GDT: Tues, Nov 15th 2016 | Ottawa Senators @ Philadelphia Flyers | 7:00pm ET | Game #17

[BillDineen]

Nick Cousins, despite inconsistent usage, has 5 points and 2 goals in his 13 games (9 more points and he ties PEB's career high!). He showed last season that he can be a solid possession player and scorer with Read and Laughton. Add Raffl to that line, and it could be more solid. I actually think his skating has improved this year. But the two things that always get me are his tenacity and his hockey IQ. He was a 100 pt player in junior, he's got skills and passing vision and whatnot, but his brain and sandpaper are there in spades. Both breakaways tonight were generated by Cousins taking away the puck himself.

I really don't get it. Cousins is smarter than Bellemare; he's more skilled; and I really don't see any drop off defensively, despite the narrative. PEB isn't a center, and it manifests itself all over the ice. I'm sorry but 3 assists in 17 games, with horrid possession stats showing it's no fluke, is not good enough when he's been getting quality 3rd line teammates and usage. PEB never even proved he's anything but a replacement level 4C, so it's a helluva thing to give him the 3C job. He's a 31 year old who has been a scoring and possession black hole in his only 2 years in the league. Yes, playing with stellar possession players in Raffl and Read will help lift him up, but why make it harder on the line to possess and score? **** the World Cup of Hockey.

... and he is out there 3 v 3 for some bizarre reason as well.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Also, Coatesy is a hell of a lot better on the radio than he is on TV.

agreed. he is really good on the radio. Thank God for Sirius Radio.

I hope the next time the Flyers play Ottawa, Hak does what Lavy did a few years ago to that "system" Boucher employs

 

[Magua]

... and he is out there 3 v 3 for some bizarre reason as well.

It's not bizarre to me because I expect it. It's no more bizarre than Hakstol having a love affair with the VDV-PEB-White line last year (even using them as the third line most of the year) despite them getting caved in every which way, or using PEB as his elite #1 PKer despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. Like with VandeVelde, he simply views him as extremely "reliable" and puts an inordinate amount of trust in him. Maybe even more than VandeVelde, Bellemare has become his NHL pet.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

a rare off night for the top 6 on the scoresheet. that was the difference in the hockey game. Not the usage of the bottom 6 during crunch time.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Bad game by Couturier even strength for once, but his pp play is especially puzzling. Why does he need to fade back to the blue line to retrieve a pass? Hard to make it any easier on the pkers.

The pp is set up that way. To a guy a player without scoring acumen no less. I hate that pp. It makes no sense whatsoever. Coots is not the guy. Yet they keep force-feeding him that shot

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Honestly, Couts should be in front, a la Simmonds. Get Konecny on the half wall in Giroux's spot and use the two D-men still with Read on the other half wall.

 

[Appleyard]

Bad game by Couturier even strength for once, but his pp play is especially puzzling. Why does he need to fade back to the blue line to retrieve a pass? Hard to make it any easier on the pkers.

Partially because he is a lefty playing the left side on the PP... so he cannot stay on the halfboards and provide a shooting option.


I just don't get why he is there on PP2... and Konecny on the opposite side.

Flipping them makes all the sense in the world. Right now 4/5 guys on PP2 spend most of their shifts taking pucks on the backhand. It slows the movement down and means that there are very few on-timers available.

 

[klutch]

The TOI and use of the kids is starting to really get to me. Like on what planet do you ever send out PEB/Streit > Cousins, Konecny, Provorov, Raffl. It felt like the kids plus Raffl carried this game for what it was. They have to start trusting them more when the game is fast and they're pushing.

The whole VDV never being a healthy scratch is ****ing pathetic, it's like he's Hak's secret sex slave. I feel like grabbing Hak by his weird hair callac and continuously screaming at him.

 

[Appleyard]

What is awesome is that Provorov is probably already the Flyers best defenseman defensively...

playing vs oppositions top 6's yet has the best CA/60 and best CA rel on our defense.

