Post-Game Talk: #49 | Lightning at FLYERS | Thur, Jan. 25, 2018, 7:00 pm ET

[Lindberg]

I'm not sure why anyone ever wants to defend MacDonald and his inabilities to actually be a decent NHL defenseman. You don't go to the AHL at around 30 if you're a decent player. Hakstol clearly doesn't know what he is doing.

 

[Striiker]

I'm not sure why anyone ever wants to defend MacDonald and his inabilities to actually be a decent NHL defenseman. You don't go to the AHL at around 30 if you're a decent player. Hakstol clearly doesn't know what he is doing.

It's because defending MacDonald is a way to defend Hakstol.

If they admit MacDonald is trash and doesn't belong, then they're admitting that Hakstol is stupid for playing him.

They'd rather look like fools for defending horrible players than be honest and admit that Hakstol is screwing this team.

 

[Lindberg]

It's because defending MacDonald is a way to defend Hakstol.

If they admit MacDonald is trash and doesn't belong, then they're admitting that Hakstol is stupid for playing him.

They'd rather look like fools for defending horrible players than be honest and admit that Hakstol is screwing this team.

The interesting thing to note is that clearly other people don't think he's great either. Garth Snow let the guy walk, no NHL GM tried to take him when he went through waivers. It is evident he's a bad player and anyone who says otherwise really has no idea.

 

[hatcher]

Still think you need to workout after all this turd polishing?

LOL yep.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Yep, it's pretty sad how hardcore biased he is...

At this point, when watching games, I turn my volume down pretty low because the commentary is just so awful. I can't stand listening to the turd polishing by JJ, Therien, and Clement. Jones is OK sometimes, but it's still pretty bad.

wouldnt it be easy to mute the tv and listen to Saunders and Coatsie? they will mention when the Flyers are getting worked. I mean sure there might be some bias in there. you have to be a bit, but the radio guys are a bit easier on the ears to me IMO

 

[Striiker]

wouldnt it be easy to mute the tv and listen to Saunders and Coatsie? they will mention when the Flyers are getting worked. I mean sure there might be some bias in there. you have to be a bit, but the radio guys are a bit easier on the ears to me IMO

I still want to hear some of the game sound. When the voices are quiet it's easy to ignore and just listen to the game.

I don't want any voice at all, so I don't listen to the radio either.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

wouldnt it be easy to mute the tv and listen to Saunders and Coatsie? they will mention when the Flyers are getting worked. I mean sure there might be some bias in there. you have to be a bit, but the radio guys are a bit easier on the ears to me IMO

Therien was that way on the radio too. I genuinely enjoyed him. That broadcast has to have much less oversight.

I still want to hear some of the game sound. When the voices are quiet it's easy to ignore and just listen to the game.

I don't want any voice at all, so I don't listen to the radio either.

Surround sound and turn your center channel all the way down. No announcers and all of the game sound.

 

[BritainStix]

So after weeks of really good defensive play, is it time to crucify Ghost for a single mistake?

I didnt see a single person "crucify" him. The goal was blatantly on him. Im not sure how you can argue that

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Therien was that way on the radio too. I genuinely enjoyed him. That broadcast has to have much less oversight.



Surround sound and turn your center channel all the way down. No announcers and all of the game sound.

yup. Therien had no issue calling the team out when it needed it.
I prefer the radio calls anyway. But that is just probably my age showing.

 

[Tripod]

I went thru the goals and rewound a few times, here my opinion:

1st goal: Honestly, it was everyone's fault on the ice. Raffl was out with G and Couts. The puck is in the slot and neither G or Couts can get the puck. The puck goes to the LW boards where Raffl pressures. Hagg also goes to the same guy to pressure him leaving the guy in the slot open that Giroux is standing behind.(48 sec) Hagg also coaststo turn around instead of stop start. Technically, G should not even be there but he is because he sees Hagg and Raffl are focused on 1 guy and the guy is open in the slot.(Couts covering Dman up high) So now G is trying to strip a guy from behind. AMac had his man standing behind the net but that guy also moves out to the wide slot at 48 sec. AMac choses to follow that guy leaving a clear path in front of MN instead of protecting the high danger area. At 50 seconds, G, AMac and Hagg all are waiving their sticks at the goal scorer with Hagg being the closest guy. Neuvirth goes down for no reason.

