Post-Game Talk: #71 | Blue Jackets at FLYERS | Thu., Mar. 15, 2018, 7:00 pm ET

[Bruckuss]

Is it possible that Mrazek is just heavier than Lyon?

 

[hayen]

Probably been said a few times already but Mrazek is playing like Mrazek. No surprises here. He can play well and stink. Unfortunately he has been the later more often than not over his last couple years. We have a building team but I still think that Hex could have done more to afford us an opportunity. It isnt easy getting this far and the acquisition was not a strong support shown to the team for the effort they put in.

 

[FlyersMania2]

What's sad is that our team at it's actual core, could absolutely be good enough to go to the second round but so many things related to coaching have prevented that.

Had we had Morin, Myers, Sanheim in the line up over MacDonald and Manning since the beginning of the season - they would be more experienced and are undeniably an improvement over those two.

Had we allowed Neuvirth to play in back-to-back situations instead of making Elliott play both games, we could have a very different goaltending tandem right now.

Had we removed Lehtera from the lineup and let any of our young forwards play - we could have say a NAK-Laughton-Leier/Vecchione/Martell 3rd line that would be undeniably better than any combination of Lehtera/Weise/Flip/Read.

There are so many other little things we've failed to do at the coaching level that have put us in the situation we are in. I mean let's face it, having long losing and winning streaks are indications of bad coaching in all sports.

 

[Starat327]

The funny thing is Hakstol did everything everyone asked this game, and it made no difference, played Sanheim, reduced Filppula's minutes, put Laughton with the 3rd line wingers, etc.

And that's because the talent simply isn't there, and the goalies are bad.
Look at Darling and Ward drag down Carolina, look at Mrazek kill our playoff chances.

Laughton, Filppula, Read, Lehtera (Weise, Leier), MacDonald, Gudas, Manning.
Raffl and Simmonds would be fine if they were paired with real centers. They're just not good enough to carry dreck.
And even then, if we just had an average goalie, we'd be a 95+ point team.

Weird. He does a lot of things that we have been talking about, and if not for a poor 20 minutes from Mrazek, we likely win.

Crazy stuff.

 

[Danko]

Hakstol is such a bad coach...what in the hell was he doing at the end of the game...the last 5 minutes and hes playing his 3rd and 4th line, down a goal with a chance to tie it....he overplayed Manning and Gudas towards the end as well. What the shit is that....you shorten your bench and play your best players if you want to win.

Manning's positioning on that goal when Gudas is in the corner is just stupid. How did he make it to the NHL with decision making like that.

Im so over this coach and the shitty veteran heavy presence players he chooses to put in the lineup. His own worst enemy, he activately hurts his team by playing bad players.

So frustrating. This team is downright unlikeable.

 

[deadhead]

He needed to have the last one and it wasn't even that it went in, but how bad he looked letting it in. The first three, how many of those does even Bobrovsky save tonight? Maybe one? I don't think any of Lyon, Neuvirth, or Elliott were stopping any of those either.

Either way, Mrazek has been poor, but this whole "blame the goalie" talking point that has started to surface is absolutely terrible for us. Goaltending is an immediate issue, yes. However, all this talk about goalies is going to do is give Hakstol an even bigger buffer than he already has. Hextall already has his excuse lined up now. Mrazek will be the easy scapegoat even though he was not the major problem tonight. The major problem is that they were dominated in the first and didn't get their first (weak) shot of the game until the first was almost half over. The first shift was decent enough, then MacDonald came on the ice and couldn't keep up with the pace. It was all down hill from there. Both teams had two days off before this one, but only one was ready to play.

Yeah, but they came back with a vengeance, then Bob made the saves Mrazek couldn't make, they could have easily been up 4-3- or 5-3 going into the 3rd. It's not an accident the Flyers win most of the games when they get good, but not great, goal tending.

This is a mediocre team, we knew that going into the season, we know that now, but mediocre teams can't get by with below average goal tending, it exposes too many flaws and makes it impossible to play wide open hockey (because instead of 30-40% of mistakes leading to goals, it becomes more like 60-70%).

