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Looking at Zac Rinaldo


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 Undersized to be a tough guy, underskilled to be anything but a tough guy, low hockey IQ, easily baited into selfish penalties. He shows the lack of depth in the organization. I'm sure he is a great guy, just not sure he is an NHL forward.

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  I realize the guy is replaceable....but without Zac, the team is Simmonds away from having no backbone....so ok...replace Zac, find a better option, but please make the replacement just as tough and dangerous has one of his hits can be. I fear a team with no backbone....I don't want or need goons, but the thought of the Flyers being pushed around makes me ill.

 

Yeah, Zac doesn't seem to have much of a role on the Flyers, let alone the NHL. He's a fringe NHLer that can fill in in a pinch, and even then, only if there are really no other good options. Ryan White is a MUCH better option. ANd even guys like PEB and VV offer much more - they're lacking in sandpaper, true, but they contribute to the team in other ways. 

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He is put out there for one reason and one reason only, drawing penalties on the other team. When he's playing under control, he's one of the reasons the Flyers finished 10th in the league with 3.12 power plays a game, but hey, who doesn't want to see this team 5 on 5 after last season's display? :thumbsu:  :ph34r:  He sets the tone with big hits and ticks off opposing players and puts them in the box. Someone like that is needed on the team, and if it's not him, then they need to give Ryan White

 

or Bellemare more ice time.  The problem with putting Bellemare out there for that is that I want his decent skill set on the ice. 

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He is put out there for one reason and one reason only, drawing penalties on the other team.

 

Which is great, but he's just not very good at that reason...

 


Zac Rinaldo was an ineffective agitator. By taking 2.1 Pens/60 compared to drawing 1.3 Pens/60, as shown in the Behind the Net graph, Rinaldo was a net loss in penalty differential for the Flyers. Because of that, he put the Flyers on the PK more often than not. As such, he failed in his role as an agitator. The penalties may have even been reputation based, but that doesn’t matter. If Rinaldo has a target on his back from the referees, he’s going to take PIMs for existing, and the fact is, regardless of whether or not they’re deserved, the Flyers can’t have that target dragging them down.

 

Agreed that there is a role for this kind of player. I'm just not so sure that Zac Rinaldo is a fit for that role.

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not really, considering he's been in the league longer 

 

i could care less about how long you are in the league.   production is where you should be judged for payment.   Bellemare is a much better player....  I guess VLCs tenure in the league supports his contract too...

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i could care less about how long you are in the league.   production is where you should be judged for payment.   Bellemare is a much better player....  I guess VLCs tenure in the league supports his contract too...

 

Sadly, it does. Players are rewarded for past performance. A study on that would be eye opening, I'm sure - production pre big contract vs. post big contract. I betcha it's poor ROI in a majority of the cases.

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he did play on the PK those few times... maybe that was it!? :thumbsu:

 

There was a brief period of time that I liked him. I thought he played his role well. It seems that time has passed :)

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I get that... I was never a fan of him.   Todays game is skill and speed... intimidation and fighting are long gone.   IMO, he serves no purpose in the NHL on a daily basis...  he has some speed but no skill.  and frankly I dont think the guy intimidates anyone...

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Besides White there are other Flyers with backbone- Voracek made it pretty clear this season that he's not going to take any crap. Raffl is another guy who will stand up for himself. And those guys are out there for regular shifts, not just 8 minutes a night. And they don't make a habit of putting the team short handed. And next season there will also be Gudas. In the not too distant future, Morin. And maybe the Flyers draft Crouse, that's plenty of toughness.

 

Nice post bre...I had forgot about Gudas.....who will add PLENTY of backbone...and who knows, Morin might be with the team next year....if not we are one year away from his toughness. Besides Raffl and Vorachek....G plays a tough game for a little guy, he will not take crap either, but when guys like G and V are in the box to send a message, the Flyers lose that one....

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It's sad that Luke Schenn is not even mentioned when toughness is the discussion.

 

Brayden is a tough kid too. And for that matter, Couturier has shown a bit of a nasty side too. Honestly, I don't think the Flyers lack toughness. I think they could use some more size up front, so that they can be the ones doing the pushing in the first place.

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Brayden is a tough kid too. And for that matter, Couturier has shown a bit of a nasty side too. Honestly, I don't think the Flyers lack toughness. I think they could use some more size up front, so that they can be the ones doing the pushing in the first place.

Fair enough but to a man they need to play with more "jam"

I know, I know.

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Fair enough but to a man they need to play with more "jam"

I know, I know.

 

I prefer preserves myself...

 

511DNBD1N0L._SY300_.jpg

 

PS: Bet you can't say "prefer preserves" five times really fast without the word "pervert" sneaking in there somewhere.

