to knock them that much. they don't have any game breakers, though, or the kind of offensive firepower that you generally figure is needed to keep up when your goaltending isn't, well, unnaturally good. minus thomas, they are still a team to be respected, but it's thomas that puts them over the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted December 18, 2011 Share Posted December 18, 2011 you are right. they are very well balanced and each player has bought into an extremely strong team concept. i don't mean to knock them that much. they don't have any game breakers, though, or the kind of offensive firepower that you generally figure is needed to keep up when your goaltending isn't, well, unnaturally good. minus thomas, they are still a team to be respected, but it's thomas that puts them over the top. They may not have any game breakers, but they've scored the 2nd most goals in the NHL. They have a 19 year old (who could be playing in the WJs for Canada still) who's averaging a ppg. He may not be termed "gamebreaker" today, but tomorrow he sure will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindbergh31 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 you are right. they are very well balanced and each player has bought into an extremely strong team concept. i don't mean to knock them that much. they don't have any game breakers, though, or the kind of offensive firepower that you generally figure is needed to keep up when your goaltending isn't, well, unnaturally good. minus thomas, they are still a team to be respected, but it's thomas that puts them over the top.I agree with Aziz when it comes to Thomas, he seems to be playing at another level and the Boston players can play their game with the confidence if they do screw up that Thomas will be there to bail them out. But you can't forget the difference Chara makes to the team also, when he was out of the lineup the Bruins struggled. The kind of remind me of the Oilers when Gretzky and the boys had Fuhr covering their backs, same goes with Bruins with Thomas. Holmgren has to consider getting another veteran defenseman to help with the loss of Pronger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanflyer Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 The kind of remind me of the Oilers when Gretzky and the boys had Fuhr covering their backs, same goes with Bruins with Thomas. Holmgren has to consider getting another veteran defenseman to help with the loss of Pronger.Interesting thought on the Oilers. I know you said "kind of remind me" so I will let you off the hook. Your point being that Thomas saves the bacon ala Fuhr. The difference to me is that the Oilers were built for full court press and should a mistake happen, Fuhr was there to save. To me, the Bruins success is much more the result of the goaltending than anything else. If you remove Thomas from the Bruins- where are they? If you remove Fuhr from the Oilers where are they? Don't forget I know you said "kind of remind me". Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aziz Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 If you remove Fuhr from the Oilers where are they?remove fuhr from the oilers and they would have been just fine. fuhr was terrible. one of the best examples of hype in the history of the league. the year he won the vezina, he had the 19th best sv% among goalies with 20 or more starts (.881) and the 15th best gaa (3.34). he had a massive number of wins because the team in front of him scored 4.5 goals every night. if anything, the moral of the fuhr story is that a team that can score enough goals doesn't have to worry who is in net. i.e., get giroux back and keep the title of most goals-for in the league and the flyers won't have to worry about bryzgalov. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 @aziz While I agree that Fuhr was overrated, I think if we go into the playoffs with the 67th best goalie in the league we'll play about 5 games. A team like Boston will tighten up the D come postseason, and they'll still get their goals. We'll be fighting tooth and nail to score, just to have Bryz let in his patented softie time after time. Maybe we could beat a team like Washington that plays no D. But either Bryzgalov starts playing like a real NHL goalie or we'll have the most expensive backup in the history of sports signed for 9 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinorama Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 67th best goalie in the leagueman is that painful to read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aziz Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 we go into the playoffs with the 67th best goalie in the league we'll play about 5 games.wait, i glossed over this the first time i read it. 67th? he isn't *that* bad....i mean, 30th-ish still isn't good, but...where'd you get 67th? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 (edited) Someone posted that yesterday. Today I was looking up goalie stats and saw him ranked 30th in save percentage and 37th in GAA. Maybe they added the two. Now that I think about it, that would put him near the bottom of any goalies who've played yet. edit: it was in the "Bryzo waiver" thread, post #17 had him ranked 65th. Edited December 19, 2011 by flyercanuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaGreatGazoo Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 (edited) you are right. they are very well balanced and each player has bought into an extremely strong team concept. i don't mean to knock them that much. they don't have any game breakers, though, or the kind of offensive firepower that you generally figure is needed to keep up when your goaltending isn't, well, unnaturally good. minus thomas, they are still a team to be respected, but it's thomas that puts them over the top.Have to agree with you on this, bud. I remember last year telling a buddy..no way Boston wins it. They have no offense, they have no PP, etc. His only comeback.."yeah, but they have Thomas". And he was right. They are such a hard team to gauge, think about it, they had to win 3 game 7's last year..2 in OT. Granted they won them all, and I'm not trying to take anything away from that, or their Cup...but it's not like they are the 27 Yankees. You look at the lineup, and think..yeah..they can be beat. Then they go out, and play defense that smothers the other team like a fat chick on a chicken bone, and if they breakdown Timmy T slams the door. And Claude Julien STILL looks like Grimace, from the McDonalds' characters. No one will ever convince me otherwise. Edited December 19, 2011 by DaGreatGazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 They have a team of guys who play hard. I mean physical hard and relentless hard. I'll take that over talent any day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyerrod Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Man I hate being at work....was going to cut and paste pics of Grimace and Julien side by side....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanflyer Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 @azizI think that was what I was meaning regarding Fuhr. He did not have to do much- mostly make ordinary saves. Where as Thomas has to a ton and as he goes so goes the Bruins. On the Oilers, you put a Leighton in there and I think they still have a ton of success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyguys03 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 They are strong in all three major areas. Right now they are clearly the class of the NHL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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