Florida - driving b/c Luongo is posting a .928%, 8-2-1 starting February 17
CBJ - Bob, 9-3-1 starting February 10, .928%
NJ - Kinkaid, 8-2 since February 13, .928% over that period
Mrazek - 4-5-1 .887%

That's it in a nutshell, this time of year, a hot goalie is the key.

 

[deadhead]

Elliott getting hurt, Neuvirth getting hurt at the wrong time, Stolarz getting hurt so bad he couldn't make it back, Mrazek being "bad" Mrazek, I really can't blame Hextall, he thought he had set them up for bridge goalies until Hart and Sandstrom arrived, it's not like he hasn't made goalies a draft priority since he took over (signed Lyon, drafted Hart, Sandstrom, Tomek, Ustimenko). Mrazek was the best of a bad lot.

Next year hopefully we can bring Stolarz back, with Hart at LHV, Sandstrom starts in the SHL, and Ustimenko gets up to the KHL or at least starts in the MHL. As Mrazek shows, it's hard to trade/sign FA goalies, you pretty much have to develop them.

 

[Rebels57]

Hakstol is such a bad coach...what in the hell was he doing at the end of the game...the last 5 minutes and hes playing his 3rd and 4th line, down a goal with a chance to tie it....he overplayed Manning and Gudas towards the end as well. What the **** is that....you shorten your bench and play your best players if you want to win.

Manning's positioning on that goal when Gudas is in the corner is just stupid. How did he make it to the NHL with decision making like that.

Im so over this coach and the ****ty veteran heavy presence players he chooses to put in the lineup. His own worst enemy, he activately hurts his team by playing bad players.

So frustrating. This team is downright unlikeable.

The entire thing is a disgrace.

 

[Curufinwe]

Hextall fires Hakstol then takes over as coach.

I had this dream before.

I think firing Hak and installing this guy as Interim Coach would be a fantastic move.

 

[Curufinwe]

Serious question. What would it take for you to buy into this management group again if you currently don't?

For me, it's:

• A coaching change that's not a retread
• Filppula and Oduya walk
• Simmonds trade
• One of Weise/Lehtera gone with the other in the press box
• A maximum of one of Hagg/MacDonald/Manning on the roster preferably as the clear 7th D but absolutely nowhere near the top 4.

And I would need all of it next year. Of course that's not happening, but here we are.

Moving on from Lappy and Hak is really all I need.

- I'd take Sutter at this point.
- Flip should not be back, Oduya definitely won't be. I doubt he's actually even still injured
- I'm fine with trading or keeping Simmonds
- Lehtera should be bought out just for the cost savings
- I don't mind Hagg and MacDonald in the bottom 4 if they aren't on the same pairing

 

[deadhead]

Funny, people are actually talking about Peters as a replacement, but Carolina is going to miss the playoffs for the same reason we might miss the playoffs, really bad goaltenders.
Meanwhile, someone is going to be dumb enough to suggest CBJ, NJ, and Florida are well coached, instead of the obvious, they're riding hot goal tenders.

Poor Hextall, this has to be the most frustrating season of his tenure, he has goaltenders lined up, Elliott, Neuvirth (yes, he gets injured, but has also carried the team for a 2-3 stretch as a backup), Stolarz (who looked like a guy who could come up for a few weeks and hold the fort), Lyon (who was a solid college goalie with AHL experience). The first three go down, Lyon has the yips, and the best goaltender he can find in the trade market lays a huge turd.

 

[Van Buren Boy]

I'd prefer a retread at this point. Out of our last 4 coaches there was 1 retread and he was the most successful we have had in that span. I'm fed up of inexperienced coaches at this point. I want a guy who can step in, take charge, yet have confidence in playing the young guys.

 

[Curufinwe]

Philly's goalies have a much better SV% (.908) than Carolina's (.897).

Try another excuse for Hak's choke job .

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Probably been said a few times already but Mrazek is playing like Mrazek. No surprises here. He can play well and stink. Unfortunately he has been the later more often than not over his last couple years. We have a building team but I still think that Hex could have done more to afford us an opportunity. It isnt easy getting this far and the acquisition was not a strong support shown to the team for the effort they put in.

