GDT: #39| Apr. 9, 2013| Flyers at Islanders| 7:00 p.m. ET

[Flyotes]

You guys sound like fans. I mean that in the worst way.

 

[dingbathero]

You guys sound like fans. I mean that in the worst way.

I guess some of us around here are beginning to know what it feels like to be a Leafs fan... haha.

I just want our team to compete, that's all I ever wanted.

 

[nevermore]

You guys sound like fans. I mean that in the worst way.

You take that back!

 

[JDinkalage Morgoone]

I will say one thing, this board does nothing but entertain me when we are in the midst of a bad season or streak.

It really is annoying. There is no middle ground to these boards. It's either this team will win the cup or this team will finish dead last. It's tiresome.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I guess some of us around here are beginning to know what it feels like to be a Leafs fan... haha.

I just want our team to compete, that's all I ever wanted.

And the Flyers have always competed since their existence. This will be the 9th season the Flyers missed the playoffs in their entire history.

It's not the end of the world if we miss the playoffs this year. I'm sure the draft/offseason will make up for this lousy season and the team will be back and running next year. I honestly think this year should have happened last year. The teams young with a bright future.

 

[JDinkalage Morgoone]

And the Flyers have always competed since their existence. This will be the 9th season the Flyers missed the playoffs in their entire history.

It's not the end of the world if we miss the playoffs this year. I'm sure the draft/offseason will make up for this lousy season and the team will be back and running next year. I honestly think this year should have happened last year. The teams young with a bright future.

Sometimes missing the playoffs is necessary for wake up calls to the front office, restocking the draft pool, learning experiences for the kids, I mean you can't be good every year. You just can't. Hopefully this team will adopt a mentality of building from the net out through the draft and development of their own players.

 

[Pantokrator]

It really is annoying. There is no middle ground to these boards. It's either this team will win the cup or this team will finish dead last. It's tiresome.

This sums up the entirety of Philadelphia sports. In every sport Philly fans are this way.

 

[G'aal]

No. It's definitely both. The goaltending and the defense/defensive system have been equally trash, it has been that way all year, save for an odd game here and there.

I haven't watched many Philly games, but by the statistics (I posted an article about this elsewhere), I believe that's true. Furthermore, I've seen plenty of Steve Mason over the last three years. Trust me, he's no savior.

Those who are saying that if Mason struggles, it somehow proves Bryzgalov is a victim of his defense are forgetting that he has been just terrible for years. Lundvist getting lit up behind Philly's D would prove something. Mason doing poorly proves absolutely nothing.

 

[dingbathero]

And the Flyers have always competed since their existence. This will be the 9th season the Flyers missed the playoffs in their entire history.

It's not the end of the world if we miss the playoffs this year. I'm sure the draft/offseason will make up for this lousy season and the team will be back and running next year. I honestly think this year should have happened last year. The teams young with a bright future.

Oh I am well aware of that - having the 2nd best winning % in league history. Don't get me wrong here - Our players just don't show the desire other teams with 'lesser' players. It's not good enough is all.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing us get a stud D man in the draft - but I'd rather cheer for my team in the PO's than anything.

 

[freakydallas13]

To say goaltending hasn't been a problem at all is a joke.

To say goal tending is the only problem is like claiming the soda in a fast food meal is what makes you fat.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

To say goaltending hasn't been a problem at all is a joke.

goaltending has been an issue since Feb. 1. Along with inconsistent play from most of our forwards, poor defense, bad luck with injuries, poor coaching decisions, poor personnel moves. Not necessarily in that order. Its been a bad season from the top on down.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Does anyone here think that Lavi's doing his best job to ruin Couturier? I feel bad for the kid. He makes a mistake and rides the pine for the next 10 minutes. I know he has been the struggling this season but its hard to gain any confidence when you know as soon you make a mistake it's back to the dog house. Add then he usually has him centering plugs and its no wonder why the kid is struggling this year.

Seeing the way Lavi has handled him and let other veteran players get away with the same stuff with no consequences has really turned me against Lavi this year. If there's one player who could benefit from a coaching change its Couturier. I don't think Couturier's going to truly flourish here until Lavi's gone.

 

[freakydallas13]

Does anyone here think that Lavi's doing his best job to ruin Couturier? I feel bad for the kid. He makes a mistake and rides the pine for the next 10 minutes. I know he has been the struggling this season but its hard to gain any confidence when you know as soon you make a mistake it's back to the dog house. Add then he usually has him centering plugs and its no wonder why the kid is struggling this year.

Seeing the way Lavi has handled him and let other veteran players get away with the same stuff with no consequences has really turned me against Lavi this year. If there's one player who could benefit from a coaching change its Couturier. I don't think Couturier's going to truly flourish here until Lavi's gone.

What astonishes me is the fact that none of the beat writers have picked up (or if they have, haven't written about) this fact.

Why can none of them call out lavi on his mishandling of young players and catering to veterans who are playing poorly?

 

[blinds]

Does anyone here think that Lavi's doing his best job to ruin Couturier? I feel bad for the kid. He makes a mistake and rides the pine for the next 10 minutes. I know he has been the struggling this season but its hard to gain any confidence when you know as soon you make a mistake it's back to the dog house. Add then he usually has him centering plugs and its no wonder why the kid is struggling this year.

Seeing the way Lavi has handled him and let other veteran players get away with the same stuff with no consequences has really turned me against Lavi this year. If there's one player who could benefit from a coaching change its Couturier. I don't think Couturier's going to truly flourish here until Lavi's gone.

