It’s early, but here’s the problem: The Flyers are too young, their defense is too awful, and their goalie is too inconsistent.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I’ve finally figured it out. The Flyers went for broke two summers ago when they traded Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, a move that freed up money to get a supposed all-world goalie and a gaggle of young talent. Setting aside the fact that Ilya Bryzgalov has been a colossal disappointment thus far (don’t tell me he hasn’t), it was the wrong strategy from the start. Even if Bryz was the goalie the Flyers expected him to be when they paid him $51 million, the players in front of him wouldn’t be experienced enough for it to matter. Going for the goalie was a win now move. Trading Richards and Carter, already veterans and all-star caliber players in their mid-twenties, for young, high-upside players was a win later move. Those things don’t mesh. Now we’re seeing what the worst-case scenario might look like. The Flyers' youngsters exceeded expectations last season, but – now that Sean Couturier, Matt Read (Sell! Sell! Sell!) and Brayden Schenn aren’t sneaking up on teams – they’re due for a sophomore slump, and there are now too few veterans to fill the void left by their inevitable step backwards. Instead:
Eric Wellwood– he’s the fastest player to ever play the game who WASN’T GOOD AT HOCKEY (!!!).
Ruslan Fedotenko– they traded him away for his prime and even his prime was mediocre.
Scott Laughton– a baby!
Wayne Simmonds– Scott Hartnell, 2.0.
Jakub Voracek– still can't get a read on him.
Max Talbot.
There’s nothing wrong with any of those guys (I like most of them!), but somehow, in the past 18 months, the Flyers have replaced All-Stars (by choice and circumstance) with rookies, uncertainties and mediocrity.
Just two years ago, they were one of the best teams in hockey, led by Richards, Carter, Claude Giroux, Chris Pronger and Danny Briere. But they traded Richards and Carter, a move that freed Giroux and James van Riemsdyk (remember him, the guy the Flyers signed to a $25 million contract based on his play in, like, four games and then traded away to Toronto?) to become the faces of the team. But JVR was terrified of corners and now he’s gone. Pronger will never play again. Briere is aging. And now Giroux is left with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The Robin role? Played by Hartnell, who, oh by the way, didn’t do shit during the lockout and it’s showing. He got a six-year extension worth nearly $30 million despite the fact that any sane observer would tell you that his 37 goals last season should be expected to be the exception, not the norm. He was last year’s reactive signing by the Flyers, following in the footsteps of JVR and Carter the two previous years.
All that is to say nothing of Bryz disappointing us at every turn. There will inevitably be comments about how it’s not his fault, the defense sucks, and he hasn’t played poorly. And that’s right– the defense does suck. It’s awful. Putrid, even. But just because you can’t blame certain goals on Bryz, doesn’t mean you can’t be aggravated by the fact that he never steps up and bails his defense out. Three goals on the first five shots last night. Not acceptable. Not for a guy that you expected to be a difference-maker. Bryz is Sean Burke. He’s Ray Emery. He’s Robert Esche. He’s Antero Nittymaki. He’s every average goalie that has passed through the pipes over the last two decades. He’s fine. He’s a professional netminder. He stops the puck. But he doesn’t stand out. He’s not Martin Brodeur. He’s not that guy, even though the Flyers are paying him to be that guy. Oh yeah, he’s a flake, too. Don’t pretend that he’s not. He’s not bailing anybody out. He’s not a star. He’s not the guy they need him to be. He just is. And that’s not good enough.
Is this an overreaction? Maybe. It’s only three games. Preseason games, basically. But in dog years, this shortened schedule, it’s like six games. The Flyers are 0-6, and it’s not just because of their defense. They have too many question marks and a goalie that refuses to just once win them a game. AND SOMEHOW MICHAEL LEIGHTON IS STILL ON THE TEAM.
Bites:
Brayden Schenn has a disciplinary hearing with Brendan Shanahan today for leaving his feet for a hit in the second period.
Racism? Alive and well in New Jersey. Some Tweets about Wayne Simmonds during his two mix-ups last night:
There were others, but you get the point. We still have a long way to go, America.
Cute:
Sam Carchidi on the Flyers' non-existent offense.
Danny Briere is probably out until the weekend.
The Canucks’ GM says that the team has a trade in place for Roberto Luongo. Some think he could be talking about the Flyers.
111 Responses
Gimmie a break man. Last night there was a completely unmarked man in the slot for the first goal… the second one was a complete accident that went off Fedotenko’s skate… and the third was a penalty shot.
I don’t love Bryz. I wish he was more consistent. But this season… so far… he is NOT the problem.
The PP and the PK are atrocious. They take the worst and dumbest penalties I have ever seen. Discipline. It has been a problem for years.
The Flyers look like they are skating in mud. The offense and defense look slow as all hell. The Devils played the exact same system that beat us 4 straight games last year in the 2nd round… you would Lavy would adjust, right? Instead it’s more of the same, where the Flyers struggle for every shot on goal they can get.