2nd goal: Laughton over pursues(1:08), but Peca is still below the goal line. in the corner. By 1:10, he has the angle on Laughton, Gudas is stuck on the net as Gourde is now on the far post. Manning leaves the slot area to follow his man who pretty much skates into the corner(1:11). Gudas is still stuck on the net and now Manning waives at Peca as he goes by and shoots. MN save, rebound goes to Gourde who originally was Gudas's guy.

3rd goal: Ghost...obvious.

4th goal: Weal loses puck in OZ zone, 3-2 the other way(2:16). Buy 2:19...it's a 4 on 4 in our end. Kuch spins away from Weal to get the pass, then again spins away from him to get into the slot. Simmonds chooses to leave Namest. to protect the slot, but the pass goes to Namest who scores. But also watch Flip at 2:21. He is outside the blueline and does not take one stride to get back, he coasts all the way "taking" his man behind him, but if he took 1-2 strides, he could have covered Namest quite easy who scored 2 seconds later....no awareness.

5th goal: 2:45 both Flip and Gudas are the closest 2 to the puck in the corner. Looks like Gudas strips Flip of the puck and an Atom level pass ensues where it's picked off. Guy throws it toward slot and it gets by Manning to Stamkos(2:47), who then passes to Namest who Gudas is trailing and is too slow to get back.

There you have it. That's how I broke it down after watching, replaying, seeing different angles, etc... And here is the link I used to watch to see the times of things happening:



So my opinion:

Goal 1: total breakdown on everyone on the ice. No one made the right play at all. G, Laughton, Hagg, AMac, Neuvirth all could have stopped the goal.
Goal 2: Gudas takes no one and stays caught up in the net for 4 seconds meanwhile he doesn't stop the passer who becomes his guy and his former guy is the eventual goalscorer. Laughton overpursues. AMAc drifts leaving the slot open
Goal 3: Ghost
Goal 4: Weal makes 3 mistakes
Goal 5: Gudas makes 2 mistakes, the weak pass and too slow to get to his man that scores. Manning misses 2 passes, the one to Stamkos and the one from Stamkos.

 

[whitstifier]

I still want to hear some of the game sound. When the voices are quiet it's easy to ignore and just listen to the game.

I don't want any voice at all, so I don't listen to the radio either.

I loooooove the sounds of hockey. Announcers are so hit or miss.

I've been watching a bit more of the Canes lately. Their setup is so much more professional and knowledgeable than the Flyers crew. It's like not even close...

 

[Striiker]

On the first one, Giroux was fine until Hagg just abandoned the front of the net and left the guy there. As soon as he saw that Giroux started moving towards him but his stick got stuck. Definitely more on Hagg than anyone else.

Then the second goal, the guy got around Laughton but Manning should have been in front of the net instead of just floating around to the side. I don't know if Gudas was even stuck, it looks like he just stood there and a second later was perfectly fine.

Even if you want to argue that the forwards could have played it better, there's no way in hell you blame them more than the defensemen.

 

[Beef Invictus]

I didnt see a single person "crucify" him. The goal was blatantly on him. Im not sure how you can argue that

Yet the same people write off every mistake by Hak's favorites. That remains true.

 

[Adtar02]

That would be pretty great. I think we matchup best with Washington but I think this would result in a second round matchup with TB if we could pull it off.

They dont reseed. If your in the metro for the first round you stay there. IE if we beat Wash in this we would play the winner of NJ Col. we want the First wild card or higher to miss Tampa till the Conference finals

 

[DrinkFightFlyers]

They dont reseed. If your in the metro for the first round you stay there. IE if we beat Wash in this we would play the winner of NJ Col. we want the First wild card or higher to miss Tampa till the Conference finals

They don't re-seed anymore? Damn then I like this set up even better!

 

[Curufinwe]

I'm not sure why anyone ever wants to defend MacDonald and his inabilities to actually be a decent NHL defenseman. You don't go to the AHL at around 30 if you're a decent player.

Gagner passed thru waivers at age 26 despite being a UFA without term on his contract, but he came back and scored 50 points in the NHL the next season, and got a 3 year contract from Vancouver. I wouldn't say he's good, but he is decent.

