Post-Game Talk: #51 | Flyers at Panthers | February 6, 2024 | Flyers win 2-1

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

I also forgot to mention from the first post, EVH!!!! God I miss Ed.

 

[Chicken N Raffls]

I think the thing with him might be that he's good

I was going to say it's because he's awesome. You are learning though. Learning is positive.

Seriously though, I think his IQ and vision don't get talked about enough. Some of the passes he's made this year...skill aside (which is required!) The fact he can read where guys are gonna be is pretty nuts. And in tight areas too.

In his rookie season there was one play that always stuck out to me. He was the lone forward waiting for the calvary along the boards behind the opponent's net. It's a play you see a hundred times in any hockey game. Forward eats the puck/hit along the boards and waits for help. He was about to do that...then he didn't. I don't remember exactly how he spun away from that, but he did and ended up in open ice near the goal with the puck. The word that jumped to my mind seeing that was "deceptive" Ho Hum, just another dime a dozen hockey play....psyche!

 

[deadhead]

Farabee just needed to add some strength, I've been on his bandwagon for years, last season he couldn't work out and it showed. Now he's healthy and physical mature and can play in traffic. You want elite players? Among all players with 450+ (5x5) minutes, Farabee is 2nd in pp/60 behind MacKinnon, TK (43), Tippett (48). Add Michkov and forward is not an issue, just need a center or two.

Atkinson (111), Couts (120), Frost (155).
If Atkinson didn't have another year on his deal, might be a coveted player at the TDL.

This was the kind of game that leaves questions about Frost, both his linemates played better without him, it was a playoff type of game and he was MIA. If he's your 3C, you're fine, but is he a playoff 2C? It's not that he doesn't have value, but would you give him a Tippett like deal?

Cates - ??? - Foerster, if they could get a young physical two way center with speed but more skill than Poehling, that would be a potential shutdown line. Doesn't have to be an elite player, just tough, high IQ with enough skill to be a plus on offense. Poehling has speed and effort, but just doesn't have the hands and vision to be more than a checking line center.

People keep dissing Risto, but he played the most 5x5 minutes and played them well, he ain't pretty, but he's a solid defensive defenseman now with enough offense that he's not a cipher there. Doesn't matter if they overpaid, I think they're working him in with Sanheim in anticipation of the TDL.

Drysdale is a work in progress, if they were to keep Seeler, I'd pair him with Drysdale to CYA and settle him down. Kid is only 21, he could use a protector.

Zamula struggled, he flashes nice plays, but is still learning to deal with pressure, fast forechecking teams gives him fits.

Ersson had a great game, right now my worry would be stamina. Is he a 50+ game goalie or a 1A in a tandem? Nothing wrong with the later, except Peterson ain't a 1B.

 

[BritainStix]

Massive win against a very strong team.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

That Walker to Bee to TK for the goal play was amazing. Highlight reel stuff from start to finish. @Beef Invictus have you figured out Farabee yet?

Talk about transition.

Walker from his own zone zips to Farabee who deftly deflects to open space to spring TK for a breakaway—bang, goal.

All the way up the ice & in the net before Florida knew what hit them.

Hell of a team play.

 

[BillDineen]

Cates "more offensive there" with his 2nd of the year. Glad he rejected their 8x5m offer or whatever Danny and Co. imagined up

On Kulikov being a good player, Boucher: "He has bite and blocks a lot of shots". Every single former Flyer in the org thinks exactly the same

Good bounce back, especially Ersson

 

[VladDrag]

@VladDrag



Fingers crossed he can get back to his offensive numbers from last season. 45 point pace, here we come.

@Hollywood Cannon posted this in the GDT…my response then:

Oh ffs, Charlie. He almost lost the puck a half a second after touching it with no one around him. Then, the puck was poke-checked off his stick, bounced off his shin and ended up back on his stick.

Now, it was great drive and determination to push through that, but it's a clearly broken play that ended up in a great result.

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

So Farabee is tired with McDavid for 3rd in scoring at even strength. Please explain how Crocky Thompson can't get him on the PP1 unit?

 

[Ghosts Beer]

It’s fun to see Farabee taking the next step.

He’s making plays & racking up points despite not being an explosive skater. Last season he was easily kept to the perimeter, but he’s got more power to his game now.

 

[wankstifier]

@VladDrag



Fingers crossed he can get back to his offensive numbers from last season. 45 point pace, here we come.

