I will be filling in for Nick this week, who usually files the weekly Flight Plan. The Flyers played two games this past week, going 1-0-1. They beat the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, by a 5-4 count in the home opener then lost in overtime to the Kings 3-2 on Saturday night. Peter Laviolette’s young club continues to take a lot of untimely penalties and even though they were able weather the storm against Vancouver, a costly tripping call against James van Riemsdyk lead to the Kings’ deciding OT goal. Mike Richards came back to haunt his old mates, recording …
Was trading for Bryzgalov’s rights a worthwhile risk?
To answer this question, we must first ask another one: What benefits are there to trading for the rights of a pending unrestricted free agent? Ideally, negotiating rights will allow you work out a reasonable deal before a player hits free agency. If this is the intent of a general manager, then he had better be sure that the player is willing to take a discount to sign now in lieu of testing the market. Also, he should be sure that the player wants to play in that city. In the case of Ilya Bryzgalov, his actions suggest that he …
Looking ahead: A few thoughts on the offseason
Numbers Current Projected Cap Space for 2012: $1,980,845 [source] Projected Cap Increase for 2012: $3,000,000 [source] Total Projected Cap Space for 2012: $4,980,845 Notable Pending UFA forwards: VIlle Leino, Nikolay Zherdev Notable Pending RFA forwards: Andreas Nodl, Darroll Powe, Dan Carcillo Notable Pending UFA defensemen: Sean O’Donnell, Nick Boynton Notable Pending RFA defensemen: Danny Syvret Notable Pending UFA goaltenders: Brian Boucher Thoughts Defense It’s likely the Flyers won’t need anything more than a third pairing defensemen. They have a number of options available to them: Re-sign O’Donnell or Boynton, play Matt Walker, promote Erik Gustafsson, or re-up Danny Syvret and …
Flight Plan Week of 03.13.2011
Ever hear that saying, “take one step forward and two steps back”? How about “two steps forward and one step back… off a cliff”? That’s what the Philadelphia Flyers did as you would think that last Sunday was rock bottom for the guys in Orange and Black when they took a 7-0 beating at the hands of the New York Rangers, but no. The Flyers were able to take any and all progress they had made in their previous two games against the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs and not only squander it, but revert back to a …
Flyers Achieve 1700th Victory In Franchise History
Keeping in mind their 5-0 loss to Florida back in December, the Flyers avenged their embarrassing game with a 3-2 victory of their own tonight. James van Riemsdyk netted the game winning goal while Danny Briere had a goal and two assists on the night. The game started off with both teams being assessed a minor penalty within the first three minutes. Nineteen seconds before the two minute mark, Daniel Carcillo was handed a holding penalty giving the Panthers the first powerplay of the game. Florida didn’t take advantage of the situation losing the man advantage a minute and eight seconds later …
Justin Goldman dissects the goaltending situation in Philadelphia
Justin Goldman runs the site The Goalie Guild and is a goalie scout. You can also follow him on Twitter. He has written about goalies on a number of different sites over the last three years and has been working on different projects with Dallas Stars goalie coach Mike Valley and former NHL goalie Steve Shields. He has a great skill for observing and critiquing goaltenders. Today, he shares great insights on Sergei Bobrovsky, Brian Boucher, and more . Is a playoff goaltending tandem of Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky strong enough to win the Stanley Cup? If the playoffs started …
Flight Plan week of 02.13.2011 One Day Removed
The Philadelphia Flyers finally get a win after a long layoff, beating the Carolina Hurricanes after four days off and how do they follow it up after another little layoff? A second shutout loss in just 12 days at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings. Granted, this team has shown it plays better when they have a bunch of games packed into the schedule, but they should probably realize that teams looking up at the standings, and there are a lot of them, are going to be coming every game from about two weeks ago on out. The Flyers …
Vokoun and Flyers already linked
With all this talk about Tomas Vokoun possibly being the best value for a goaltender upgrade for a potential Flyers’ Stanley Cup run, I thought I’d return to my role as Flyers Faithful historian and tell you how the current Florida Panthers goaltender and the Orange and Black are already linked. On February 6, 1997 — 14 years ago tonight — the Montreal Canadiens came to the CoreStates Center for what figured to be a routine mid-season tilt between two Eastern Conference clubs headed for playoff berths. At this point, since the franchise-altering Mark Recchi-for-LeClair-Desjardins-Dionne deal was consummated almost two years …
An in-depth look at Andreas Nodl, the trade deadline, and more with Geoff Detweiler
Broad Street Hockey has been very gracious to Flyers Faithful, linking to many of our stories since we joined the hockey blogging ranks this season. We greatly respect their opinions, as they are one of the top Flyer-centric hockey sites around. So, when we realized Andreas Nodl was a heated topic for Geoff Detweiler, it piqued our interest. We asked Geoff if he would care to share his thoughts on Nodl, the trade deadline, and more. He agreed to do so and provided some really great insights and perspective into these topics. Please read on as Geoff took the time …
What goaltending decision will the Flyers make?
The names of various goaltenders have popped up in conjunction with the Flyers recently. With the trade deadline a few weeks away, will Philadelphia make a move?