GDT: Pre-7: Rangers 4 at FLYERS 2, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, 7:00 p.m. ET

[Angry Hockey Dad]

Just simple common sense, right?

As far as I know, the coach/GM are supposed to do everything in their power to win games... and playing your worst players instead of superior ones is kinda the opposite of that.

It's not like Myers just got drafted last year and needs time to mature. He's obviously NHL ready right now so there's no excuse for not playing him. ESPECIALLY when you see who is playing in front of him. Myers over Hagg or MacDonald is a massive upgrade.

Exactly. The best possible lineup should be iced each night. No excuses.

 

[deadhead]

Same kind of stupid logic used to defend TK being in the bottom 6 last year when he was clearly ready to move up. It got defended constantly as him "not being ready" and that he would "move up when he proved he could play there", but as soon as he was given a chance he proved he obviously had been ready the whole time.

I don't know, 2 goals in 50 shots in November and December suggests either TK had the worst luck of all time, or more likely, he was pressing and blowing numerous scoring chances. And those bad cross ice passes took some time to beat out of him.

Ron would have brought Ghost up eventually, but his defense could definitely have used more time in the AHL.
And he was a 22 year old rookie with 3 college seasons when he came up (and turned 23 that spring).
His skill set also corresponded with their biggest need, a defenseman to run the PP with Streit out.

 

[Foggy14]

"It's only the preseason."

"It's only the preseason."

 

[04hockey]

Flyers need Dmen ….. might be a miserable first half of the season

But I guess a lot of teams can say that too

 

[CapnZin]

Line chemistry is one of the mysterious of the universe, for some reason, some players click with others, sometimes it works for years, sometimes the magic wears off.
Sometimes you move people around just to shake up your team. Get them out of a rut of doing the same thing to the point of predictability.

Generally, I think most lines are really "pairs" - if you have two guys who have chemistry, you mix and match to find a third.
Giroux/Couts, and I think Lindblom/Patrick have that chemistry, we'll see if anyone develops it with Vorobyev.

Vorobyev and JVR do click when they’re on a line together. They may have chemistry, but I think they’re too much positionally equivalent. They both line up well as a net front, slot, below the red line, etc.., and having 3 players like that; JVR, Vorobyev, and Simmer makes for an ineffective line. That’s what I meant when I said more efficient lines at the expense of chemistry.

Vorobyev can play above the dots, but I think his natural playmaking ability comes in tight quarters. Lindblom is a board and dot player while Simmer is your prototypical net front guy. It’s an equation for success... depending on how they play. Lindblom, like Raffl, seems to click with whoever he plays with too. I just hope that correlates to the regular and postseason. (Yes I said postseason).

Patrick also seems to play well with Voracek. Voracek plays well with anyone that shoots lol. I don’t think the JVR - Patrick - Voracek line will change even if the team is in a rut. Hakstol seems to have a line he relies on and I feel that will be the line. My guess is that TK and Lindblom will be the players to change lines going from 1-3 and 3-1 of need be.

 

[Rebels57]

Flyers need Dmen ….. might be a miserable first half of the season

But I guess a lot of teams can say that too

They just need to dress the best dmen they have under contract.

 

[freakydallas13]

Hextall and the coaching staff have already sucked the optimism out of this season for me. I can't watch the garbage defencemen game in game out anymore.

 

[deadhead]

And I thought the Dallas Cowboys had a pitiful front running fan base, this board can give them a run for the money.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Hextall and the coaching staff have already sucked the optimism out of this season for me. I can't watch the garbage defencemen game in game out anymore.

Seems like quite an overreaction, but if that’s how you feel shouldn’t your bigger complaint be with Hextall, who hired & has kept the current coach & who has authority over the composition of the roster?

 

[hatcher]

Seems like quite an overreaction, but if that’s how you feel shouldn’t your bigger complaint be with Hextall, who hired & has kept the current coach & who has authority over the composition of the roster?

Hexy is terrible.

 

[Magua]

And I thought the Dallas Cowboys had a pitiful front running fan base, this board can give them a run for the money.

Front running?

We're here through thick and thin, pal, waging Interweb wars about 4th liners and following this team despite its statistical league best mediocrity the last decade. Desperately wanting things to change, instead of slobbering over the entities that ensure that mediocrity and ragging on the ones who are trying to prevent it, does not equate to losing interest. It's the definition of interest. Difficult concept, I know.

The only thing this team has in common with the Dallas Cowboys is having the Jason Garrett of NHL coaches. Maybe he can start furiously clapping after every slow start or heavy PK goal against or MacDonald starfish.

 

[Domino666]

It’s just another “growing pain” season, the PK will suck again, the system the beet farmer runs is shit, Hexy can’t admit when he’s wrong so the team suffers because of it, I wonder what happens next year or the year after when it’s the same bullshit being put out on the ice and the slow cooking of prospects doesn’t work then what?

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Hexy is terrible.

Hang in there, hatch. Hextall is flawed, as we all are, but I don’t think he or the coach are as bad as it may seem in our moments of frustration.

But Patrick is going to have to be better.

Voracek is going to have to be better.

JVR is going to have to be better.

Because to be the type of team everyone wants them to be, you need a good 2nd line. And all three have been disappointing this preseason.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Front running?

We're here through thick and thin, pal, waging Interweb wars about 4th liners and following this team despite its statistical league best mediocrity the last decade. Desperately wanting things to change, instead of slobbering over the entities that ensure that mediocrity and ragging on the ones who are trying to prevent it, does not equate to losing interest. It's the definition of interest. Difficult concept, I know.

The only thing this team has in common with the Dallas Cowboys is having the Jason Garrett of NHL coaches. Maybe he can start furiously clapping after every slow start or heavy PK goal against or MacDonald starfish.