Either a trade or a benching or something has to happen to turn this shit around. I know they are young and they prolly won’t this year, but they are better than 3 goals in the 3 games.
They should trade Matt Read while he still has some value (and whoever else it takes, within reason), for PK Subban. The defense is awful.
Shea Weber would have been nice…
You’re an idiot.
This isn’t on Bryz. Kyle is right that he’s not standing out. He doesn’t seem like the guy who will ever STEAL them a game (kinda need a few of those to win a Cup in a playoff run), but their 0-3 record isn’t on him. He has no defense in front of him.
Yeah, make a whole paragraph complaining about THE FLYERS BEST PLAYER SO FAR. I get that people don’t like Bryz, but HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO WIN THEM A GAME WHEN THEY CAN’T SCORE A GOAL?
Christ, Kyle. What was he supposed to do, stop every shot AND score a goal? Get off Bryz’ dick. Since the All-Star Break last year he’s been one of the 5 or 6 best goalies in the NHL. Fact.
Bryz is NOT the problem. When Nashville matched the Weber offer, we knew we’d have no defense. And now it’s showing. When they leave Bryz out to dry, it’s going to be impossible to win the Flyers a game. You play decent defense and have 2-3 lapses in a game? Fine, expect Bryz to pick them up. You have 15-18 lapses in a game? You cannot expect Bryz to bail them out every time.
Also, the defense is going to be an issue, obviously. But so will the offense. Everyone thought we had one of the top offenses in the league. I just don’t see it. I see a bunch of “maybe possibly could someday turn into Richards/Carter types.” They’ll be lucky if they get a 50% return on that, and that won’t be enough.
Fuck. I thought 2012 was supposed to be the shit year and Philly sports would bounce back in 2013.
Honestly, why do you completely ignore the racism and bigotry that appears in your OWN sites comments and act like it is only specific to places like Nwe Jersey and Pittsburgh?
Ok, after this I’m done asking for Flyers material.
While there is clear reason for concern, all of your reasoning is fundamentally flawed.
First, Bryz is not even remotely the problem. He has been the best player on the ice for the Flyers since mid-way through the Pens series last year. With the possible exception of the slapshot off the draw goal scored by the Pens in the first game (a shot that was damned accurate), none of the goals have been his fault and he has saved us from losing games much bigger than we have.
Second, all of the players you claim to have problems with are forwards. They aren’t the problem. The defense is a joke right now. Meszaros and Coburn are solid, but after that it’s pathetic. Luke Schenn blows and has cost us at least three goals already. I love Timmo, but he’s lost a major step and has been burned repeatedly this year. And forget about the rest of this crew, they are all terrible.
Third, your concern over the Richards and Carter trade is foolish. Carter is the Bobby Abreu of hockey who only scores when it doesn’t matter and misses high right 90% of the time. He scores a lot of goals because he takes a lot of shots, and since leaving the Flyers he hasn’t done jack. Richards is and always has been overrated. Braydon Schenn (once he gets back from this inevitable suspension) has already shown signs this year that he’s as good as Richards if not better. Those two were THIRD LINE PLAYERS on the Kings…who weren’t a good team but rode some chemistry and a nasty goalie to the Cup. It had NOTHING to do with them.
Meanwhile, we got Couter, Voracek, Schenn and Simmonds for those two. Although I agree the jury is still out on Voracek, the rest have been great and still look great this year. They aren’t clicking yet, but it’s Game 3 and the lines are almost all nnew.
The only place I agree with you is Fedetenko and Read. I like Read, but we won’t be able to re-sign him for the money he’ll be making so we should trade him while he’s worth something. Fedetenko just sucks. We need to make a move to get a true first line defenseman to play with either Meszaros or Coburn to make at least two competent pairings. Trade Timmo if we have to.
Bottom line is that this team is not as bad as you think they are. They should have won all three games, and didn’t because of a few sloppy plays. Even the PK looked better as the game went on last night, but I’m sure it’s something Lavs is working on.
In Lavs and In Homer We Trust
Dont you have to score a goal to win the game?
Alive and well in new jersey? The state that you can walk to from philadelphia over the ben franklin bridge? I guess you only mean north and central nj because nobody from philadelphia or south nj has said anything racist ever
Im sure wayne simmonds would love the fact that you are promoting the n word and not because you actually care but because you want page views
This is just the nightmare scenario we all knew could happen after the lockout.
1. Players who did nothing (Hartnell) look like it.
2. The guys that did – some did in Europe. It’s a different game there.
3. We have just enough new parts to make coming together quickly, difficult.
4. Maybe, just maybe… some guys played over their heads last year.
and of course…
5. With the lockout and maybe everybody drinking the Flyers Kool-Aid… we’re really just not as good as the team told us we were.
