Was yesterday the real turning point?

[Replacement*]

I would agree generally.

Also to note that in the past instead of Pardy falling on Schenn it would have been Gudas falling on Hall or RNH. And we would have been pissed that it was "intentional" and the other board would be talking up how professional Gudas was for checking on Hall immediately after they hit the ice.

Well stated, Gagner ironically enough concurs. He always seems to be on the wrong side of these battles.

it is odd how when you have a lineup that can take care of business that less incidental or accident on purpose things happen as well.

Plus I have to say, I usually got a kick out of Kass's maniacal grin and antics and Maroons steady smile. Maroon doesn't even have to say much, just gets in peoples grill smiling. He has that Lennox Lewis smiling calm. A guy completely comfortable knowing that nobody is getting the best of him out there. its still hilarious that Gudas and Simmons tag team tried to take Maroon out and both failed. It was a telling, if not foreshadowing moment in the game. They couldn't chop down the oak tree as hard as they tried.
That the Flyers started to try taking runs at our skill players was truly embarrassing. They were trying to avoid our heavies and get tough with eberle or Hall. Not even that was working.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Turned the corner.

Looking forward to quietly climbing up the standing and STILL winning the draft lottery to piss everyone off.


Hall getting face washed, went on far too long without retaliation.

Was so nice to see a scrum, claude giroux hit in the face, and a pileup of bodies.

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

Yes we have had good stretches where we dominated in the past. But those dominate wins were just offensively. That's it.

Even if we didn't win last night.

We played physical. We didn't take **** from anyone on the ice.

The goals we scored were all different.

1. Goal was a great rebound off a breakaway that worked cause Yakupov crashed the net

2. Was a great single handed breakaway snipe.

3. Was the definition of dirty goal. Point shot from d and a big guy whacking away at the puck to deposit it, a defense men and a goalie into the net

4. A beautiful behind the net setup to a one timer on the pk.

Good teams fine different ways to score and all of our goals were a different type.

The team looked like they cared for each other last night. That hasn't happened since the cup run.

 

[Cloned]

Thats a prediction.
You are asking if yesterday was a 'real' turning point. That requires more information IMO so I have to agree with Ninety7.

I'm asking people's opinions, obviously. Not going to gloat over it later on or whatever. Just curious to see what people think at this point in time vs. what really transpires over the next year.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

Yep! Team's sending a message that it wont take **** sitting down anymore.

I have a good feeling about the rest of the season and going into next year.

This game will be a major turning point.

 

[Fourier]

the games don't mean anything and the opposition was a middling team from the lesser eastern conference ... not exactly the LA kings

They don't mean anything to you. But they do to the Flyers who may have severely damaged their playoff chances with the loss. And they do to a guy like Kassian who is fighting to save his career, or to Yakupov who may be trying to save himself from being traded. They mean something to McDavid who lost part of his first year and will never get that time back. I'd say it also mean something to Brandon Davidson and to Patrick Maroon or to Cam Talbot...

 

[Replacement*]

I guess it depends on your definition of turning point.

Mine personally is seeing that this team is finally not playing like a chicken **** on ice, afraid of their opponent's shadows and Jedi mind tricks. The point when this team's psychology feeds positively into their confidence on a consistent basis is the real turning point, IMO.

Yeah, some serious swagger was at least born last night if it hasn't been in the past week. Pardy has obviously helped. Having Schultz and Purcell who were muffs out of the lineup has helped.

Another thing of note is we didn't even have the designated hitter, Pakarinen in the lineup and we can rotate him in and have even more of the physical complement and his game will get better as well with the added beef here.

 

[Psychoil]

I think it was. When was the last time we had a game that intense, in march? The team pushed around the flyers and there seems to be a culture change here recently. I thought things were going sideways on that 7 game losing streak but we pulled out of it which shows me this team is becoming resilient in more ways than 1

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Too early to say, but it'll be really interesting to see how our lineup shakes out with RNH and Klefbom back. I love the new additions and you can start to see where Chia wants this lineup to go.

Just spitballing...Trade 1st and Eberle for Hamonic, Lee, NYI 1st, sign Demers and Helm... we'd almost have too many bodies with talent.

Hall-RNH-Drai
Maroon-McDavid-Yakupov
Pouliot-Helm-Lee
Hendricks-Letestu-Kassian
Khaira/Cracknell, Lander

Klefbom-Hamonic
Sekera-Demers
Nurse-Davidson
Pardy/Gryba

The only real weakness of that team is it still lacks that PPQB.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Impossible to say, as said we've seen this before with this team, where they show a glimmer only for it to flicker out.

Remember the Columbus/Ottawa games only for them to be followed up by the performances in Montreal and Brooklyn...


However there is a difference feel, those games always seemed to be with the same formula: hoping that the flawed team was going to eventually come together and be more than the inconsistent mess that it was.

This team seems to be trying a different strategy, they're less skilled (gone are Purcell, Schultz, Perron, Hemsky, Gagner, ect), but they're much bigger and have players that can complement the remaining skill guys. Nor does there seem to be as many "square pegs in round holes" on the roster (Pouliot being your main top 9 power-forward for example, or Perron, Hemsky, or Yakupov on the checking line...)

 

[doulos]

Since it's an impossible question to answer I decided to roll a random 1D3 and ended up with a No.

 

[oXo Cube]

Yeah I would dispute the argument that last nights game was meaningless.

The Flyers season basically ended last night.

 

[Cawz]

I also wanted to see how many people were too chicken to put out a real opinion.

Haha yeah. Like me. I didn't even vote so I'm an even bigger chicken

 

[Perfect_Drug]

It wasn't a 'nothing' game like so many of you claim.

