N.B. I apologize in advance for this stream of consciousness post. I need some more time to organize my thoughts on the roster changes and will likely edit this post this afternoon. This morning, the Flyers announced that Brayden Schenn was recalled and Zac Rinaldo and Harry Zolnierczyk were loaned to the Phantoms. That leaves the Flyers with a glut of centers and some big questions about where everyone fits in the lineup. Through five games and a 4-0-1 record, the Flyers have been firing on all cylinders. They lead the league in goals per game (3.80) and have given up …
Atlantic Watch: 10/12-10/18
Three more games for the Flyers this week resulted in five more points in the standings. Losing their first game of the year in overtime to the Kings, the Flyers are no longer perfect on the season. However, since they won their other games in the week, the Flyers still haven’t lost in regulation this season. Sure, it’s upsetting to lose a game like Saturday’s to Los Angeles, a team featuring former Philly teammates Mike Richards and Simon Gagne, but it’s important to earn points early in the year. It’s also important to see many of the young players stepping …
Flyers Get First Win In Ottawa Since 2007
Matt Read notched a career-high four points tonight as the Flyers destroyed the Senators 7-2 in Ottawa. Read, Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux, and Max Talbot provided goals in the first period to give the Flyers an insurmountable lead. Sergei Bobrovsky had 21 saves on 23 Senators’ shots in his first appearance — and win — of the season. Goals from Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson weren’t nearly enough for Ottawa as Philly produced its biggest win of the short season. His first goal in the league may have been soft, but Read’s second goal was a thing of beauty. Burning past rookie …
Keep the tiger caged
As I pored over the hokey headlines this morning, I came upon Sam Carchidi’s article about how the Flyers are in no rush to promote Brayden Schenn. Kudos, Flyers. You’ve made the difficult but correct choice. Through four games, Schenn has tallied eight points, split evenly between goals and assists. As Carchidi wrote, he is “refining his game by playing in all situations for the Phantoms.” Perfect. This is exactly what he should be doing. Schenn is invaluable to this organization and the best place for him to be at the moment is in the AHL, where he can play …
3 on 3 for the week of 10.16.2001
The Flyers had a good week, winning 5-4 over Vancouver and getting 1 point in a 3-2 OT loss to the LA Kings. That gives them 7 points, good enough for 4th place in the Eastern Conference. Here are my 3 “hot” players for last week: Claude Giroux — Giroux moves to the #1 slot this week with 1 goal and 2 assists in 2 games. He continues to look very good on the power play with Jagr, and they have a special chemistry that is hard to describe. They just seem to know where each other are on the ice at …
Some thoughts through game three
The Flyers quickly dispelled concerns about stumbling out of the gate and needing time to jell. Through three games, they’ve amassed six points and a league-best +5 goal differential. So what trends are starting to form? Claude Giroux is proving me wrong for saying that his offensive output might drop from last season. He has three goals in as many games, which leads the league, and he also leads all forwards with five points (Kris Letang has six points through four games). Defensive stalwarts, Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen lead the team in ice time, averaging 23:44 and 23:30, respectively. I …
Flyers Finish Frantically In Win Against The Canucks
A win is a win. It doesn’t matter if the opening goal was due to a lucky bounce or if the Flyers played undisciplined in the third period, the Flyers won their home opener 5-4 against the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday night. Andrej Meszaros scored the game-winner early in the third period as the Flyers also received goals from Claude Giroux, Chris Pronger, James van Riemsdyk, and Jakub Voracek. Despite two-point nights from Alexandre Burrows, Mikael Samuelsson, Alex Edler, and Daniel Sedin, the Flyers managed to outscore the most potent offense in the league last season. In one of those rare …
A minor proposal
If all goes according to plan, the Flyers may very well have top prospects Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, and Matt Read on the big club for the 2012 season. This might be a promising sign for the Flyers but it certainly impacts the depth of their AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms. Without Schenn and Read (Couturier is too young to play in the AHL), the Phantoms would be paper thing down the middle and lacking on offense. Certainly, the Phantoms are off to a promising start with a 6-3 win in their season opener but this is also a team that …
Considering Hartnell as a trade candidate
The Flyers currently have a logjam on offense and will likely look to shed both a contract and salary in the near future. As a result, Scott Hartnell’s name has once again popped up as a possible trade candidate. Should he be on the block, though? First of all, let’s state the obvious: Nobody is untouchable and, if the return is good enough, anyone could be traded. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives of trading Hartnell. The Good Hartnell is the second-highest paid forward behind only Daniel Briere. The Flyers could alleviate a lot of cap headaches …
Ranking the Flyers top 20 prospects using NHLE
Last year, I wrote about a method of evaluating prospects using NHL Equivalencies or NHLE. NHLE allows us to figure out the NHL equivalent of prospect’s performance outside of the NHL. This enables us to better compare prospects playing in various leagues where the level of play is often quite different. I decided to come up with a prospects ranking using NHLE as my guide. Last year I simply ranked the prospects from the best NHLE to the worst, but this time I am taking into account age and league because those are big factors as well. A 20 year …