This could be a lost season in Flyers land.
^^The Truth is kinda right…
While these racist idiots are despicable, it’s probably best to just ignore them. Based on their follow up tweets, they actually LIKE it when Flyers fans attack them for their racist BS. They get off on the twitter attention, because they’re mostly little immature teenagers.
Yet again, Kyle misses the freaking point…
If you think is Bryzgalov’s fault, stop watching hockey and go count the days to pitchers and catchers because the game is obviously beyond your mental capacity and you need something a little slower. Also, YOU DON’T WIN GAMES BY NOT SCORING. That’s a basic freaking premise of any sport that even you should have picked up on by now.
You wanna know what the freaking problem is with the Flyers? The coaching sucks. Laviolette put the same strategy on the ice as he did in last year’s playoffs when he got so thoroughly out-coached he should have been embarrassed. But no, same shit, different year. No mid-game adjustments, just sending guys out to fight. It’s freaking pathetic. This organization should be ashamed. (But, it’s the Flyers and we know that will never happen.)
You are very, very wrong about a lot of what you just posted. It’s like you’re watching a different group of players sometimes. Idiot.
Wow way to jump ship. Why do you insist on posting racist tweets?? All you’re doing is giving them another outlet. You’re dumb. Everyone knows there is still racism in some individuals. Stop posting that shit.
This blog getting harder and harder to read.
Flyers aren’t making the playoffs.
Fire crotch hartnell looks out of shape lol
Do you people read?
“There will inevitably be comments about how it’s not his fault, the defense sucks, and he hasn’t played poorly. And that’s right– the defense does suck. It’s awful. Putrid, even. But just because you can’t blame certain goals on Bryz, doesn’t mean you can’t be aggravated by the fact that he never steps up and bails his defense out.”
Wow, your head is so far up your ass on this post i’m willing to give you a mulligan and move forward. What the fuck did you drink at drinkers last night?
one of your best ever
Kyle defends his words but not the racist, mysogynist and homophobic responses in his blog.
At least we know he reads the comments. And at least we know where he stands amongst the commenters.
Do you know ANYTHING about hockey? Your comments about Bryz are so far off base, it’s unbelievable. Bryz has been SOLID this season. You can’t blame him for 70% of the goals scored on the Flyers this season. Last night, NONE of the goals were his fault. Goalies give up rebounds and if our D wasn’t so far out of fucking position, that rebound would have been cleared easily. Stop writing about hockey, please.
Did you read my comment, Kyle?
*You play decent defense and have 2-3 lapses in a game? Fine, expect Bryz to pick them up. You have 15-18 lapses in a game? You cannot expect Bryz to bail them out every time.*
Specifically addressed your point.
But okay, I’ll add on:
Bryz HAS bailed out the D, on many occasions in these 3 games (not to mention the Devils series last year). But you’re not giving him credit for that because he’s not doing it every single time. When the D fails 15 times a game, there is no goalie in the league (none- not Brodeur, not Lundqvist, not even guys like Roy or Hasek) who is going to be able to bail the defense out every time. That guy doesn’t exist, never has. And if he did, he’d be worth a HELL of a lot more than $51 million.
Also, seriously, stop giving the racist guys attention. It just encourages them.
It’s actually funny that he will address the Flyers point but not the legitmate criticism regarding the racism. Man up.
Angelo Cataldi says Brygalov is a problem so kyle Scott parrots it.
Kyle Scott’s two man crushes got traded to make way for Bryzgalov so Kyle Scott hates Bryzgalov.
Bryzgalov is the best goalie to come through here in decades and has been the best Flyer on the ice for the past 8 games going back to last year’s playoffs.
Get off Bryzgalov, Kyle.
Flyers will be in the Eastern Conf Finals.
“Do you people read?”
We read. You’re still wrong. Enjoy your wrongness.
Cold out there
Stop making hockey posts. I just lost some brain cells after reading that
But just because you can’t blame certain goals on Bryz, doesn’t mean you can’t be aggravated by the fact that he never steps up and bails his defense out.”
How about be aggrevated by the fact that THERE IS NOT DEFENSE TO BAIL OUT.
Yeah, he really let them down by letting in that penalty shot, you know where the odds are so heavily in the shooter’s favor that it’s an All Star Event. And those other two goals? He never had a chance at them.
Jesus, son, you’re opinions worse less than a used puck bag. Stop being such a lunkhead.
What town did the Sixers move to?
“Setting aside the fact that Ilya Bryzgalov has been a colossal disappointment thus far (don’t tell me he hasn’t)”
eat shit
I read…and your still an idiot Kyle…
This what happens when you give an idiot a blog…he acts like he knows what hes talking about…
So how could Bryz have won any of these games so far? Is it his fault the team in front of him doesn’t help and is something like 7-13 on the PK? He is not taking the stupid penalties…What if he did stop all the shots last night? They still be tied 0-0…How many breakaways has this team given up? How about 3, 5 on 3’s so far this year. How about a shorthanded breakaway…how about you just open your eyes and realize you cannot continue to blame everything on a goalie!!! The DEFENSE blows!!