Philly is a very hot team that was on a hot streak sitting in 9th place 3 points out of the playoffs. They desperately need some wins.
With Pittsburgh winning, they are now 5-points out, and tied with NJ.

They might look back on this game and pinpoint it as one of the key reasons they were eliminated.

 

[Replacement*]

Turned the corner.

Looking forward to quietly climbing up the standing and STILL winning the draft lottery to piss everyone off.


Hall getting face washed, went on far too long without retaliation.

Was so nice to see a scrum, claude giroux hit in the face, and a pileup of bodies.

Yep.

Heres an interesting thing to ponder. We just played The Flyers and made them look foolish, and tossed sand on them in their own barn.

Visualize what happens next time we play the ST Louis Blues. Will it still be a matter o that club taking liberties with us? I suggest that something similar to what happened last night will go down in a lot of these tough matchups that for years the Oilers didn't have an answer to. I can't wait to see Backes face either when he starts dealing with a different Oilers club. Won't be smirking as much.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

It wasn't a 'nothing' game like so many of you claim.

Philly is a very hot team that was on a hot streak sitting in 9th place 3 points out of the playoffs. They desperately need some wins.
With Pittsburgh winning, they are now 5-points out, and tied with NJ.

They might look back on this game and pinpoint it as one of the key reasons they were eliminated.

Yep. I don't understand the 'nothing' game comment. Yes, there's nothing particularly on the line for our group, but Philly is in the thick of a playoff race. It wasn't a nothing game for them, and we handed them their *****.

 

[Cawz]

Yep! Team's sending a message that it wont take **** sitting down anymore.

They need to do that in a national telecast game. Make more teams take notice and start fearing playing them. Teams have seen this matchup as an easy game for too long

 

[Cloned]

Yeah, some serious swagger was at least born last night if it hasn't been in the past week. Pardy has obviously helped. Having Schultz and Purcell who were muffs out of the lineup has helped.

Another thing of note is we didn't even have the designated hitter, Pakarinen in the lineup and we can rotate him in and have even more of the physical complement and his game will get better as well with the added beef here.

Yep.

If what I suspect is happening is actually happening, Chia has done a remarkable job turning the culture of this team around by quietly winning many, many smaller deals. An idea that Tambellini and MacT never seemed to grasp.

 

[Aceboogie]

We made it to the Himalayas (before we couldnt even climb the foothills in Calgary). We are now standing at the bottom of mount Everest. Long ways to go

 

[Faelko]

They might look back on this game and pinpoint it as one of the key reasons they were eliminated.

As a guy that has 2 friends that are huge Flyer fans...I certainly hope so!

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Impossible to say, as said we've seen this before with this team, where they show a glimmer only for it to flicker out.

Remember the Columbus/Ottawa games only for them to be followed up by the performances in Montreal and Brooklyn...


However there is a difference feel, those games always seemed to be with the same formula: hoping that the flawed team was going to eventually come together and be more than the inconsistent mess that it was.

This team seems to be trying a different strategy, they're less skilled (gone are Purcell, Schultz, Perron, Hemsky, Gagner, ect), but they're much bigger and have players that can complement the remaining skill guys. Nor does there seem to be as many "square pegs in round holes" on the roster (Pouliot being your main top 9 power-forward for example, or Perron, Hemsky, or Yakupov on the checking line...)

exactly...this team got fat and satisfied after 2 blowout wins....people are crowing about "the playoffs" and the "McDavid effect" and "swagger"

then they laid 2 giant stinkbombs back-to-back

I'll wait until they lose and see they response after a loss...it'll be telling

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

It wasn't a 'nothing' game like so many of you claim.

Philly is a very hot team that was on a hot streak sitting in 9th place 3 points out of the playoffs. They desperately need some wins.
With Pittsburgh winning, they are now 5-points out, and tied with NJ.

They might look back on this game and pinpoint it as one of the key reasons they were eliminated.

The rest of the season actually matters to the players.

Chia has straight up said he might have to move some of the big guys. So you have them trying to play for their life here.

Yak as well.

You have guys like Pardy and Cracknell fighting for their NHL careers.

Davidson who wants to get better every day and show his worth.

Talbot who wants to establish himself as an NHL starter and to prove all the naysayers wrong who said he was just riding on a good defensive teams coat tails.

This is going to rub off on the other guys.

In previous wins our good stretches at the end weren't dominated. We had good pp success but still got outplayed most nights.

Tonight will be a test to see if we can keep up the effort.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

Yeah, some serious swagger was at least born last night if it hasn't been in the past week. Pardy has obviously helped. Having Schultz and Purcell who were muffs out of the lineup has helped.

Another thing of note is we didn't even have the designated hitter, Pakarinen in the lineup and we can rotate him in and have even more of the physical complement and his game will get better as well with the added beef here.

Exactly, and with Khaira looking like he's about ready for full time 4th line duty, if you swap him in for Korpi, and have hendricks center Pak and Khaira, that's one hell of a fourth energy line.

 

[Cloned]

Interesting poll results so far. Split almost right down the middle.

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

exactly...this team got fat and satisfied after 2 blowout wins....people are crowing about "the playoffs" and the "McDavid effect" and "swagger"

then they laid 2 giant stinkbombs back-to-back

I'll wait until they lose and see they response after a loss...it'll be telling

We lost 2 close games to LA and Anaheim. Beat NYI (playoff team), Buffalo (not good) and Philly (fighting for that last wildcard spot).

Those blowout wins we didn't even play great. Our pp clicked and we had good offensive confidence. The rest of our game was actually not great.