Post-Game Talk: #18 | FLYERS (A) vs. Sabres (H) | Sun., Feb. 28, 2021 | Flyers win 3-0 (make team history)

Jettany

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Feb 21, 2018
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Yeah. I think it's a mix of different things, like:

1) Provorov isn't playing well this year, but he's definitely not Hagg
2) more time with top 6 forwards who can frequently do more than dump/chase/grind/change
3) playing more time per game, which helps get him into a rhythm
4) confidence and not fearing a healthy scratch after every mistake

Is he more healthy now than he was last year? Sure, probably. Feeling pain can impact your mental game more than your physical game at times and we know how important confidence is in this sport, especially for a skill player who tries risky moves like Ghost does. But there's this myth that he was unable to skate last year, which seems to have been imagined just because the results weren't there, just like how every single time Giroux has a scoring slump people say he looks old and slow, when his skating ability is never the real problem. Ghost's not the skater he was in his rookie year or in college, but I saw his current level of skating last year too. I even went so far as to compare clips from last year to clips from 2017-2018 and they were interchangeable, other than who was on the ice with him.
Do people really say “every single time” he looks old and slow during a slump? Or do they just say he’s not producing like a top player should? If they have, I missed a lot of that. I always thought it was about production.
 
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Striiker

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But again, he literally said the words, out of his own mouth. More than once. Thats how I know he went through the same thing. If you disagree with that, you're essentially saying he is lying. I dont get it.

I'm not saying anything at all about what he did or didn't feel. All I can judge by is what I saw on the ice and I saw the same skating capability as I saw in the previous two years.

If he was in pain or didn't feel confident in his legs then that sucks, but he didn't look slow and his lack of scoring wasn't because he wasn't able to physically keep up.

Like I said above, months back I literally went out of my way to download and compare a couple of different clips from 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 to compare his skating speed, just to double-check my own evaluations. You don't have to believe me, but I did my best to challenge my evaluation and I'm still confident in it.
 
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LegionOfDoom91

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Jan 25, 2013
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I’m still amazed Krueger never pulled the goalie at any point in that game. The Flyers slept walk the majority of that third period. So it’s not even like they were getting dominated like the previous two periods. You could have gotten aggressive around like the 6-8 minute marks & try to cut the lead. What the hell does a 4-0 loss matter compared to a 3-0 loss?
 

renberg

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Crosby such a sissy. Takes another dive. What a puss.
Not good news. The Flyers play this clown car three times this week in their rink. After watching several Penguin games over the last two weeks, it’s obvious that the old act is back- when they need a call or non call they get it. It’s going to be a tough week. Need to play them tough but smart.
 

deadhead

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Feb 26, 2014
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Flyers got 3 "practice games" going into a really tough stretch against real teams, 14 games in 25 days.
Given they'll have limited practice time, these games were perfect in terms of getting their mojo back.
 

CanadianFlyer88

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Feb 12, 2004
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More so a concern than Boston?
Boston doesn't look right, despite their dominance over the Flyers so far this season.

I'd favour the Flyers in a 7 game series with both teams fully healthy. Unlikely they'd meet in those circumstances, so the pendulum would swing in either direction depending on who is injured.

Boston is getting a lot of play in Canada so far this year, so I have watched them quite a bit. They don't have the same depth and swagger of previous iterations.
 
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Rebels57

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Boston doesn't look right, despite their dominance over the Flyers so far this season.

I'd favour the Flyers in a 7 game series with both teams fully healthy. Unlikely they'd meet in those circumstances, so the pendulum would swing in either direction depending on who is injured.

Boston is getting a lot of play in Canada so far this year, so I have watched them quite a bit. They don't have the same depth and swagger of previous iterations.

People are overstating the Bruins dominance over the Flyers.

Couturier missed the first 4 games.

The 5th game we were missing 5 of our top 9 forwards and Hart couldnt make a save.

The last 3 games against them will be a lot more revealing.
 

AdamParrot

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Mar 10, 2015
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Yeah, I still don't think that the Bruins with Zboril, Lauzon, Miller/Clifton are contender team.

They have great goalies, great first line and great McAvoy.

What then? Krejci is fine 2C, Coyle is good 3C. Grzelcyk is good 2nd pair defenseman. Smith and DeBrusk are only two good middle-six wingers in my eyes. Carlo would be #5 in our team by the way.

Do you know what its good for us? Couturier can shutdown Bergeron's line at EV. So keep us away from penalty box and we can beat them in best-of-seven.

But of course, we have to play our game against them. And not like in the last playoffs where we were scared, played more safe, more dumps and we were f***ed...
 

Rebels57

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Yeah, I still don't think that the Bruins with Zboril, Lauzon, Miller/Clifton are contender team.

They have great goalies, great first line and great McAvoy.

What then? Krejci is fine 2C, Coyle is good 3C. Grzelcyk is good 2nd pair defenseman. Smith and DeBrusk are only two good middle-six wingers in my eyes. Carlo would be #5 in our team by the way.

