GDT: #78 | FLYERS at Avalanche | Wed., Mar. 28, 2018, 10:00 pm ET | ALT, NBCSP+

[TCTC]

Gudas was neutered by the league.

If Gudas needs to be a reckless player in order to be efficient then he's never been a very good player to begin with.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

LOL. Sanheim should never go to the suite again unless he’s injured. I could see him inserting Hagg back in the lineup, but Manning has actually played halfway decent the past two games. Maybe for Gudas? Who knows with Hak’s logic.

Gudas was a tree on the tying goal.
I know Hagg has his issues, but given what we have seen from Gudas lately how much of a drop off would there really be if they were swapped out. it would never happen obviously.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

inB4 Neuvy injured partway throu the game..

partway?
I am thinking he shatters his groin in the pregame skate.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

If Gudas needs to be a reckless player in order to be efficient then he's never been a very good player to begin with.

If you have to take a split second to think about doing something, it renders you less effective.

 

[TheKingPin]

They are also second in the league in OT wins with 8.

NHL.com - Stats

And if they played another 10 OT they’d have another 3 wins.

 

[TheKingPin]

So sad that we define "good" from Manning as only being responsible for one goal against. I can count at least 6 goals I've seen Manning directly responsible for in the last 6 weeks. Take away some of those goals and we have a few more wins. The standard for good should not be lower bc he's Manning. He sucks. We all know it. Difference is, his sucking never gets him a seat in the press box bc Hak has some affinity for undeserving, lackluster players - perhaps living out some vicarious dream of his through them

Certainly sucks we have to see who should sit in manning vs amac.

 

[hatcher]

If Gudas needs to be a reckless player in order to be efficient then he's never been a very good player to begin with.

He could still be crushing players along the boards. He quit or the coaching staff too it out of him which is terrible. Sutter would have these guys fore checking like animals and the d taking the body.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

This just seems contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. AMac has been as bad as he's ever been, just in a slightly diminished role. Do you remember the penalty last night that let them tie the game? What about every 2-on-1 against this season? The guy panics like no one I've ever seen or just never knows what decision to make under pressure. It's crazy to me that you're blaming every defenseman but AMac and Manning, our worst two defenders.

I think I gave a pretty reasonable, middle-of-the road answer.
I acknowledged AMac turns it over in his own zone, like the entire defense does.
But I do think that his good plays get filtered out and ignored. And he has made a number of good plays this season, such as last night when he bailed Laughton out on a bad turnover that caused a 2-on-1.
He's first among the team's defensemen in +/- at +12.
He's got 19 points in 61 games.
His zone starts are absolutely brutal.
And his giveaways are half of Provorov's.

As I said in my "contrarian" post, I'm not saying AMac has been great. Just saying he's had a better season than I think he gets credit for and that he's been "adequate" in a difficult role.

Boy, many of you really can't take moderate, middle-of-the road thoughts on a player.

 

[blinds]

I didn't think my post was anything less than moderate, it's not extreme to acknowledge that he's one of our worst defensemen. He's got the worst Corsi on our defense with the exception of his rookie partner. He does have the most extreme zone starts but he also has the second highest PDO. His +/- is nice, but by expected +/- he's only at 0.6, good for 3rd to last among regulars.

I mean, he's not the worst by far given our team is full of mistake-prone young guys and bad veterans, but MacDonald still tends to stand out in a bad way. I wouldn't even call him the worst, he's better than Manning and Hagg although I feel the rookie should get a pass. He's been better than Gudas lately as well. But he's not particularly talented or physically gifted in any regard and his decision making leads to many mistakes and strong scoring chances against. I guess he's a good locker room presence going off the team defending him earlier this season, but I just don't see much of any positive value that he provides on the ice. He's just a vet that I guess Hakstol feels is consistent enough that he can put him out there and get exactly what he expects out of him. He's not good and rarely has any flashes of brilliance, but he's consistently mediocre enough for a coach that prioritizes maintaining the status quo over pushing the play.

I'd rather have Manning than MacDonald next year.
Gudas is tougher, is this season an anomaly or was last season the anomaly and this season regression to the mean?

Probably somewhere in the middle. Gudas seems to be both the victim of bad luck and bad decisions lately.

 

[deadhead]

People just have exaggerated expectations for this team.

We're not nearly as deep as Pittsburgh, which is only 2 points ahead with the same shoddy goaltending (.906 v .905).
We don't have the hot goaltender that makes Columbus, New Jersey and Florida look better. But CBJ has 1 point on us, NJ 2 behind, FLA 5 behind.
Outside of Giroux, Couts and maybe Voracek (great stats, but mind fart city) our five best players are 21 or younger.

A neutral observer would probably suggest this team is an average goaltender and a year of experience away from the playoffs.
So Hakstol is trying to back in by "stealing" points because his team simply isn't good enough to just win games.

18 games since Neuvirth went down: 8-6-4.

I just don't get the anguish, people keep suggesting this is a good team, but ignore the reality that half of our roster won't be here in two years.
[Filppula, Lehtera, Simmonds, Read, Weal, MacDonald, Manning, Gudas, Elliott, Neuvirth, not to mention Weise, Leier, Lyon and maybe Hagg and Laughton]
We have one top line, a 2nd line that could be very good NEXT year, no third or fourth line, a top D-pair, a second pair under construction, meh 3rd pair, and Mrazek and Lyon in goal.

Next year we may add Frost (20), Morin (23), Myers (22), NAK (22), Vorobyev (22).
We could have a team with 9 of 18 starters 22 or younger.

