I'm leaning toward no trade

[Flyguys03]

They aren't winning a cup this year. Wait until the off season and make moves then to shore up the defense and have bryz taken out by the russian mafia.

[aziz]

But a great Dman is every bit as good as a great forward.

i dunno. a point per game forward is going to get you a point per game, regardless of what the team's other lines look like. a shutdown defenseman is going to shut things down for half the game....but there's another 30 minutes that he can't help with, and if your other pairs are weak, he isn't going make a ton of difference in the end.

my opinion, won't try to sell it beyond that.

[Flyerguy]

I only wanna see a trade if Weber is in it. Besides that no trade!

[radoran]

Pronger also pretty much carried Edmonton on his back when they reached the Finals

Dwayne (12-5, 2.37/.927) Roloson says "hello."

When he went down, Pronger managed to "carry" them to a loss with Conklin and Markkanen.

Roloson might not have gotten there without Pronger, but Pronger didn't get there without Roloson.

[JackStraw]

i can't speak to orr, because i wasn't around to see him

Without Orr Boston doesn't even dream of winning a Cup. He was every bit as responsible for Boston's two Cups back then as Thomas was last year. But Orr was special and as good as Weber is he's no Orr.

[orange_crush]

The way the young guys are playing on this team right now I'm leaning towards not making a trade unless you can get Weber from Nashville without giving up Couts.

I agree

[Bertmega]

It may be time to look at this from a different angle. We are going to have to gut this team to get Weber or Suter, so I think the best bet may be to draft and develop quality defenders.

For once I like having young assets that other teams want.

I know it's goes against the grain for the Flyers to actually take this approach, but given the cap constraints that this team has, it may be best to go this direction.

So for me no trades.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Bertmega

[Bakanekimiwa]

Boston wins zero cups since expansion without Orr and Chara. Detroit same thing without Lidstrom. Philly made the finals cause Pronger had one more great year left in him. Sure a defenceman doesn't do it on his own, but Weber would sure solidify our D. More than anyone would IMO.

i have to agree... we are one solid top 4 dman away from actually having a contender right now. we have a good mix of veterans and forwards(maybe weighted a bit on the green side)... we're getting more than enough scoring. we're good at 5-5 which is key come playoff time. what scares me is boston is insane on 5-5 this year. repeat in the works.

the one glaring weakness we have is on defense. defense wins championships. if we had had even a 'serviceable' 3rd D pairing in the 2010, i think we're looking back on that cup win. and that was with Leighton!

[terp]

the one glaring weakness we have is on defense. defense wins championships. if we had had even a 'serviceable' 3rd D pairing in the 2010, i think we're looking back on that cup win. and that was with Leighton!

He could change his mind, but at least today Homer doesn't sound like he's in a hurry:

Since they’ve lost captain Chris Pronger for the foreseeable future, the only real knock on the Flyers is their lack of defensive depth. Only one team (Boston) has scored more goals than the Flyers. Their goaltending can be better but has been adequate. And they’ve got the intangibles to make a deep a run.

Holmgren lauded Bourdon and Gustafsson for helping keep the team afloat without a noticeable drop-off on defense.

As things stand, Holmgren said he doesn’t have a burning need to make a trade for more defense. But that could change. Holmgren does not deny that the Flyers have perused the market recently, as the Feb. 27 trade deadline is now rapidly approaching 33 days from now.

“I think we still have 4 guys who can play a lot of minutes in all situations,” Holmgren said. “I think the 2 young kids that we’ve got playing have held their own. So, I don’t feel it’s something we have to do.

“I don’t think we’re any different than a lot of team right now. We’re looking around to see what’s available. And if there’s something out there that makes sense, both now and for the future, we would look at that. But I like the way our kids have played. I think that was a real good experience for them [on Sunday], playing against the Stanley Cup champions, and they both fared OK.”

He doesn't sound like he's in a hurry and I'm not either. All six defensemen who were in the lineup last night are playing well. Gustafsson is playing with more confidence each game and I've seen him make some long tape to tape passes to spring things offensively. He's doing a good job defensively despite his size. Bourdon has lapses in his decision making both with and without a puck but you just have to take the good with the bad. I think he'll get there. I would not want to see Lilja or Walker in the line up for any length of time, so you have to be concerned about what happens if someone else gets hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up a defenseman but I don't think they have to and I would be surprised if they paid a high price to acquire one.

[Vanflyer]

@Bakanekimiwa

"what scares me is boston is insane on 5-5 this year."

Actually we are kind of middle of the road 5-on-5. I did an analysis a couple of weeks ago (so not entirely up to date).

Overall we are ranked 10th 5-on-5. We 3rd in goals forced: 2.19 per game, but 22 in goals allowed: 2.03.

