GDT: #79 | Bruins 3 at FLYERS 4 (OT) | Sun., Apr. 1, 2018, 12:30 pm ET | NBC, TVAS

[Magua]

Giroux does PK on the 3rd unit (over a minute per game last couple months; just under for the season) and does play at the end of games.

Playing your best players in high leverage situations, especially ones your team struggles in, is common sense to me. I understand workload management (but that’s not the reason and that’s more PKing than late game and ); injury issues are BS to me. Nothing is stopping you from getting injured at ES.

Ghost isn’t used because the coaches erroneously believe he doesn’t give them the best chance to win in those minutes based on nothing more than by the book, narrow-minded bias. These coaches are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Well, Dave’s teeth might literally be, but that’s not what I meant.

 

[Delete99991]

I’ll take heat for it, because Mac did have that goal go off his skate (thought it was mostly bad luck), had a bad late icing, & also had a late clear bounce off Lehtera (of course), but I also thought he made a lot of good plays today. And he’s up against it having to play as a #3 against Boston. Far from a flawless game, but few defensemen have those. He was ok. Gudas was far far worse. And I’ve always liked Gudas more than AMac.

On another note, Mrazek played well again. The guy scares the hell out of me, but credit where due.

I'll give you this much (and alluded to it elsewhere) - Gudas was the worst of em all today.

The puck off his skate - it burned me up to hear Olczyk say something like "good play by MacDonald, just a freak bounce/bad luck". Well yeah Edzo, that'll happen when your strategy is to set up 15 feet from the puckhandler at an odd angle. AMac backs in all the time, closes his eyes and hope the puck hits him or misses him - but if often glances off him and creates more trouble.

I guarantee that if we counted the number of "bad-luck" skate deflections this year, he'd be worst on the team by a mile.

 

[BritainStix]

This entire game was just a highlight real package wasnt it. We got

Flyers
Best save of the year
Best individual goal of the year
Best breakaway finish of the year

Boston
Best defensive save of the year (2 on 0)
4 seconds remaining to tie.

 

[OzFlyers]

This entire game was just a highlight real package wasnt it. We got

Flyers
Best save of the year
Best individual goal of the year
Best breakaway finish of the year

Boston
Best defensive save of the year (2 on 0)
4 seconds remaining to tie.

It was a great game by the Flyers and the talk of all the media but you wouldn't know it if you just read here!

 

[GapToothedWonder]

It was a great game by the Flyers and the talk of all the media but you wouldn't know it if you just read here!

It's almost like people who watch every single game and closely follow the team 365 days a year can see issues that people who follow the league as a whole don't notice! Like sample size effects pattern recognition! Like the national broadcasts always pump everybodies tires!

When was the last time you have heard a national broadcast talk about how bad a coach or GM is. Honestly think about it. Normally they sober on everybodies knob.

Kumbaya

 

[Lindberg]

I'll give you this much (and alluded to it elsewhere) - Gudas was the worst of em all today.

The puck off his skate - it burned me up to hear Olczyk say something like "good play by MacDonald, just a freak bounce/bad luck". Well yeah Edzo, that'll happen when your strategy is to set up 15 feet from the puckhandler at an odd angle. AMac backs in all the time, closes his eyes and hope the puck hits him or misses him - but if often glances off him and creates more trouble.

I guarantee that if we counted the number of "bad-luck" skate deflections this year, he'd be worst on the team by a mile.

MacDonald routinely has pucks go off of him and into the net. But yeah lets keep just chalking that up to bad luck. MacDonald is just a bad player.

 

[BernieParent]

I just got to see the futile last several seconds of regular time. Man, what a ridiculous sequence of atom-level puck awareness. What has happened to Simmonds? He was one of the few outstanding players in the past couple of years. That level of sloppiness is in no way due to injury.

 

[Amorgus]

At least you know there's a happy ending to Jesus' story so the last laugh is always there for you if you want it.

Paul Steigerwald's Hobey Baker joke on the other hand...

 

[deadhead]

The Weal/Flip/AMac trio was absolutely overwhelmed on that short shift and Boston nearly scored. This board would've blown up if they did.

If you watched them, all they wanted to do was rag the puck for 30 seconds and buy time for the real 3x3 guys to catch their breath.
This is what happens when you lack depth.
Then the real guys got back on the ice and won the game.
It was an educated gamble that worked.

 

[deadhead]

MacDonald has blocked 124 shots this year, Ghost has survived somehow while blocking 109.

This isn't the reason people want Ghost out there to protect a lead. Ghost makes smart defensive plays every single game; he disrupts passes and challenges puck carriers at the blue line so they never get into a position to shoot. And Ghost can actually make plays in transition once he gets the puck to eliminate future chances.

As opposed to MacDonald, who backs up all the way to the face-off circle, waves his stick and dives to the ice, essentially giving the other team a 6-on-4.

Ghost is much better defensively 5x5, but it's a lot harder to disrupt entries 6x5 when the opposing team can dump it in and chase with an extra man, and unlike a PK, you can't just ice the puck. One reason he makes a lot of defensive plays 5x5 is his skating ability in open ice, that's not as effective 6x5.

The problem is we don't have good players for 6x5 on the roster right now, the best candidates are either in the pipeline or very inexperienced.
Voracek would be great if he wasn't brain dead, Raffl is hurt, Simmonds is a shadow of himself, Filppula and Lehtera are way over the hill.
And you can't play Giroux and Couts and Provorov the entire last five minutes.

The biggest issue this season is what happened to Gudas? Here's a guy whose metrics don't reveal how far he's regressed, right now Manning >> Gudas. I think at this point Hextall is playing Gudas only because he lacks viable alternatives (Hagg) and hopes he snaps out of it.