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I prefer preserves myself...

511DNBD1N0L._SY300_.jpg

PS: Bet you can't say "prefer preserves" five times really fast without the word "pervert" sneaking in there somewhere.

I like a fine marmalade myself. I recently procured one that is made with Scotch. Yum.

OK here goes: Podein prefers perverts. Hey wait a sec...

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It's sad that Luke Schenn is not even mentioned when toughness is the discussion.

 

 

 Funny, I was just thinking today, after all the debate about the Flyers losing the JVR/LSchenn deal, I think it's clear the Flyers have now won. Luke is in the last year of his deal, making him a very tradeable commodity....and just like that WHAM....Luke the Fluke is gone and his salary can be put towards a real player. Toronto, on the other hand, is cursed.....will probably be married to JVR and his soulless brand of hockey for the next 7 years or so. The Leafs are so thin on the wing scoring wise, not only will JVR be retained, he will get a nice long deal for a lot of money.....THEN the real JVR will shine through...he will complete the whole cycle and become total and complete crap. Every time the Leafs need JVR, he will wilt under the pressure.....so yeah....Flyers win this trade by pure default.

 

 When Toronto started losing steady from mid December to Early Feb, effectively knocking the once 2nd place in the East to 4th worse in the league. During this span, JVR had one...COUNT'EM....ONE goal...what a turd this guy is.

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Genereal Manager Ron Hextall extends Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo for two more years, sealing him up before he becomes a free agent and is a great signing at 850k per year until 2017:

 

Don Luce, the Flyers director of player development, knows Rinaldo has his upside, but also comes with risks. 

“The pluses are that he still has the passion to play physically,” Luce said. “He’s a good skater. He has good skill and quickness, so that gives him a chance to play in the NHL.

“The minuses are that he’s undisciplined to a degree, which has to improve. And he knows that. He’s got to be a more effective player. I think he has to control his emotions better.”

Rinaldo believes his discipline will improve with age: “My weakness is going over my edge; getting penalties and getting suspended. But it’s all part of growing up.”

Though he is an avid fighter, Rinaldo stands just 5-foot-10 and is listed at 180 pounds – fairly small for a typical NHL enforcer. But it doesn’t bother him. 

“Yeah, I’m 5-foot-10,” he said. “But I play like I’m 6-foot-4, 260.”

For those who still don’t believe he has the skills to make it? Rinaldo has just two words: “Watch me.”

But he understands what it will take to make it to the big leagues. In fact, according to Rinaldo, it’s pretty simple what he must give: “Everything I got.

 

I noticed with White on his line Zac has picked up his offensive side of his game, and is the reason why I wrote down that White should be on his line because they can complement each other and pop in a few goals, I also believe he knows he can pick up his game to another level during the playoffs, he just has to stay the coarse and not go off the rails, but that's a maturity thing as he knows as well.

 

His skating is at an NHL level, if he continues his skill training in the offseason, he can develop the confidence to play at the level he shows during practice and drills, that he is more relaxed with the puck, therefor he can translate that to higher game time performance.

 

Zac is a piece of Flyers culture, I don't want to remove from our team, a throwback if only a style that I don't want to loose from the great era's of long ago.

Mike Richards had it and he made the games exciting, we had Pronger and it felt right when he was on the ice, Lappy was a feel good moment when he took the ice, Talbot made us believe a Pens player can be grafted to becoming a Flyer. Claude seems to have lost his way in that regard.

Simmer is cementing himself as that type of player.

 

We have a few potentials in our team, but when Zac lay'd out Volchenkov on his cheap shot on Schenn, that was worth a season ticket holders entry for the year.

 

 

 

His first goal in this video is the skill set that he can display, if he keeps up his summer mental and physical training regimen.

 

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  Some great highlights, WOW did Zac ever lay the beat down on a few of those opponents. Anyone know which Ranger was getting throttled by Rinaldo? Man, he laid a royal beating on him. Zac fights with a real anger that is quite refreshing. He throws punches like he's aiming for the face and trying for a wrap around through the face....lol. That was a real fun watch....a lot of bodies in Zac's wake. I LOVE the Volchenkov hit....in many ways, it was symbolic, much like Domi's sucker punch knock out of Ulf...Rinaldo was giving a dirty hit back to one of the all time cheap shot artists, Volchenkov. Poetic justice watching Zac obliterate him and everything he stands for....lol.

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The fact is we want to play a fast, skilled base game, but do not be forgetting this. Do not let it slip your mind.

You start acting stupid and we'll shut that sh1tt down real quick, that's all. Now Let's Play Hockey!

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