Yeah, it's really started to piss me off this season and with playoffs seeming out of reach it just makes it worse that Couturier, and Schenn too at times, aren't getting the opportunities they need to develop, and most of the time for not much considerable benefit (giving Briere more ice time was real helpful, right?).

I have no idea why he would bench Couturier, I'm not sure what the mistake was but it's absurd to hold him responsible for not performing when he's given **** for opportunities to develop. He's played with the worst linemates, bouncing between 3rd and 4th line center and is given only something like 30% offensive zone faceoffs. He's also matched against the toughest opposition. His lack of production really isn't much of a surprise given he's playing with offensive black holes like Fedotenko, Talbot, Rinaldo, Rosehill and Hall. His best linemates have been Gagne and Read for small stretches. Of course he's also given some PP time on the 2nd unit which is pretty bad but still a good opportunity. I'd like to see him maybe given some 1st unit time to see if he can do anything with more space and better linemates.

If management wants someone to blame, look at your veterans that are blowing a big one. Hartnell and Briere have been downright terrible, there should be no excuses for that but they rarely suffer a large loss of ice time. Bryzgalov isn't playing like he should, and neither is Gervais or was Coburn. These guys should be covering for the mistakes and shortcomings of the young guys but they're dragging the team down more than anyone really. The only veterans doing well are Timonen, Fedotenko and Grossmann (and maybe Gagne, depending on your expections).

Maybe Laviolette isn't the best coach to have in place when you have a lot of young guys still developing their game. Or maybe we're just too deep at center and there aren't enough opportunities to incorporate Couts. Schenn hasn't got such a bad deal.

Saw it brought up before and it might come down to Lavi or Couts is gone this summer. Who knows though, maybe both. As long as Couts brings back a top pairing dman.

 

[PF]

I thought it was maybe a product of the line he was on, Couturier plays with Rosehill and Hall so he didn't get any ice. Of course why he only gets to play with Rosehill and Hall is a bit absurd in the first place. I had a look, he got three shifts (as did Hall, Rosehill had two) - I guess it was more because he was on the 4th line in a game we needed to win, he wasn't completely benched personally, his line was being held out.


I think our break out and entry into the offensive zone in this game was as bad as I've ever seen. If it wasn't for a ridiculous stretch pass from Giroux we would have come out of this game with nothing, really bad effort all round.

 

[FlyersFan61290]

Time to buy out the B&B and start a new business

Why would you buy out Bryz this offseason unless they can get a competent replacement? I would hold off on that.

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

Let the record show that in the biggest game of the year, the captain Claude Giroux
Couldn't
Even
Muster
A
Shot
On
Goal.

Biggest game of the year? No, not even close. The biggest games of the year were weeks ago when this club had chances to go on a roll and they couldn't do it. The club at this point is just going through the motions. Look at everyone out there. They're defeated before they even hit the ice. Laviolette has lost the group.

As for Giroux not having a shot on goal, it's clear that something is wrong with his play this year. Is he injured? Maybe. Is the weight of the captaincy wearing him down? Possibly. Is it that Laviolette overuses Giroux? Maybe. We can all sit here and speculate as to what it might be, but I'm not going to pin Game 39 as the reason why the Flyers don't make the playoffs. Anyone else who considered this the biggest game of the year needs to have their head examined. The Flyers are just simply not a good club this year and we're seeing it. To blame Giroux for this mess of a year is absurd.

 

[RoDu]

I'm confident Giroux will bounce back next year. While he may not have been ready for the C, he will grow into it. He seems to fix his weak spots every off season, last year, faceoffs

 

[Jack de la Hoya]

The good: Mason was impressive, for the most part. I'd like to see him make a stop on the 1st goal, but it wasn't a "bad" goal. Huskins and Gervais (if memory serves) played that 2 on 2 about as badly as you can. He made some quality saves and looked solid and confident. Nothing he could do about the 2nd goal (screened) or the 3rd goal (Gustafsson).

The bad: Very little created at 5 on 5, again. I don't remember Nabokov making a difficult save.

The ugly: The team was outplayed and outworked in what was its last realistic shot to stay in the playoff hunt.

 

[Bernie Parent 1974]

To say goaltending hasn't been a problem at all is a joke.

agreed, Bryz was the only good player at season's start. but eventually he could no longer make up for this teams problems.

Boosh & ML couldn't ever.

Mason couldn't last night. lets se how he does in the rest of his starts.

 

[SchennSational1022*]

agreed, Bryz was the only good player at season's start. but eventually he could no longer make up for this teams problems.

Boosh & ML couldn't ever.

Mason couldn't last night. lets se how he does in the rest of his starts.

I agree but it is obvious Mason looks more comfortable in the net than Bryz. For a guy with "no confidence", he moved around great and was challenging, smething Bryz has never done in his career. Mason made some saves that we always see are automatic with Bryz and is ALOT stronger around the net. Hopefully he keeps this up.

 

[Bernie Parent 1974]

I agree but it is obvious Mason looks more comfortable in the net than Bryz.

let's see Mason after 21 more straight starts behind that SLOP effort.

Bryz looked very very good & confident until about 15 games behind this joke of a team.

 

[FlyersFan61290]

let's see Mason after 21 more straight starts behind that SLOP effort.

Bryz looked very very good & confident until about 15 games behind this joke of a team.

23 straight

 

[BernieParent]

To say goal tending is the only problem is like claiming the soda in a fast food meal is what makes you fat.

This analogy:

 

[Curufinwe]

I think it's more like claiming a McDonald's milkshake and a Big Mac both make you fat.