Kyle you are by far the dumbest hockey fan in the world. You are the reason why Philly gets a bad rep, because you know nothing about the game…
You are still stuck on Carter and Richards who are NOBODIES, yes they have a ring good for them they road on the coattails of Quick (who is struggling now) Kopitar, Doughty etc.
Get over it dude…Bryz has put up the best numbers in goal since 2004…and that was during his shitty season last year!!! The guy is no doubt our best player this year and yet all you can say is “he doesnt win us any games”…we have 3 F’ING goals in 3 games!!!!!
Did Candy from the oak write this post???
The more and more I read this blog, the more and more I realize that Kyle doesn’t know shit about hockey. I know that the obvious response is “Don’t like it, don’t read it!” but it’s just fucking annoying because I repeatedly come here expecting a quality product only to find the random assortment of thoughts from a washed up former 4th line prep school wannabe hockey player.
Bryz hasn’t been the issue these past three games, it’s entirely on the rest of the team playing in front of him. We know the dude is a complete head case, which all goalies are in some fashion, but he’s been putting together some solid net play coupled with shit play from his Defense and Offense. If that continues, he’s going to check out mentally while pissing everyone off even more in the process and then we’ll be forced to see a Leighton/Booch goalie carousel. Here’s to hoping Booch has some 2010 magic left in him and Broad Street actually begins to fight back.
BTW, I’m sick of profootballtalk.com, hardballtalk.com and prohockeytalk.com having headlines 24-36 hours in advance of this site and then Kyle coming out and acting like shit just went down and its “Breaking News!”. If you’re going to act like you have the top Philly Sports Blog then actually show that you’re dedicated to it. Christ, even Barstool is whooping your ass and most of their shit is smut(albeit awesome smut).
Why do you continue to lament the Richards and Carter trades? They were supposed to be the Flyers top two stars then went to LA and won the cup on a team where they weren’t even top 5 players. And please explain to me how they could have kept them both and had room under the salary cap to sign Bryz. This entire post is the opposite of logic.
Sean O’Mara – Jeff Carter led the postseason in goals last year. You cannot just ship off 120 plus points of offense and expect to recover. in addition, you get rid of JVR (probably too soon) and Jagr, who while old, is still deadly on the PP, which the flyers are having a tough time wtih
I agree wtih Kyle, there really is 1.5 surefire goal scorers on this team, its Giroux and Briere. He was dead on on Hartnell, id be shocked if he scores 30 again even in a full year. its been a lot of crashing the net and hoping something happens
Did Candy from the oak write this? WTF
Sweet Jesus. Even as a devils fan I will admit that Bryz is not the problem. Other than the one playoff game where he played the puck off Clarkson and into his own net, he was the one thing keeping them in the series. I should have stuck to reading the other flyers blogs
This site needs more Wingbowl stuff
Your analysis is bad and you should feel bad.
What happened to Marc Andre Bourdon or Erik Gustaffson? The current defense blows.
Yeah, this is pretty simple. Bryz is good for one lousy goal per game. Big deal. He keeps them in it, and that’s his job. The rest is up to the team.
The offense (minus Giroux) needs to score, the defense needs to exist at all, and there needs to be an answer for losing the offensive production of Richards, Carter, JVR and Jagr. And there isn’t at this point. Too many noobs on the squad, the vets can’t find a rhythm and there is (again) absolutely no defense being played at an NHL level this year so far.
Not too late to turn things around, but they’d better get on the stick fast if they want this season to mean anything.
Just calling out Simmons for what he is … could say they’re calling a spade a spade.
The guy is filthy and if he wasn’t a phucking phlyer you people would see it.
Can’t wait for Thursday when the Rangers dick slap the phlyers some more ….
Hey Kyle, way to call me out on Twitter as one of your “two favorite comments” from this. Now, allow me to back up my “Since the All-Star Break last year he’s been one of the 5 or 6 best goalies in the NHL. Fact.” comment.
I want you to do me a favor. It’ll take 2 minutes. Go to ESPN’s goalie stats. Go to 2011-2012. In the “splits” category, choose “post all-star.”
Now go to GAA. Ignore the players who played under 15 games. Looky looky at who is THIRD in GAA. That’d be Bryz (number ONE if we look at guys that played over 20 games).
GAA not your thing? Let’s look at Save %. Well well, Bryz is 6th. (4th for goalies who played at least 20).
Shutouts? Tied for 2nd.
Actual goals against (here we need to go with guys who played at least 20 games, for obvious reasons): WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, BRYZ IS NUMBER ONE.
Oh, and he was tied for 6th in wins.
Check your facts before you sarcastically dismiss a comment.