I honestly rather be a front runner than someone who always needs to bring out the knee pads when talking about this organization & their mediocrity.

 

[deadhead]

I think the concept of "REBUILDING" eludes some people here.
Just because Hextall didn't move everyone, he did completely replace the entire defense and half the forwards the last four years and both goalies.

Now, had they done a hard tank, everyone would be optimistic, we'd have landed 2 or 3 top 5 picks and the 75 points seasons would be worth it.
Instead, he merely accumulates 8 1st rd picks in 5 drafts, and is already hitting on later round picks like Lindblom (5th) and Vorobyev (4th), and the farm system has been ranked in the top five for at least the last two years and will probably be up there next year.

Yes, we've been mediocre, which is still preferable to "terrible."

This team is much more talented than the last couple years, the bottom six won't have VdV, PEB, White, Cousins, Leier, Lehtera, Read, Luby, etc.
We have two top flight young defenseman, possibly a 3rd in Sanheim, Myers and Friedman in the AHL, and a bunch of depth guys on the way (Hogberg, et al).

There's still a ways to go, the goal isn't 100 points and a 2nd round exit, that's just a stop on the way, but we are making progress.

 

[hatcher]

Hang in there, hatch. Hextall is flawed, as we all are, but I don’t think he or the coach are as bad as it may seem in our moments of frustration.

But Patrick is going to have to be better.

Voracek is going to have to be better.

JVR is going to have to be better.

Because to be the type of team everyone wants them to be, you need a good 2nd line. And all three have been disappointing this preseason.

Hexy could do more for for that current roster also ghost. hak has what he has due to Hexy allowing it.

 

[freakydallas13]

Seems like quite an overreaction, but if that’s how you feel shouldn’t your bigger complaint be with Hextall, who hired & has kept the current coach & who has authority over the composition of the roster?

...did I not say Hextall was included in that blame? I'm pretty sure it was the first word of my post.

 

[tucson83]

It’s just another “growing pain” season, the PK will suck again, the system the beet farmer runs is ****, Hexy can’t admit when he’s wrong so the team suffers because of it, I wonder what happens next year or the year after when it’s the same bull**** being put out on the ice and the slow cooking of prospects doesn’t work then what?

well, if 2007 disaster happens to this team, you can probably see some major changes happening, hate to say that but it's how they want to operate, wait until everything explodes then make changes, which is why i hate this fo just as much as the phillies.

 

[deadhead]

Hextall wasn't hired to "patch" this team, that had been done for over a decade, but the salary cap caught up to them.
His mandate was to rebuild the organization, from cap management, to analytics, scouting, player development.
And I'd say given what he started with, he did a pretty good job.
It's hard to win, and harder to sustain winning, most teams have to wander in the wilderness for a half dozen years with no guarantee of success.

Toronto - 1 playoff appearance in 11 years before the last two seasons
TB - 1 playoff appearance in 6 years before they turned the corner in 2013-14
Winnipeg - 2 playoff appearances in 18 years before last season, Maurice took over in mid 2013-14, 84, 99, 78, 87, 114
Minn - missed playoffs for 4 seasons before starting the current 6 year run
Colorado - 1 playoff appearance in 7 seasons before last year
St Louis - 1 playoff appearance in 6 seasons before starting the 6 year run that ended last season
Dallas - missed playoffs for six year, lost first round, missed, lost in 2nd rd, missed the last two years
Columbus - 2 playoff appearances in 16 years before making it the last two years
New Jersey - 5 years out of the playoffs after losing in SC finals, made it back last year
Kings - missed playoffs 6 years before winning 2 Cups

A few teams seem to always compete, reloading not rebuilding, Boston, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Washington, San Jose, Anaheim.
Either you have a couple core players for 15 years (Crosby, Malkin, et al) or really good management that knows how to reload.
I think that's Ron's goal, a really deep talent pool that allows you to replace key veterans from within or provide enough trade bait

 

[Curufinwe]

It's absurd to think we're being too hard on the coach. This place rightly turned against Lavi after the crappy 12-13 season, even though the roster was worse than anything Hakstol has had to deal with, and he was an established NHL head coach with a Stanley Cup. It was clearly time for a change then, just like it now.

 

[FLYguy3911]

It's absurd to think we're being too hard on the coach. This place rightly turned against Lavi after the crappy 12-13 season, even though the roster was worse than anything Hakstol has had to deal with, and he was an established NHL head coach with a Stanley Cup. It was clearly time for a change then, just like it now.

Flyers went 1-5-1 in that preseason with the only win coming in a split-squad shootout that I'm pretty sure Lavy didn't coach. Hak is at 3-3-1 right now. I guess he has that going for him.

2013–14 Philadelphia Flyers season - Wikipedia

 

[Curufinwe]

Homer blew it by not firing him in the offseason, and then we got stuck with Berube.

 

[Beef Invictus]

It's absurd to think we're being too hard on the coach. This place rightly turned against Lavi after the crappy 12-13 season, even though the roster was worse than anything Hakstol has had to deal with, and he was an established NHL head coach with a Stanley Cup. It was clearly time for a change then, just like it now.

@deadhead will have you believe we cannot be critical of a coach if the roster has even a single flaw on it.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

...did I not say Hextall was included in that blame? I'm pretty sure it was the first word of my post.

I misread “Hextall & the coaching staff” as “Hakstol & the coaching staff.”

My mistake.

 

[Striiker]

@deadhead will have you believe we cannot be critical of a coach if the roster has even a single flaw on it.

Yeah, apparently it's too early to judge the job he's done, since the roster isn't finished...

What a strange mentality.