Team Bonding Fails To Have Any Effect On Flyers
John Saquella | Oct 16, 2009 | Comments 13
If This Guy Could Coach a Hockey Team As Well He Drives A Boat, The Flyers Would Be Great
The Flyers decided to use their long break(6 days off, one game, five days off!) to do some team bonding. They went fishing and even had a boat race. All the players and coaches seemed to enjoy the time spent with their teammates, and the practices showed good effort and crisp work.
Then, they got back to playing the games. BIG MISTAKE.
The Flyers fell to the Florida Panthers, in Sunrise, Florida, 4-2. The Flyers played well for stretches, but couldn’t sustain any momentum and got outworked for most of the last 25 minutes. Mental mistakes plagued the team, just as they have in the the past two games, both losses.
Anyhow, Stuff I saw:
-The Flyers best line was a new creation of James van Riemsdyk, Mika Pyorala and Arron Asham. Pretty sad when you have guys like Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell on the roster, and the best line is a 20 year old in his first professional season, a 28 year old guy playing his first year in North America, and a guy whose built a solid NHL career as an energy line-grinder type.
-I still fail to see why people defend Simon Gagne. He’s played responsible defensively, and yes, he’s gotten chances. But he’s been shying away from contact, avoiding high traffic areas and playing a very non-aggressive game overall. Pyorala has been responsible defensively, and his cap hit is about $4.75mm a year less than Gagne.
-Ray Emery was very solid. He had no chance on any of the three goals he allowed, and he made several brilliant stops. Scott Clemmenson was also really solid, but faced few second chance opportunities.
-Claude Giroux had been shifted to the wing, after being used at center for most of his NHL career. That seemed to work a bit, as he tallied his first goal of the year. Who knows if Coach Numbskull will keep him there?
-Chris Pronger had a rough night. Perhaps he’s pressing to hard, because he seems to be the only guy pissed off about losing 3 straight games.
-Ryan Parent was lost to a lower body injury in the first period and did not return. Early word is that he tweaked a groin.
-Just caught Stevens’ post game presser. He said it was ” concerning” that the Flyers came out unprepared, got outworked, and made tons of mental mistakes in losing a game to a struggling Panthers team. It’s concerning to me that this guy has had 3 years to correct several problems that are basically the result of the team lacking discipline and he’s still the coach, despite solving none of them.
Well, I guess it’s back to the fishing trip for the Flyers, watching these early season points go sailing away…..
There goes the points the Flyers have pissed away lately.
Filed Under: NHL
Mike Keenan for coach NOW!
Well at least you didn’t trash Syvret like the rest of the boards are doing and I appreciate that. I agree on Gagne he floats a bit too much.
Syvret didn’t play enough to be trashed. I’m not trying to single out anyone, the whole team pretty much sucked. They were not prepared and looked awful, losing to a less talented team, who has been struggling.
Gagne stopped skating on the 2-on-1. Reminded me of Randy Robitaille 3 seasons ago. :shudder:
They should’ve traded him in the offseason instead of hoping he’ll find the scoring touch he has not had since right after Forsberg left town.
Roux and JVR looking good. That’s heartening, except for the fact that the team seems as pulseless as the coach. I want Nolan or Laviolette if they aren’t near the top of the division by November 1. You can’t win the division in October, but you sure as Hades can lose it.
Nice write up, John,
Flippy
Besides Asham, I thought Hartnell played a good game. He really hustled and he had some solid hits and stayed out of the box. And I thought Carter played pretty well. He was at least putting in the effort, skating hard and actually finishing his checks.
But that’s it. Gagne, Richards, Briere all looked like they were not ready to play, and didn’t care about losing. JVR had some flashes, but to me looked winded half the time. Despite the goal (which looked lucky), Giroux was average at best. Same for Pyro (I like that better than 3.14).
The D overall had a bad game. Although Coburn did make at least one nice defensive play. It’s been a while since I could make that statement with a strait face. I think losing Parent early hurt. It forced them to juggle things up and they really never seemed comfortable with the rotating partners.
Ray was great. If that were Biron it’s at least a 6-2 game, maybe more. Emery’s lateral movement is just sick. And it saved their ass several times tonight.
As for Johnny the Yatchsman, I saw nothing tonight that made me think he is the answer. He still looks like a big part of the problem to me.
Oh poop, does the Parent injury mean a OKT-Syvret pairing? If so, where is the panic button?
It probably means splitting up one of the top two pairs.
true the team as a whole wasn’t on par.
Syvret got to play in what I would consider key minutes in the third. He made some good outlet passes.
I really do not want to see Syvret and OKT as a pairing. They are not complimentary to each other.
You can delete my posts all you want. It’s not going to change reality. The reality is that the writer compared Gagne to Pyorala. And is obviously not aware of all the facts. Or is simply not savvy enough, nor educted enough in the game to give an accurate assesment of a player.
I didn’t see the post you say was deleted. So I can’t comment on that. But the comparison of Gagne to Pyorala seems very appropriate to me. Pyorala is a sound defensive forward with limited offensive upside. At the moment, the way he’s playing, that’s all Gagne is. He’s not forechecking aggressively, he’s not winning board battles in the offensive zone, and he’s not finishing his scoring chances. The only thing he is doing well is playing reasonably sound defense. Hence the comparison. It makes sense to me.
As for Gagne, until he gets his head out of his ass and starts playing aggressively, he won’t be worth anywhere near his cap hit. I’m not talking about making big hits – that has never been Gagne’s game. I am talking about forechecking hard, winning board battles, and going into the difficult areas of the ice looking to score. These are all things Gagne has done and done well in the past. He is not doing them now. He’s floating on the perimeter, not forechecking hard, and turning the puck over consistently because he seems to be shying away from any sort of physical contact and is just coughing up the puck to avoid it. He is capable of playing much better hockey. I just don’t know if he will. But until he does, the comparisons to players like Pyorala and others like him seem valid to me.
And another thing, calling a Coach, “coach numbskull” just isn’t something a knowledgeble, qualified, hockey analyst does. If you have that mindset, you don’t belong writing on a blog. That numbskull, is an NHL Coach, and obviously knows more than a “numbskull blogger” does.
Numbskull Blogger > Numbskull Coach
wassup keep writing, this is BRILLIANT blogging. And in order to share the love I’ll offer this youtube vid I found earlier, has free Brazzers videos in it!