The teams ahead of us in order:

1-Boston

2-Detroit

3-San Jose

4-Van

5-Rangers

6-St Louis

7-Chicago

8-Pittsburgh

9-Winnipeg

There are good odds that we could face Boston, Rangers and Pittsburgh, possibly all three if we were to advance.

[aziz]

what scares me is boston is insane on 5-5 this year.

= tim thomas

maybe it's just an anti-boston bias i have, but i really don't see anything special about that team outside of him. highend squad, definitely, but no more so than 5 or 6 others in the league. a tweaked knee for thomas in march and it's anyone's game.

then again, no tweaked knee for thomas in march, then yeah, repeat in the making.

[radoran]

then again, no tweaked knee for thomas in march, then yeah, repeat in the making.

I'll go ahead and respectfully disagree. There are two repeat champs in the past 20 years, none in the past 14 (DET 96-97, 97-98), much less post-lockout.

It's ridiculously hard to put together back to back runs. Regardless of your goalie.

[aziz]

It's ridiculously hard to put together back to back runs. Regardless of your goalie.

you are absolutely right. it's just that if thomas is playing at the top of his game as of game 82 and you ask me who my favorite is to win the cup, i'd have to go with boston. it's highly unlikely that a coin flipped 20 times in a row comes up heads each time, but it can happen, especially if it's thomas's profile on there.

but again, if thomas stumbles or gets hurt, i don't point at the bruins any more than i would NYR, vancouver, san jose, chicago, detroit, or philly. he is the weighted coin.

[Bakanekimiwa]

@Bakanekimiwa

"what scares me is boston is insane on 5-5 this year."

Actually we are kind of middle of the road 5-on-5. I did an analysis a couple of weeks ago (so not entirely up to date).

Overall we are ranked 10th 5-on-5. We 3rd in goals forced: 2.19 per game, but 22 in goals allowed: 2.03.

The teams ahead of us in order:

1-Boston

2-Detroit

3-San Jose

4-Van

5-Rangers

6-St Louis

7-Chicago

8-Pittsburgh

9-Winnipeg

There are good odds that we could face Boston, Rangers and Pittsburgh, possibly all three if we were to advance.

10th is not bad.. but yah, we'll have some stiff competition no matter who we're playing if we don't improve. but, it seems a lot of those goals are softies on bryz.

[Bakanekimiwa]

= tim thomas

maybe it's just an anti-boston bias i have, but i really don't see anything special about that team outside of him. highend squad, definitely, but no more so than 5 or 6 others in the league. a tweaked knee for thomas in march and it's anyone's game.

then again, no tweaked knee for thomas in march, then yeah, repeat in the making.

agreed. i think boston excels with the sum of their parts though. i guess white grimace has them playing pretty well in a team defensive system. i noticed that they really boxed flyers out of the crease/slot are very well. maybe that has to do with chara, but it seemed that they all collapsed into a box and the flyers had to break it to score.

i'm too lazy to look it up right now, but boston is #1 5-5, they're #2 in GA(yes thomas is a large reason, but not the only reason) and #1 in GF. i'd say they have all the ingredients of a repeat if they keep up this kind of play. as much as it pains me to admit it... i'd put boston as the odds on current favorite to win the cup this year.

watch out for the rangers, though...

[doom88]

I'll address both topics with one post.

Boston:

Thomas played well, and Chara helped (not as much imo, he is beatable when you run his minutes up), but they won because of two things. One, Vancouver had zero healthy defenseman and the NHL thought it would be a good idea to suspend another for the finals. Two, Boston is allowed to cross the line when it comes to physical play - which both wears down the other team in a literal sense, and when the other team tries to retaliate, Boston gets a PP. It sucks.

Flyers Trade Deadline:

Weber or bust. I don't want Gleason, or any rental quite frankly. Reason being, the young guys (Gus and Bourdon currently 5/6, and the top four is seeing increased ice time) are getting invaluable NHL experience right now, and the Flyers are winning anyway. The problem is in net, and I would venture to say most know this. It isn't an offensive system problem or anything like that, and bluntly, the offensive system is exactly why the Flyers are as high as they are in the standings. There is no need to change the system to possibly suit a goaltender, when the rest of the team is playing it just fine overall. And, the other goaltender is playing well within the current system.

If the Flyers can acquire an heir-apparent to Pronger or Timonen, and think they can realistically and sensibly retain them for at least five years, Homer better go for it. No rentals, no old farts, no junk.

[Bertmega]

Heard Homer was looking at this guy to replace Pronger.

[Bertmega]

I heard the Holmgren was looking at this guy to replace Pronger. 8 year contract is the word on the street.

Thank God for Ecklund and his hockey prowess.

[Phillygrump]

Weber would be the only guy I can think of. This team has been turning the puck over a lot lately and hanging their goalies out to dry too. Bob has been up to the task though and Bryz hasn't.

[Spinorama]

This team has been turning the puck over a lot lately and hanging their goalies out to dry too.

all those breakaways during the Panthers game was painful