I used to think you had some hockey knowledge. But you’re just another lazy, blame-everything-on-the-goalie dumbass.
So, Bryz has been, at WORST, the 5th or 6th best goalie in the NHL since the last All Star Break.
FACT, MOTHERFUCKER.
Brilliant, J.T.
This Kyle Scott guy is a moron when it comes to hockey.
Seems to me he goes with the party line of WIP to get his name and his site mentioned on the air and get those appearances on that shit show the Great Sports Debate, which sucked like 20 years ago.
🙁
Flyers should trade that pussy , hairy asshole lover hartnell
I’m actually never going to have a drink at Drinker’s again because of your stupidity in regards to this article…your blatant lack of hockey knowledge is now literally costing business’ money…and I REALLY liked bringing all my co-workers to $1 taco’s on Fridays…
Hartnell looks old
Are you even watching the games, dude? You sound like you’re basing Bryz’s performance off of reading his stats from each game and not the actual game. STOP PRETENDING THIS IS THE BRYZ FROM THE FIRST HALF OF LAST SEASON! Bryz had nothing to do with any of these losses.
Have you noticed that they’re a minus 7 or 8 or whatever the fuck on special teams? Have you noticed they spent pretty much the entire second half of last nights game on the PK? Have you noticed that theyve had virtually no odd man rushes and can’t get out of their own zone (Carle’s absence)? Have you noticed they have yet to score first, not to mention that they’ve only had the lead for about 8 seconds in the first 3 games? Have you noticed THAT THEY ONLY HAVE 3 GOALS IN 3 GAMES?!?? Bryz won’t win you one game this season if they keep playing like this on offense and special teams.
And how do you fault Bryz for last night? 3 goals on 5 shots looks bad on a stat sheet, but if you, ya know, watch the fuckin game, youd see that one of those shots (yet again) went off a flyers skate, and the 3rd one WAS A FUCKING ILYA KOVALCHUCK PENALTY SHOT!!! Its mindblowing that you would lay those on Bryz’s doorstep. Bryz can’t win you games if you’re constantly letting guys like Thomas Vanek and Ilya Kovalchuck waltz into the zone unattended to and if you’re not generating scoring chances or consistently staying out of your zone and in the other zone. Not to mention that HE HAS bailed his team out this season, and that every loss to the Devils in last years playoffs would have been 10-2 had Bryz not played the way he did.
And you’re bitching about Simmonds, who’s been one of our best players so far, other than Bryz? Laughton, whos been great, especially for a fuckin “Baby”? Seriously…The biggest problem this team has is the absence of a top flight D man, the absence of a fast puck handling d-man (carle), and the absence of Jagrs offensive creativity; not to mention all of their veteran experience.
And you’re STILL on the fucking racist thing? When you say racism is alive and well in Jersey, do you realize that half of New Jersey is made up of PHILLY FANS? You moron. Seriously man, this site has turned to utter trash. And when you’re not posting irrelevant, race baiting, idiotic trash, you’re analysis is this dog shit. This site seemed like you actually used to put thought into it. It was mostly creative and witty analysis that was different from the mainstream because you were still a fan. You didn’t have an agenda. It also had some goofy posts. Now that you rely on it for your bread and butter, and that youve gotten some public noteriety, every post is lazy, without thought, and utterly useless. All the wit and snark has turned to lazy race baiting and easy insults and accusations to simply get hits. The goofy stuff has turned into pure TMZ trash. You have an agenda, you go after certain players for no reason, just like the normal media. Congratulations, youve made it to the asshole club: You’re Tim Pannacio 2.0. Its fucking pathetic.
OK, you want to break it down? Yeah, he had a five-week stretch where he was awesome. Playoffs? 3, 5, 4, 5, 3, 1, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3. Those are his goal totals. Sv % in the playoffs? 88.7. So while you can’t blame the Devils loss on him, he was not good against Pitt (Flyers were just very good) and average, at best, against Devils. Not once did he win the Flyers a game, and that’s my point– he’s fine. I didn’t blame any losses on him, if you came away with that, then I don’t know what to tell you. What I said was that for a $51 million guy, he doesn’t steal you any games. Average goalies are fine. Great goalies – what he’s being paid to be – steal you games. He doesn’t. His numbers last year were virtually identical to Sean Burke’s, Brian Boucher’s and Ray Emery’s in each of their final seasons with the Flyers, and that’s very average.
And that said, 70% of that post had nothing to do with Bryz! Amazing.
@ Kyle Scott., back in the kitchen with that man Suzy Celek
Long posts & typing Letters to comment is chapping my ass
You implied I was wrong saying he was a top 5 or 6 goalie post All Star last year. I was not wrong, and I showed you.
Was he good in the Pittsburgh series? No. But neither team played ANY defense in that series. He was left out to dry like he has been these first three games. And he was, however, good enough to win that series.