Forsling and Ekblad looked horrendous in that sequence

 

[VladDrag]

Good win last night against a better opponent. The first was ugly in terms of possession against, but the Flyers did a great job in defensive structure. Florida’s forechecking in the first was all over the Flyers. I don’t think the Flyers played poorly in the first, I just think that Florida was so much better. Ersson was strong early as well.

The second period the flyers came out much better. They were able to sustain more pressure in the o-zone, which mitigated Florida’s forecheck. Much of the same in the 3rd.

All in all - it was a good defensive performance, and got a couple of bounces to go their way.

A few players notes:
-Tip was hot and cold - had some decent chances, made some dumb reads, but they are a better team with him in the lineup. He brings an element that few others bring
-Farabee-Frost-TK line was awesome and should stay together for awhile. The only line that could cycle consistently While Frost was kind of MIA offensively, he was so good in many other areas. Super strong in puck possession
-Walker is awesome in transition.
-I am beginning to see signs of degradation in Couts. Hopefully it’s just a bad month of hockey, but not excited to see this team with a less than 100% Couts. Could also be linemates
- Cates-Poehling-X would be an awesome 4th line. Both Cates and Poehling are strong possession players.
-Finally, I really believe they miss Brink in the offensive zone. He’s one of the few players who really understands the offensive cycle game.

 

[mr4tno]

@VladDrag



Fingers crossed he can get back to his offensive numbers from last season. 45 point pace, here we come.

Serious question, how do you read this? +/- is antiquated and has flaws, but I can look at it and get a reasonable understanding of what is going on. What am I looking for in this chart? Colors? Length of bar? etc....

 

[VladDrag]

Serious question, how do you read this? +/- is antiquated and has flaws, but I can look at it and get a reasonable understanding of what is going on. What am I looking for in this chart? Colors? Length of bar? etc....

So the middle line that runs down the middle is a z-score of 0. Basically the average for that stat.

Anything blue means that player is better than average. Anything red means worse than average. The darker the color the better or worse they are.

Edit : Most players end up around a z-score -1 to +1 for any given stat. Basically a -1 z-score is ~16 percentile and a +1 z-score is ~84 percentile. So anytime a stat approaches those z-score values, that player is either really good or really bad, depending on its positive/negative value.

 

[BernieParent]

Ersson kept them in the game in the 1st and they found a way to win. Kudos to them for a very solid effort.

At some point though, Torts is gonna have to give Cal some games in net or he’s gonna kill Ersson. Those games are going to be uglier than Kevin Hayes.

Tortorella's MO is that rest is for the weak.

 

[usahockey22flyers]

Good win last night against a better opponent. The first was ugly in terms of possession against, but the Flyers did a great job in defensive structure. Florida’s forechecking in the first was all over the Flyers. I don’t think the Flyers played poorly in the first, I just think that Florida was so much better. Ersson was strong early as well.

The second period the flyers came out much better. They were able to sustain more pressure in the o-zone, which mitigated Florida’s forecheck. Much of the same in the 3rd.

All in all - it was a good defensive performance, and got a couple of bounces to go their way.

A few players notes:
-Tip was hot and cold - had some decent chances, made some dumb reads, but they are a better team with him in the lineup. He brings an element that few others bring
-Farabee-Frost-TK line was awesome and should stay together for awhile. The only line that could cycle consistently While Frost was kind of MIA offensively, he was so good in many other areas. Super strong in puck possession
-Walker is awesome in transition.
-I am beginning to see signs of degradation in Couts. Hopefully it’s just a bad month of hockey, but not excited to see this team with a less than 100% Couts. Could also be linemates
- Cates-Poehling-X would be an awesome 4th line. Both Cates and Poehling are strong possession players.
-Finally, I really believe they miss Brink in the offensive zone. He’s one of the few players who really understands the offensive cycle game.

I thought Frost was great on the backcheck, especially in the 2nd period. I don’t want to hear anything from the Torts folks about him last night, he played a really well rounded game. He skated his tail off to make 2v2 2v3 several times!!!

 

[ybnvs]

So who wants to defend/explain the Lycksell scratching?

 

[Curufinwe]

All in all - it was a good defensive performance, and got a couple of bounces to go their way.

A few players notes:
-Tip was hot and cold - had some decent chances, made some dumb reads, but they are a better team with him in the lineup. He brings an element that few others bring

He's gonna mail it in for the next 9 years.