Jordan Weal is another decent player who passed thru waivers as a Flyer.

 

[deadhead]

I doubt they're "Hakstol's favorites." His previous "favorites" are long gone. Seems when y'all label a player as such, his job security is slim
They're the players that Hextall has stuck Hakstol with because he doesn't want to rush prospects.
And Hakstol has those "castoffs" playing at a 94 point pace.
Minutes for Manning, Hagg and MacDonald have been reduced.

The whining around here comes down to one thing, you don't like Hextall's decisions.
You don't really think Hakstol and Hextall didn't have long discussions about what to do with Sanheim?
You think Hextall was happy with Sanheim's play?

They've been pretty explicit about their expectations for young defensemen, they have multiple coaches working with them, they want them to break bad habits learned in juniors, to quickly get rid of the puck, pass north-south, focus on proper positioning, etc. - not that different from what TB teaches their kids.

And Hextall has made it clear he expects the kids to learn in the AHL and have those fundamentals down when they come up.
Young players will make mistakes, but if they look clueless, they won't be long in the NHL.
As Hextall has said repeatedly, the NHL is not a developmental league.

 

[Lindberg]

Gagner passed thru waivers at age 26 despite being a UFA without term on his contract, but he came back and scored 50 points in the NHL the next season, and got a 3 year contract from Vancouver. I wouldn't say he's good, but he is decent.

Jordan Weal is another decent player who passed thru waivers as a Flyer.

Gagner is a little bit different since he was a buy low candidate. I 1000x support the Flyers bargain bin shopping for a player who might/can make a difference.

Jordan Weal was for the most part an unknown commodity (if you want to even call him that).

Contracts make a huge difference in your value as a player and Andrew MacDonald isn't valuable flat out. He's also in a position that isn't as easily sheltered.

 

[deadhead]

MacDonald wasn't going to get picked up on waivers because you have to assume his contract.
Don't know the exact rules, but I assume they'd have to outright cut him for another team to avoid his contract.
The only way anyone takes him is with half his salary retained or in exchange for another bad contract.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

They wanted Bellemare back. They extended him with a sizable raise. Getting bailed out of the deal doesn't change history.

They get zero credit for moving on from him, which makes the history of moving on from Hakstol's ridiculous favorites hit and miss.

 

[Lindberg]

PEB has certainly cooled off. Laughable how some people thought the Flyers made a mistake by not being able to keep him.

 

[deadhead]

You mean the guy who plays 12:12 and has posted 46g 5-2 7. CF% 52.2, CFrel 0.7, E+/- +1.2, 38 TK, 14 GV, 6.2 GA/60 on the PK.
Meanwhile Laughton 11:38, 49g 7-7 14, CF% 50.4, CFrel 1.5, E +/- +0.4, 14 TK, 16 GV, 8.8 GA/60 on the PK.

Pretty much a wash, but we exposed PEB and kept Laughton.
Of course, Laughton has a lot more upside.

 

[Rebels57]

i think they are going to be the favorites to win the stanley cup, they have everything a number one center, number one defensemen, number one goalie and the only reason the flyers are in this is because of giroux and elliot, if they get a number one defensemen and goalie, i think they will be favorites, i dont consider elliot and provy number 1 players, they are too inconsistent.

Wut?

We've never had a 21 year old defensemen this consistently good in our 51 history.

Few 21 year old defensemen in NHL history have been asked to be a teams #1 defensemen.

Our current top pair has been dominant since being put together.

The biggest issues on this team are the abymsal bottom 4 on defense, the complete lack of a 2C, and as you mentioned, an elite goalie.

 

[The Rage Kage]

I think I'd rather the Flyers go up against the Lightning in the playoffs than the Bruins. Maybe I'm forgetting a game but I cant remember the last time they played the Bruins that I actually thought they played a good game.

 

[TCTC]

They wanted Bellemare back. They extended him with a sizable raise. Getting bailed out of the deal doesn't change history.

They get zero credit for moving on from him, which makes the history of moving on from Hakstol's ridiculous favorites hit and miss.

He makes just over 1 million. Let's not act like we were lucky to lose an albatross. We have about a handful of worse contracts on the current roster.