He was the Flyers BEST player against the Devils. Give me the goals against all you want, but if you objectively look at the Devils series, you can’t tell me he wasn’t their best player. He bailed out his D NUMEROUS times in that series. The D played like absolute trash. Each game would have had 6-7 goals if a Sean Burke, a Boosh, or an Emery was the goalie. And if you don’t see that, you’re clueless.
I still don’t see how a guy is supposed to make up for 15 defensive breakdowns a game. How is he supposed to stop Vanek and Kovalchuk on breakaways? You’re asking this guy to be superhuman, and save for the first half of last year and the Penguins series, he’s actually come pretty close.
I like how you completely ignore how my statement was correct (after you made fun of it) and then cherry pick stats to try to make your argument. Bigger sample size= better picture, buddy. The first half of last season was the exception for Bryz, not the rule. But you pretend it’s otherwise.
But keep up this attitude. Run another goalie out of town. I’m sure we’ll get a Patrick Roy in here real quick. We’ve done that so often.
That Pittsburgh series was a pond hockey series and he outplayed Marc-Andre Fleury. By the way Pittsburgh’s offense is just a little more potent than the Flyers…and like 27 other NHL teams.
And actually Bryzgalov did steal a few games for them, because in games 1 and 2 Pittsburgh had all sorts of amazing chances at the end and Bryzgalov bailed them out.
If you think Brian Boucher or Sean Burke could’ve won that Penguins series–which your reply seems to be saying–then you’re even more biased/clueless than your original post would suggest. Any goalie off of your list there in net for the Flyers and the Penguins bounce them in four straight in the first round.
I get what you’re overall point is, excluding you having no clue about Bryzgalov’s play. The Flyers should’ve gone all in once they got Bryzgalov. Not put a franchise goalie who is over 30 on such a young team. That’s on Holmgren who had a terrible offseason and did nothing to make the team better, actually with the players they lost they took a few giant steps back.
However, your assertion the Flyers were one of the elite teams with Richards and Carter, that’s absurd.
In 2009 they were manhandled by Pittsburgh in the first round.
They squeaked into the playoffs on the last day of the season in 2010 and then fell ass backwards into the Finals not having to play Pittsburgh or Washington and beating a Boston team that by game four was missing seven key players.
In 2011 they went to seven games against an average Buffalo team and then got destroyed in four by Boston (who now had those seven key players back).
You’ve got a gay writer to do the fashion section… why not a hockey fan to write hockey articles?
And yeah, I’m ignoring the other 70% of your post because the 30% I am commenting on was so blatantly ridiculous it deserved to be called out.
If the Phillies go 3 Cole Hamels starts scoring only 3 runs and he gives up one home run in the second inning of the first start and then you spend 30% of a post complaining about Hamels, you’d expect to get ripped for it. This is no different.
Everyone writing novels today.
You people are idiots. He’s saying that for $51 mil the guy should be able to “stand on his head” once in a while and bail the team out. Of course he’s solid, but unspectacular.
I think you are all missing the root of Kyle’s dissatisfaction with the Flyers. Trading Richards and Carter took away alot of great material for this blog (Morning Carts). Kyle loves one thing and one thing only and that is sweet succulent page views. Now he has discovered a new oasis, trolling Flyer fans. No fanbase in the city rushes to the defense of their team like Flyer fans do. Congrats Kyle on finding your new gold mine…
Goalie’s job is to stop the 1st shot. last night’s score should have been 5-0 or 6-0. lotta guys are outta shape and its showin.
is Luongo the answer ? knee jerk solution.
forwards STAY with your man…Defense CLEARS THE PORCH.
Old time hockey.
Arm chair critics always focus on the hood ornament, not the driver….it’s the QB’s fault, it’s the Goalie’s fault.it’s the Pitchers fault….et cetera etc.
Man, the people leaving comments are fired up today!
No first line defensemen, no true goal scorers (Giroux and Briere exception). Is anyone surprised they stink?
HATE, HATE, HATE!!!
Simple point Kyle is making on Bryz…
Salary this year 6.5 mil, #4 in the NHL goalie salary
Salary next year 8.0 mil, good enough for the #1 NHL goalie salary
Take a look at the list of other goalies in that salary range and if you think he is playing well enough to be in that list of goalies…Give me your Meth dealers phone#…because you need to be cut off…Your brain is turning into retarded mush
Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?
How are you still talking about Richards and Carter? Move on for the love of God
“Take a look at the list of other goalies in that salary range and if you think he is playing well enough to be in that list of goalies…Give me your Meth dealers phone#…because you need to be cut off…Your brain is turning into retarded mush”
We’re three games into the fucking season, you toolbag. Christ, let everyone else get a chance to be snake-bitten before you start telling people they’re on meth.
It’s the THIRD game!!!!!!!!!!!
What’s this national long post day???