 

[Avalanche]

Just a heads up, we might have a flu bug going through the locker room right now. Maybe try and play with some hazmat suits?

Good luck.

 

[YEM]

Just a heads up, we might have a flu bug going through the locker room right now. Maybe try and play with some hazmat suits?

Good luck.

is Varly out?

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

Just a heads up, we might have a flu bug going through the locker room right now. Maybe try and play with some hazmat suits?

Good luck.

Ha. Like our Vets aren't smart enough to protect themselves from sickness. They're vets after all!

 

[Avalanche]

is Varly out?

Bednar said it's a game time decision. Writers think Hammond is getting the start.

 

[YEM]

Bednar said it's a game time decision. Writers think Hammond is getting the start.

cheers, thanks

 

[Hiesenberg]

It's bad enough that this team struggles to even be competitive most of the time. But Hakstol has instilled such a boring team. I honestly don't even want to watch the games...win or lose.

 

[Curufinwe]

It's bad enough that this team struggles to even be competitive most of the time. But Hakstol has instilled such a boring team. I honestly don't even want to watch the games...win or lose.

Then don't.

 

[FlyerFaithful17]

People just have exaggerated expectations for this team.

We're not nearly as deep as Pittsburgh, which is only 2 points ahead with the same shoddy goaltending (.906 v .905).
We don't have the hot goaltender that makes Columbus, New Jersey and Florida look better. But CBJ has 1 point on us, NJ 2 behind, FLA 5 behind.
Outside of Giroux, Couts and maybe Voracek (great stats, but mind fart city) our five best players are 21 or younger.

A neutral observer would probably suggest this team is an average goaltender and a year of experience away from the playoffs.
So Hakstol is trying to back in by "stealing" points because his team simply isn't good enough to just win games.

18 games since Neuvirth went down: 8-6-4.

I just don't get the anguish, people keep suggesting this is a good team, but ignore the reality that half of our roster won't be here in two years.
[Filppula, Lehtera, Simmonds, Read, Weal, MacDonald, Manning, Gudas, Elliott, Neuvirth, not to mention Weise, Leier, Lyon and maybe Hagg and Laughton]
We have one top line, a 2nd line that could be very good NEXT year, no third or fourth line, a top D-pair, a second pair under construction, meh 3rd pair, and Mrazek and Lyon in goal.

Next year we may add Frost (20), Morin (23), Myers (22), NAK (22), Vorobyev (22).
We could have a team with 9 of 18 starters 22 or younger.

Pittsburgh is playing far below their actual level this year. Also, if we had won back to back Cups, I doubt it would be as miserable here. Just because the Pens are underachieving doesn't mean we should be ok with our team currently underachieving, and yes, losing to teams like Detroit and a melting down Dallas counts as underachieving for the Flyers.

 

[deadhead]

Hakstol is trying to make the playoffs, to do so, he has to protect half his roster.
The best way to do that is to play "safe" hockey where you don't ask mediocre and/or highly inexperienced players (the entire roster outside of Giroux, Couts, Ghost and Voracek with Raffl out).

As the talent depth increases, and the young players get more experience, my suspicion is this team will play more of a wide open game, within the structure of the scheme.

I don't think the scheme is boring, Flyer defensemen are 2nd in the league in goals, that's pretty aggressive!
It's half of the players on the team that are boring, once the third and fourth lines hit the ice it's finger crossing time.

 

[FlyerFaithful17]

Hakstol is trying to make the playoffs, to do so, he has to protect half his roster.
The best way to do that is to play "safe" hockey where you don't ask mediocre and/or highly inexperienced players (the entire roster outside of Giroux, Couts, Ghost and Voracek with Raffl out).

As the talent depth increases, and the young players get more experience, my suspicion is this team will play more of a wide open game, within the structure of the scheme.

I don't think the scheme is boring, Flyer defensemen are 2nd in the league in goals, that's pretty aggressive!
It's half of the players on the team that are boring, once the third and fourth lines hit the ice it's finger crossing time.

I agree, partly. His scheme early in games is usually fine, but on no planet is putting Lehtera out for an offensive zone draw with 2 minutes left a winning idea.

 

[Stizzle]

Hot take, Neuvy starts and Haag comes back in and Sanheim gets some more learning time !!!!!

Sadly, this would not surprise me one bit. We've lost 3 of 4. Hak has an easy excuse to get one of his "safe reliable's" back in and banish a kid the GM has forced on him.

Also, if Filp misses the game tonight, is everyone looking forward to our new 3C Torgo?

 

[Strawberry Fields]

10:00 PM start and 8:00 AM class 25 minutes away the next morning means I'm probably not watching this one.

 

[deadhead]

Sadly, this would not surprise me one bit. We've lost 3 of 4. Hak has an easy excuse to get one of his "safe reliable's" back in and banish a kid the GM has forced on him.

Also, if Filp misses the game tonight, is everyone looking forward to our new 3C Torgo?

Torgo, Filppula or Laughton, just fast forward to Frost, Vorobyev, and Rubtsov.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

Curious to see their top line for the first time this year. Figures both Bednar and Hakslol will try to match them against filps/torgo as much as possible.

 

[deadhead]

Pittsburgh is playing far below their actual level this year. Also, if we had won back to back Cups, I doubt it would be as miserable here. Just because the Pens are underachieving doesn't mean we should be ok with our team currently underachieving, and yes, losing to teams like Detroit and a melting down Dallas counts as underachieving for the Flyers.

But isn't that on the coach?

Losing to bad teams on the road is pretty normal for mediocre teams, that's why they're mediocre.