His CF% is 14th best amongst NHL Dmen.
His CA/60 is 30th best amongst NHL Dmen.
His CA rel is 17th best amongst NHL Dmen.

 

[SaSaShi]

Wow....impressive by provorov, just by the eye test he looks like he is the best defesnively, the stats under the hood confirm it

 

[usahockey22flyers]

Underachieving team

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

Underachieving team

Yeah, up to a point I agree with you, as individual errors have cost us all year long, particularly in between the pipes and with the turnovers, obviously. Then again, we have to keep our expectations within reason. Personally, I appreciate the semi-regular reminders that we are still rebuilding, because they are the only things keeping my small appliances indoors instead of flying through my windows.

 

[bennysflyers16]

Winnipeg Jets possible line up for Thursday nights game 7pm at Wells Fargo Center.
Counted 15 players that are 24 or under on their roster, very young fast team, but have many forwards injured.

Line 1 LW Ehlers C Scheifele RW Laine
Line 2 LW Dano C Petan RW Wheeler
Line 3 LW Howden C Lowry RW Tanev
Line 4 LW Burmistrov C Copp RW Thorburn

1st D-Pair LD Morrissey RD Byfuglien
2nd D-Pair LD Enstrom RD Trouba
3rd D-Pair LD Chiarot RD Postma

Goalie's:
Starter: Hellebuyck
Backup: Hutchinson

Scratched List
C De Leo
LD Stuart
RD Myers + Lower body day to day
LW Connor + Upper body IR
C Perreault + Upper body IR
RW Armia + Lower body IR
C Matthias + Lower body week to week IR
RW Stafford + Upper body day to day IR
C Little + Lower body Out Indefinitely IR

Captain: Blake Wheeler
Alternate Captain: Dustin Byfuglien
Alternate Captain: Mark Scheifele

Flyers better eat their wheaties Thursday morning, better show up to play, also look forward to seeing Laine in philly for the first time. Mase is definitely going to have his work cut out for him.

Note: This is not an official game time line up, also the line up may be subject to change.

Dano and Ehlers are switched.

Bottom 6 is all AHL players except for Lowry and Thorburn, wish we could add speed guys to our bottom 6 like Laughton and Leier. Jets have another stubborn coach and are being forced to play a faster younger line up Do to injuries

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Wow....impressive by provorov, just by the eye test he looks like he is the best defesnively, the stats under the hood confirm it

Provorov, thankfully, has really settled down over the last two weeks and appears more comfortable with each game.

 

[Curufinwe]

If Mason got scored on a breakaway, like Cousins scored on Anderson, we'd hear that Mason can't make "momentum" saves. If Mason got scored on by Raffl because he let up a terrible rebound, we'd hear his rebound control is crap. Craig Anderson was also really great when Brayden Schenn slid a puck through his five hole and it somehow went wide. There's just no winning with the people who dislike Mason. He overplayed the second goal, and it was a bad play. He was completely stellar otherwise, and it did a lot for confidence in him going forward. 2 good games in a row.

There really isn't.

If the top PP unit could do anything in the 3rd or one of the first four skaters could score a goal in the shootout, we win.

 

[deadhead]

What is awesome is that Provorov is probably already the Flyers best defenseman defensively...

playing vs oppositions top 6's yet has the best CA/60 and best CA rel on our defense.

His CF% is 14th best amongst NHL Dmen.
His CA/60 is 30th best amongst NHL Dmen.
His CA rel is 17th best amongst NHL Dmen.

Just strained my shoulder patting myself on the back.

I figured this would happen by December, he's just a little early.
He's really settled down the last couple weeks, what I like are the little things, like how he seals off his man behind the net to keep him from the puck - most of our veteran D-men don't do that.

Amazing we got Provorov and Konecny in the same draft, they just play a notch above everyone else despite their inexperience.