Come on, Kyle. This piece was entirely too “doom and gloom”. While you have been spot on that the defensemen (minus Meszaros) have looked awful, Bryz’s “struggles” is at about #15 on the list of issues for the Flyers right now. Talk about sensationalist journalism. The fact is they are missing Briere a lot at the moment. Is he a fix-all? Absolutely not. However, his return will provide some much needed finish around the net, and oh yeah, significantly help the powerplay. Again, the guy isn’t going to single-handedly save the season, but keep in mind that you’re missing the second best scoring option on the team. They are young and inexperienced up front but Jesus, man, give it some time.
In November-December 2009, they lost 14 of 17, including steaks of losing 5 in a row and 4 in a row. And they lost to a lot of crap teams. And then, later, Danny Briere came back. And then, even later, they made it to the Finals. SO RELAX!
Oh and even better: in 2008-09, the started 0-6!! And they made the playoffs. What’s the title of this article?
Kyle, go back to Villanova and watch the soccer and horse riding teams play. bye
No props for the awesome GIF I found of Claude and Patrik?
This blog sucks. Everything posted is ridiculously negative unless the team in question is on a massive win streak.
3 games. It has been 3 games and what do we have? 2 major injuries already! I can’t tell you how many times I was promised by management that things would change and be different this year. It appears to me that NOTHING has changed. Allow me to educate this forum for a minute. First in game one, Mr. Rinaldo was sliced open in the leg by a sharp skate. It is no secret that the blades of these skates are extremely sharp and will cut right through skin with little trouble. Where was the padding? Better yet, where has been the outrage over this? What if it nicked an artery? What if it was his neck that got sliced? I have been saying for years that the NHL should not only allow but also mandate these players to wear protective neck guards. I have it on good authority that a few players have requested to wear more padding for this very issue and were denied by Snider. I for one do not want to see a player lose a life over a failed policy. Then last night, Mr. Hartnell seriously injured his foot when he was struck by a puck. Yet another Philadelphia Flyers foot injury at the hands of a puck to the skate. Coincidence? I think not. These skates have little to no padding and these players are not allowed to use adequate equipment like the rest of the league. It is disgusting and something has to be done soon to stop it.
You are all missing the point. If that cheap skate Snyder hasn’t let Nashville sign Shayne Webber AFTER the Flyers had already signed him, there would be a problem on defense. Webber is like a top 5 d man, maybe top 3 behind Timmonin and Z Charra.
I bet that snider got cold feet after the amount of money he gave Webber and called he let Nashville have him. He should’ve never allowed that.
^dude you murdered everyone’s name that you mentioned except for snyder but you then went and spelt it wrong at the end.
and it sounds like you have no clue what went down with the offer sheet that was offered to weber.
and timonen isn’t even in the top 15 Dmen. you are just silly
I think Mr. Hartnell, Mr. Rinaldo, and the other Misters on the team should wear protective ass-guards. The only downside is I wouldn’t be able to kiss their asses.
sounds like this dude edward murphy is hitting the glass dick a little to hard
Edward Murphy is crazy. SMH protective neck guard lol
come back soon hartnall!!!!
I’m done with this site. There was a time when it was a fun read, but that time has come and gone. Later, guys.
Hartnell should stop fucking that slut sheena & get his head into the games.
Mr. Wingbowl Fan,
How exacty am I crazy? Please enlighten me if you will? Do you understand that a large portion of an average hockey player’s body is covered in protective equipment except for two areas: The back of the lower legs (where Mr Rinaldo was seriously sliced) and the neck. Why exactly is that? I will educate you, it comes down to money. Snider does not want to spend any more money on equipment. He does not care at all who gets hurt as a consequence. When will you support full protection? When a player is killed on the ice? Make no mistake about it, it will happen one day. Unlike you, I will be with my team on the front lines fighting this battle of greed and unsafe working conditions. I thank the majority of you on this forum who, like me, are sick of the constant injuries and want changes immediately.
Whats wrong with the names? I know its Snider. I was using my iphone to type. You’re the one that spelled it wrong, moron!
And Timmonin is a top 5 defenseman. He’s a perrenial all-star, and played for team Finland.
Seth Jones! Seth Jones! Seth Jones! If we suck this year and land Seth Jones it will all be worth it…
They better start winning, I don’t want to come to this shitty team and expect to be the savior
STOP DRAFTING 2 WAY FUCKING CENTERs get a god damn D man
also.. SETH JONEs is a bitch i know this to be a fact… Rasmussen Ristolainen is a better prospect and he could fall to phiadelphia
Kimmo couldnt move justin fucking bieber out of the way of the goalie.. hes an old cone
The flyers should look into drafting Tom Kaffenburg.