Do you know what its good for us? Couturier can shutdown Bergeron's line at EV. So keep us away from penalty box and we can beat them in best-of-seven.

But of course, we have to play our game against them. And not like in the last playoffs where we were scared, played more safe, more dumps and we were f***ed...

They are probably gonna land Ekholm.
 

MiamiScreamingEagles

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Jan 17, 2004
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Boston doesn't look right, despite their dominance over the Flyers so far this season.

I'd favour the Flyers in a 7 game series with both teams fully healthy. Unlikely they'd meet in those circumstances, so the pendulum would swing in either direction depending on who is injured.

Boston is getting a lot of play in Canada so far this year, so I have watched them quite a bit. They don't have the same depth and swagger of previous iterations.

You could be right. Ultimately it comes down to the two teams on the ice and the mental anguish could subside. One of the Flyers' largest regular season wins in teams history came late in the 1973-74 season when the beat Boston which ended a 27-game winless streak and was used even modestly when the teams met in the Cup Finals that season. It helped the Flyers get over the hump.

In 1985, the Flyers went 7-0-0 against the Rangers. They were a significantly better team than the Rangers but NY beat the Flyers in the 1982 and 1983 playoffs. Even with a new coach in Mike Keenan and a perfect regular season record, there were concerns. It took a thrilling Mark Howe OT goal in the opener to help the Flyers sweep NY in that PO series. Otherwise, who knows.

Mental fragility can be a damaging component to a team's quest. The Flyers need to handle Boston in a regular season game before I would feel comfy in a 7-game series three months from now. Much can change from here to then, let's hope for the better.
 

Laveuglette

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JVR breaking out at 31 is an amazing phenomenon. Just kidding, but seriously it seems they really found a way to make him perform this year. 25 pts in 18 games is absurd and I don't even expect him to slow down that much. Some players do find their groove later too. David Perron is another good example the past 3 or so years. Love that kind of story.
 

GapToothedWonder

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But he was. As someone that has gone through the exact same issues as him I would like to think I can offer that perspective.

Once your unbalanced it's borderline imposible to break 25 years of normality. You start over using muscles to counter the deficiency in muscle strength. Which means your centre of balance is all over the place, constant niggles appear and pains (like strong cramps) appear frequently from your nervous system trying to protect you. From your lower back, through your hamstrings, down your calves and literally into the soles of your feet. The fluid action of running/skating uses every single one of these muscles in sync. Your sciatic nerve runs the full length and also plays havok.

So the left side of your back, pairs with your right hamstring which pairs with your left calf. Thats what keeps you upright while moving, and obviously vice-versa. It also keeps your weight even, so controlling a puck, shooting and passing.

When you essentially remove one of those muscles for an extended period of time ( say a hip surgery in Ghosts case) your body can naturally try to balance you, by overworking the unaffected muscles. This makes them prone to tears, over exertion and fatigue. Then, when you finally have full movement back, you tend to work extensively on the un-used muscle group to return strength. But finding the balance is very, very difficult.

It explains perfectly why all of his natural body actions were all over the place. His strength which is obviously the big slap shot was missing by feet, let alone inches. His turns were laboured and he had little to no explosiveness in his skating. It's a physical limitation to have your centre of balance being f***ed around because your body is a mess.

It took working with one of the best sports physios in the country for me to return to playing without the constant niggles and pain.

What/where were you playing?
 

Striiker

Former Flyers Fan
Jun 2, 2013
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JVR breaking out at 31 is an amazing phenomenon. Just kidding, but seriously it seems they really found a way to make him perform this year. 25 pts in 18 games is absurd and I don't even expect him to slow down that much. Some players do find their groove later too. David Perron is another good example the past 3 or so years. Love that kind of story.
JVRs playing well, but he’s also getting extremely lucky on top of that, which is why the scoring is so nuts. 23.81 shooting % and 18.01 on-ice shooting %. Both are nearly double what’s normal.

It can’t last, but hopefully the shortened season means it won’t have time to even out.
 

Beef Invictus

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JVRs playing well, but he’s also getting extremely lucky on top of that, which is why the scoring is so nuts. 23.81 shooting % and 18.01 on-ice shooting %. Both are nearly double what’s normal.

It can’t last, but hopefully the shortened season means it won’t have time to even out.

A weird thing with JVR is that a lot of the shooting percentage is driven by deflections and rebounds at the net, which are mega high quality. And he has the skill to do that nonsense nonstop. Always has.

The big difference is that he's been pretty dominant around the net. He's in position to use that skill more than usual. One of his biggest limitations in the past was being held to the perimeter, where that skill in close is neutralized.

Also encouraging is strong playmaking; he is overall more assertive and less passive.

So yeah I don't assume this is fully sustainable, but at the same time...it might be, and the basement for him this year might not be terrible low
 
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