Could someone tell Ghost to can that slapshot? He's more likely to kill one of his teammates than actually hit the net!

 

[Curufinwe]

Give Couturier quality linemates they said, he will break out offensively they said..

It already happened last year.

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...wards&minutes=50&disp=1&sort=PCT&sortdir=DESC

 

[NYCFlyer]

I mentioned this last week that Counts must be nursing an injury or have something going on in his life that is messing him up. He just doesn't look like the same guy. The last two weeks have included some of the worst games I've seen him play in the last few years.

 

[bennysflyers16]

There really isn't.

If the top PP unit could do anything in the 3rd or one of the first four skaters could score a goal in the shootout, we win.

Playing the hottest PK unit in NHL and one of the hottest goalies, its gonna happen sometimes. We are also the worst SO team in history, stopping a softie was probably our best chance to win.

I like Mase and if he isn't an option for next few years we could be in trouble, but if asking he doesn't let in one stinker per game makes you a hater, I guess I dont like him.

 

[Les Averman]

It already happened last year.

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...wards&minutes=50&disp=1&sort=PCT&sortdir=DESC

To be fair, given his streaky play offensively in the past, it's not out of the question to believe he wouldn't have gotten to 50 points even if he had played an additional 15-20 games last year. Obviously, that's still a big step forward and is certainly 2C production, but I think people are giving him a free pass for his play the last couple of weeks. He's been playing pretty poorly of late.


As others have mentioned, it's not necessarily a huge problem, but it is getting so damn frustrating having to see PEB out at 3C day in and day out, while Cousins gets 10 minutes a game, and Vandevelde keeps getting saddled into the lineup.

Also, I'm getting a bit concerned that even as we bring up the young defensive players, that we're still going to give up far more high quality scoring opportunities than we should. With the mindset of the defensemen to be aggressive in the system, it seems like there's two or three A+ transition scoring chances for the other team every game. Yesterday, they were stymied by Mason, but you can't let that happen every game.

 

[Curufinwe]

Simmonds, Giroux, Couturier and especially Schenn are not producing enough at 5 on 5 so far. So it's strange to say the one guy out of those four players who is getting the most criticism is getting a free pass

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...wards&minutes=50&disp=1&sort=PCT&sortdir=DESC

 

[Striiker]

The PP can't really be blamed.

27% on the season, 20% last night. Is it lower? Obviously, but it's not like they went 0-7 or something and the team got shut out. Going 1-5 (20%) is much closer to the season average than 2-5 (40%). So the PP was average, 5v5 they were good, even the defense wasn't that bad. The loss is on Mason for letting in an inexcusable goal. He was great for most of the game but his one **** up was enough to negate that.

Imagine if Giroux has a good game and then puts the puck in his own net... you can't say that it isn't his fault.

 

[Rebels57]

Meanwhile that garbage Devils roster won again last night and is now 9-3-3.

They are better than the sum of their parts. We are worse.

A lot of the disparity in their records is on goaltending, but a lot of it is on coaching too.

 

[Curufinwe]

Meanwhile that garbage Devils roster won again last night and is now 9-3-3.

They are better than the sum of their parts. We are worse.

A lot of the disparity in their records is on goaltending, but a lot of it is on coaching too.

I'd say it's about 80/20 so far.

 

[Appleyard]

Simmonds, Giroux, Couturier and especially Schenn are not producing enough at 5 on 5 so far. So it's strange to say the one guy out of those four players who is getting the most criticism is getting a free pass

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rat...wards&minutes=50&disp=1&sort=PCT&sortdir=DESC

But 3/4 of them are not going to finish the season with a sub 6.5% on ice sh% at 5v5 and below 2.00 GF/60. The first line has been pretty objectively snake-bitten at 5v5 to start the season. I would expect them to be at 7-8.5% combined by the end of the season and ~2.5-2.8 GF/60.

Giroux, Couturier and Simmonds are all driving play well, but the GF/60 is not matching up with the CF and SF really.