Edward Murphy,
I hope that your entire series of ridiculous rants has been done tongue in cheek. The only other alternatives would be that you work for some obscure equipment company that is attempting to make hockey equipment that only you make required. You have been smoking more crack than usual, or possibly mixing it with bath salts. Or the least likely, that you have uncovered a massive conspiracy where Ed Snider refuses to spend a few thousand dollars more on equipment to protect the players that he pays millions dollars…… My money is on the crack/bath salts combo…
Ed Murphy needs to get off his high horse
Mr. Murphy, please tell me which other teams or players in the league wear more padding? What teams mandate that their players wear neck guards? Or skates with more padding? Aside from your rants in the comments section here at CB, where else has Mr. Snider been questioned or come under fire for these equipment issues you love to tell us about everytime a player gets injured?
Once again Edward Murphy hits the nail on the head. Ed “nickel and dime” Snider needs to be fired for being so cheap. I think we need another owner in here. It’s the only solution. Not only do the Flyers have the most injuries in the league, some of them appear to be life threatening. Flyers fans need to wake up. The love affair here on this site for Snider needs to stop.
Thomas E is also right. Weber should be a Flyer. Why sign him to an offer sheet and give Nashville the opportunity to match? I have an idea. Just Sign him outright. Sign the fuckin guy and get it over with. After this year I make another bid for Weber and this time I don’t let him get away.
You better show some La Salle love on the blog today Nova Boy! Philly is the new Top 10 graveyard!
All that pos pussy Eddie Snider cares about is making an easy buck & eating pussy
.
Over 100 Posts and about 90% ripping Kyle and defending Bryz…makes me proud. Been saying this since last year when I started reading this blog how much of a dumbass Kyle is and how he knows nothing about hockey…
Kyle do yourself a favor and do not reply in the comments because you just make yourself look like more of an ass. Bryz didn’t win that series against Pitt…who cares? Did they move on? Yes they did because he team stepped up for him and because Fleury was awful. Then against NJ where he played his ass off and was our #1 star, well guess what, hes numbers were already skewed because of the first series…
You are a typical DUMB hockey fan, you look at the score and blame the goalie…you dont know the game, you dont play it, you dont get it! I rarely see you actually break a game down and discuss it. Instead you stick to one thing…Bryz.
“And that said, 70% of that post had nothing to do with Bryz! Amazing.”
What a joke! You right an article which everyone on here knows is about your hatred for Bryz and then you throw some fillers in to just cover yourself and make it seem like your talking about other things too, like your random racist post that ended this article…
You just got BLASTED in the comments and I am pretty sure not 1 person agreed with you…thats when you know your in trouble.
Stick to something you know…copy and pasting stories from the other sites…
Bryz has been solid. The D blows
Glad to see people still don’t know who Edward Murphy is.
Using that penguins series as a barometer for any goalie who played in it is just retarded. Each game averaged about 12 goals, was riddled with fights/penalties/stoppages, and had absolutely ZERO defense from either side. Its the absolute worst situation for any goalie to be in. I don’t care if it was Brodeur, Hasek, Roy, or fuckin hybrid of all three; the scores would have been the same. If we had anyone from that pathetic list like Bouche or Emery in net, we would have gotten blown out of the water. That simple. Bryz did his job in a barn burner series, and did it better than Fleury. In the Devils series, he was what kept the score from being even more embarassingly lop sided than it was. He bailed us out and stood on his head as much as he could, but couldnt over come 20+ defensive lapses per game. End of story.
Also, its only 3 games in…But when are people going to start calling Laviolette out? I like the guy and I think hes a great coach, but that Devils game looked the same as the ones last year in that playoff series. ONe of the huge reasons we lost that series, and that game two nights ago, was due to inability to adapt from Laviolette. Same with the loss to Boston two years ago. He just got out coached.
Chirp really sucks. Your comments are long and uninformative. You are a moron who knows shit about hockey.
Thomas E. Merschen,
Glad you decided to ignore everyone elses novels and only pick mine out.
Also your post was just filled with hockey knowledge. Not sure how I can respond to that…
Easy on the insults, I don’t do well getting bullied…
You can leave now…buh bye.
Wow Thomas E. Merschen, you REALLY grilled Chrip there, nice goin. Good use of stats, facts, and rational coherent thoughts.
And another thing wrong with brining up Bryz’s stats from the Pens series…Game 4 he gave up 5 goals, got pulled, and what did Bobrovsky do? Let in 5 more. The flyers played no defense that series and during that 4th game, had no offense either, and you saw the result. Didn’t matter if it was Bryz or Bob, the pucks were still goin in.
Here’s a stay for you…..
Phoenix 2011 With Bryz – first Round Exit (swept).
Phoenix 2012 without Bryz – West Conf Finals.
Phoenix went to the WCF with basically the same team except a goalie switch.
Bryz is not a winner. Face it. Is he good? Yes. But he’s not a winner.
can we bring up how racist kyle actually is? you KNOW once simmonds hit marty, he twitter searched “simmonds nigger”
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