 

[Amorgus]

The biggest issue this season is what happened to Gudas? Here's a guy whose metrics don't reveal how far he's regressed, right now Manning >> Gudas. I think at this point Hextall is playing Gudas only because he lacks viable alternatives (Hagg) and hopes he snaps out of it.

I believe that's an easy one. Fear of suspensions happened to Gudas. He's afraid to touch anybody now and is being forced to rely on his (lacking) skill and IQ instead of just bulldozing the opposition.

 

[FlyersMania2]

To the people who LOVE +/- and also argue the following:

Jori Lehtera is on the ice in the final few minutes of important games because he is good at preventing goals. Not only does the guy only have 8 pts (as many as Dale Weiss and less than doghouse Sanheim) - showing that he is factually one of the LEAST likely to provide needed offense in late tie games, he is a -6. Not scoring em and not stopping em. Notice how pinned in our own end we are when we have the same bad players out in the final minutes.

Comparatively - the standard end-of-game benching players of TK and Ghost have a combined +26. Good thing they aren't out there to either provide offense or not let goals in.

I am not someone who lives by the +/- rating at all, but when you look at players like TK and Ghost those numbers show that they are scoring enough to offset any defensive mistakes they make. In other words, those are the type of players you want on the ice in the final minutes of BIG games.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Ghost is much better defensively 5x5, but it's a lot harder to disrupt entries 6x5 when the opposing team can dump it in and chase with an extra man, and unlike a PK, you can't just ice the puck. One reason he makes a lot of defensive plays 5x5 is his skating ability in open ice, that's not as effective 6x5.

The problem is we don't have good players for 6x5 on the roster right now, the best candidates are either in the pipeline or very inexperienced.
Voracek would be great if he wasn't brain dead, Raffl is hurt, Simmonds is a shadow of himself, Filppula and Lehtera are way over the hill.
And you can't play Giroux and Couts and Provorov the entire last five minutes.

The biggest issue this season is what happened to Gudas? Here's a guy whose metrics don't reveal how far he's regressed, right now Manning >> Gudas. I think at this point Hextall is playing Gudas only because he lacks viable alternatives (Hagg) and hopes he snaps out of it.

MacDonald is worse at disrupting plays than Ghost. This makes no sense.



Is it good coaching to sit your best players in favor of your worst when the game is on the line?


Why are you so scared to answer?

 

[Ruck Over]

I just got to see the futile last several seconds of regular time. Man, what a ridiculous sequence of atom-level puck awareness. What has happened to Simmonds? He was one of the few outstanding players in the past couple of years. That level of sloppiness is in no way due to injury.

The scary answer is, his abilities are degrading right before our eyes. I'm of a mindset, he's not a detriment as a defensive forward. He began his career as the responsible, low causality 3rd liner. A few seasons past, he had good chemistry with Couts on the PK.

Yesterday, he tried to make a mundane skill move, and completely crapped the bed. He was definitely hurt earlier in the year, maybe his confidence is shook, I dunno. It was a bit cavalier, one hand on the stick.

 

[Ruck Over]

I believe that's an easy one. Fear of suspensions happened to Gudas. He's afraid to touch anybody now and is being forced to rely on his (lacking) skill and IQ instead of just bulldozing the opposition.

Just because we just finished playing the Bruins- it's amazing how much of a pariah Gudas has become, but guys like Marchand are still able to run around willy nilly with only shrug consequences.

It'd be great if after the season ends, and Gudas keeps his nose clean for the mythical 18 months or whatever it is, he immediately reverts back to heel form and isn't the suck anymore. Oh, if only Snider were still around to pay any fines and the sort so his guys could play the way they wanted to.

 

[Curufinwe]

lol @ Manning and MacDonald get 3-on-3 minutes while Sanheim sits.

Manning didn't.

 

[FlyersMania2]

Manning didn't.

I thought I saw Mandog out there too. Guess I was wrong. It was MacDonald, Weal and Flip right? The exact three guys I'd turn to when I want to win a game in OT

 

[Curufinwe]

Was it last year or the year before where Giroux was shootout FIRE?

It was 13-14 when he went 5/11. Since then he's gone 7/39.

NHL.com - Stats

 

[Deadpool8812]

I still can't stop laughing at who Hak threw out there with 30 seconds to go to defend our 1 goal lead

 

[Rebels57]

Aside from MacDonalds 10 mistakes yesterday, I thought he had a really underrated performance. Underrated player.

 

[FlyersMania2]

Aside from MacDonalds 10 mistakes yesterday, I thought he had a really underrated performance. Underrated player.

A "top 3-4 defenseman in this league"

 

[Rebels57]

A "top 3-4 defenseman in this league"

I don't get the hate. He just seems like a really solid defensemen to me. But you know, fanbases seem to have 1 or 2 guys every season that they single out. No idea why.

 

[baudib1]

The fact that they compared MacDonald to Del Ennis is ludicrous. Ennis got MVP votes in 8 different seasons for the Phillies. He's probably a top 40 player in franchise history.

 

[FlyersMania2]

I don't get the hate. He just seems like a really solid defensemen to me. But you know, fanbases seem to have 1 or 2 guys every season that they single out. No idea why.

MacDonald definitely earns his paycheck. He deserves to make more than Ghost. In fact, the combined cost of MacDonald, Lehtera and Flip of $14.7 million is some of the best money we've spent this season. With each point one of them produces, it ONLY costs us $240,900.

 

[Rebels57]

MacDonald definitely earns his paycheck. He deserves to make more than Ghost. In fact, the combined cost of MacDonald, Lehtera and Flip of $14.7 million is some of the best money we've spent this season. With each point one of them produces, it ONLY costs us $240,900.

Now THAT'S what I would call a bargain.

The question is, do they get raises on their extensions, or do they give us a hometown discount?