I know many are higher on him then others, but this is the type of goalie I thought we would get. Inconsistent as hell

 

[deadhead]

Philly's goalies have a much better SV% (.908) than Carolina's (.897).

Try another excuse for Hak's choke job .

League average is .913. That difference is about 12 goals over a season, given how many close games we play, that's probably 3-4 points.
But timing is everything, while the teams chasing us are getting great goaltending, we have Mrazek. So those 3-4 points have been over the last three weeks!

It's not like the Flyers are being dominated on the ice, they have good and bad periods, what you'd expect from a team with one good line and one good defensive pairing (the 2nd line is a work in progress with two talented rookies climbing the learning curve), and the rest of the roster pretty much dreck (if we had a real 3C you might have a decent line, and Sanheim is playing better, but not close to being an impact D-man right now).

They just seem to lose any game where the opposing goaltender shows up.

It's not whether Hakstol is good or bad, it's whether any coach could turn this current roster around.
When this team had AVERAGE goaltending they were on a 95-100 point pace, but Mrazek has been awful (.889). That's your "choke."

 

[Curufinwe]

It's not my choke, it belongs to the coaches who have had all year to fix the PK and stop overplaying trash and have failed to do so.

 

[Angry Hockey Dad]

First game I have intentionally missed all season. I've Been getting too angry watching lately. Can I join the pro tank mindset yet?

 

[Angry Hockey Dad]

Also I diddle my muffin to the thought of Hart-Sandstrom goalie combo. Ohhhhh yea that's good.

 

[Van Buren Boy]

 

[Rebels57]

I think firing Hak and installing this guy as Interim Coach would be a fantastic move.

I've been on board with this since you first suggested it months ago.

 

[hatcher]

This team from top down besides G would be f***ed if a real coach with clout came here. Sutter would flip out.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

I mean, you're being little disingenuous with misrepresenting them as of late but it is what it is I suppose. The second line also hasn't had anyone on the defense to work with to drive that production, which is a problem when you're expecting most of tour offense to be generated from the points.

As of late?
Lindblom has zero points in his 12 NHL games.
Patrick has 16 points in 33 games since Jan. 1. Certainly promising, but subpar for 2nd line center production for a playoff team.
I think it’s a real cop out to blame it on the D, but, even if that’s the problem, the point remains: this team is thin compared to other playoff/bubble teams in the East, & that’s not the coach’s fault.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Lindblom has been alright. Production aside he has done everything that has been asked of him.
I think I may be close to being done with Simmonds. I hope he proves me wrong these last dozen games, but I am not banking on it.

 

[Starat327]

As of late?
Lindblom has zero points in his 12 NHL games.
Patrick has 16 points in 33 games since Jan. 1. Certainly promising, but subpar for 2nd line center production for a playoff team.
I think it’s a real cop out to blame it on the D, but, even if that’s the problem, the point remains: this team is thin compared to other playoff/bubble teams in the East, & that’s not the coach’s fault.

I think its pretty easy to blame it on the D since thats where the coach's scheme has most of the shots coming from. Here nor there i suppose though, in the grand scheme of things

I don't think anyone is surprised the team is thin. We've been building towards the future for a couple years now. We're a few years removed from spending all of our high picsks on defenseman and not drafting much in the forwards department, so this shouldnt be much of a surprise. Hextall has maintained his stance of not moving young kids or prospects for immediate help. This is what we get.

I think being in first for a little while has given people some unrealistic expectations of what was supposed to happen this year. We were supposed to be fighting for a WC spot - not leading the division. I'd love to make the playoffs, but more than that, i'd love to see Patrick, Lindblom, Sahneim, Konecny, et all take this year and use it for what it was intended - a development year.

 

[BernieParent]

I agree that Mrazek has been as Jekyll and Costello as advertised and that mediocrity in nets would be a step forward this season, but it would be swell if the own-zone coverage stopped being kindergarten fire drill. They are Pez dispensers of high-danger chances against and the complete breakdowns in coverage are too frequent to count, accentuated by the soft-toss clearing attempts.