So who wants to defend/explain the Lycksell scratching?

I can explain it - he's not a Torts type of player.

 

[deadhead]

Lycksell was scratch for a couple reasons, road game against a physical team, and they want to go with 7 D-men as much as they can to both showcase Walker and Seeler and to give Zamula PT b/c he's going to start after the TDL.

Cates was solid offensively as a LW with Frost and Tippett in his cameo in 2021-22. He's a complementary player on a scoring line, doing the dirty work like Lindblom before cancer. As a center he's a defense first guy who only makes sense on a checking line (and praising Frost for that kind of play is saying he's a good middle six center).

This team has (3) 1sts and (4) 2nds the next two drafts, plus they'll probably add at least a 2nd and 3rd at the TDL. They need to add a top six center and a top 4 D-man to go with Michkov and Bonk. Whether drafting one or using some of those assets to trade for one. Guys like Foerster, Cates and Brink will look much better with better center depth.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

So who wants to defend/explain the Lycksell scratching?

He’s not good?

 

[deadhead]

He’s not good?

Off his last couple games, he's probably as good as Laughton and Hathaway, but on the road in Florida, you're throwing him to the wolves (i.e., going to struggle with their style of play).

They're basically going with three lines, two older players in Couts and Atkinson, so they really are committing to the kids. I think if Lycksell continues to play well, he'll gradually increase his PT, but doubt they see him as a core player going forward, more in the bottom six mix with Desnoyers, Avon, and Tuomaala.

 

[Cody Webster]

Off his last couple games, he's probably as good as Laughton and Hathaway, but on the road in Florida, you're throwing him to the wolves (i.e., going to struggle with their style of play).

They're basically going with three lines, two older players in Couts and Atkinson, so they really are committing to the kids. I think if Lycksell continues to play well, he'll gradually increase his PT, but doubt they see him as a core player going forward, more in the bottom six mix with Desnoyers, Avon, and Tuomaala.

So, they just going to shelter him forever? Why not let him get used to those type of games in a rebuilding year? Or is it because they aren't really rebuilding?

 

[deadhead]

Given the TDL, who are you going to bench with only a month left and lower their value?
And yes, competing for a PO spot (without sacrificing assets to do so) is part of rebuilding, it's about developing and evaluating your young core.

Lycksell is 24, and has yet to win a job, he's not part of the core.
Whereas Brink is 22 and played ahead of him b/c he has far more upside.

 

[dragonoffrost]

Given the TDL, who are you going to bench with only a month left and lower their value?
And yes, competing for a PO spot (without sacrificing assets to do so) is part of rebuilding, it's about developing and evaluating your young core.

Lycksell is 24, and has yet to win a job, he's not part of the core.
Whereas Brink is 22 and played ahead of him b/c he has far more upside.

You yourself said he's as good as Hathaway. Why in a rebuild do you not play the younger Lycksell instead of Hathaway to get him used to the hard more physical competition?

Oh that's right they don't want to lose the game to let the kid learn.

Yeah they are rebuilding.....

 

[deadhead]

You yourself said he's as good as Hathaway. Why in a rebuild do you not play the younger Lycksell instead of Hathaway to get him used to the hard more physical competition?

Oh that's right they don't want to lose the game to let the kid learn.

Yeah they are rebuilding.....

You want to lose a shot at the playoffs to give Lycksell a chance to get beat up on the road?
That's not rebuilding, that's just masochism!

Torts stuck with Brink during a full month in which he totally sucked.
But with Brink, there's enough upside that you'll be patient. Same way Torts is sticking with Zamula.

I don't see that kind of upside with Lycksell.
He's more in the Laczynski, Allison camp, "the future is now."

 

[dragonoffrost]

You want to lose a shot at the playoffs to give Lycksell a chance to get beat up on the road?
That's not rebuilding, that's just masochism!

Torts stuck with Brink during a full month in which he totally sucked.
But with Brink, there's enough upside that you'll be patient. Same way Torts is sticking with Zamula.

I don't see that kind of upside with Lycksell.
He's more in the Laczynski, Allison camp, "the future is now."

Masochism? You just totally dismissed the kids chances by not playing him over players he's better than. Just send his ass back to LHV now if you aren't going to use him at the NHL level because you don't want him pushed around. Oh wait AHL tends to be more physical. Send him to Europe.