The Flyers hate Andrew Alberts

I don't know what it is, but something about Andrew Alberts must piss off the Flyers. For the second time in the last few seasons, a Flyer will be suspended two games for going after Alberts. I will have to get to the bottom of this.

Back to Work

Like most Americans, it's time for the Flyers to get back to work. They haven't played a game since December 20, and even then, they only "played" the Panthers in the most liberal sense of the word.

Pronger will be out a few more weeks, but what is really going to be interesting in that time is the goalies. Word is Boosh for tonight. Boucher is 4-0 with a .953 save percentage in December, can he keep it up? Will Bobrovsky continue to slip?

And surely we'll see Leighton sooner rather than later. He deserves at least a look.

Ruh Roh

The news of the day is that Pronger will miss 4-6 weeks. Pronger has been at his best yet this season, but he's a valuable physical presence, pretty impeccable defensively, and a big asset on the Flyers struggling PP. One or two weeks wouldn't hurt too much, but 4-6 is gonna be tough. Will be interesting to see how Laviolette changes up the D pairings. Will he split up Timonen-Coburn, or Meszaros-O'Donnell. I wouldn't mind seeing Meszaros get more ice time myself.

Other thangs:

-I'm wondering when Bobrovsky will get his first shutout. In my opinion, SOs are a good indicator of truly outstanding goaltending. Wins and GAA are heavily dependent on the team in front of you, and save percentage is better, but has some of the same problems. Shutouts are tough to come by no matter what team you are on, and if a goalie's putting those up, you know he's really on top of his game and shutting the door. I think the fact that Bobrovsky's doesn't have one yet shows his inexperience. I'll be looking for a few shutouts from him before playoff time as a sign of progress for him.

-Dissecting Jeff Carter's game is probably a subject for a post on its own, but it would be a huge help if he centers a line that consistently creates chances. Right now, arguably the three streakiest Flyers are on the same line, Zherdev, Carter and JVR. All big and skate well, but are predictable in their play and tend to carry the puck in straight lines too much (JVR and Carter at least). Maybe they'll work well together as a direct attacking unit?

No Disrespect

Apparently some people think the above goal was "disrespectful."

• "A ... joke," left wing Ryan Malone said.

• Asked if it was disrespectful, defenseman Mattias Ohlund said, "Absolutely."

• "It's embarrassing for him," Ellis said. "You come into a league, a respectful league like this, and you try a little move like that. It's not a very classy thing. That's just the kind of person he is."

• Completely unprompted, left wing Simon Gagne said the move showed disrespect for an opponent. "I think it was a little bit overboard," Gagne said. "It's okay, you make a nice move if you want to, you're allowed to do it, but you don't need to do those little things before. It's a line that you're not allowed to cross, and he did it on this one." Coach Guy Boucher, who declined to comment on Omark's spin-o-rama move at the blue line as he skated toward goalie Dan Ellis, said Saturday, "I didn't lose any sleep over it. He's not my player. But the players were (mad) on the bench even before the goal. You could see them, 'What the (bleep).' " Asked if Omark, 23, in his first NHL game, showed disrespect toward the Lightning, Gagne said, "A little bit. You don't need to do that spin-o-rama. You come into the league, it's your first game. It's not something a guy who has been in the league 10 years would do. You don't see a guy like Sidney Crosby doing that."

I'm not sure I get it. If the game is settled and a guy is dicking around like that, yeah, it's poor sportsmanship. But the game was on the line here--this was a game winning goal. The only person risking looking like an idiot is the shooter himself if he were to lose that puck. It's impossible to say whether that little spin-o-rama at center ice did anything to throw off the goalie, but it was a game winning play, and the theatrics were before shooting.

The shootout is a contrived skill competition in the first place anyway. If you want to stop his disrepect, stop his freaking shot, then complain. If you do that, you'll have the last laugh anyway by winning and the guy making the move will look like doubly stupid with his ridiculous moves. Chances are, in that case, his own teammates will be the ones pissed at him.

Sideshow Shel

The signing of Jody Shelley caused much consternation among Flyers fans this offseason. Setting aside the question of whether or not he should've been signed in the first place, whether or not he should actually play is a separate question.

Frankly, I am kind of amazed Laviolette keeps putting this guy in the lineup night after night. I guess some could claim upper management is leaning on him to play Shelley, but I don't buy that.

Shelley can't skate, can't pass, can't kill penalties, can't shoot...pretty much all he can do is fight and throw a check or two a game. Is it really worth having a guy like this in the lineup in this day and age?

I'm hardly a big fighting proponent, but I can see it's place in the game. Hockey is a fast-paced physical game, where the play keeps flowing. It's not like football where there's an army of coaches and officials and play stops every 8 seconds. The skaters are out there on their own and have to keep battling as play carries on. As a result, the players have largely policed themselves in hockey about untoward physical play.

That to me says a scrap among two real hockey players is fine--it's part of the game. What I don't understand is why teams dress designated goons to skate in circles 4 minutes a game. It's one thing if a physical player is out there intimidating and thereby creating time and space for his teammates. What I can't believe is that the possibly of a fight between each team's designated goon who hardly play otherwise will have any effect on how the rest of the players play the rest of the game. Such fighting is purely "sideshow."

Of course it's not a coincidence I'm getting on the high horse on the topic after Shelley does something mindless like this. Dangerously shoving a player into the boards on an icing call and putting his team down a man for 5 minutes for no good reason at all.

Novel OT idea

Having recently been annoyed to see several OT and SO games, and watching some college football games, it crossed my mind if the NHL can learn from the college football overtime system.

4-on-4 OTs aren't the worst thing in the world, but playing 4-on-4 is something teams aren't really primed for, and is an aspect of the game that can get you regular season points, but is pretty worthless come playoff time. The shootout is even worse, being a skills competition between a few individuals.

What if the NHL took a page from college football, and broke the OT down into direct scoring opportunities? While college football places teams into the red zone and gives each a chance to score, NHL OT could try something like putting each team onto an abbreviated PP. Say 45 or 60 seconds each. A possible basic structure;

-Each team gets a 60 second PP, starting with an offensive zone draw.

-If the game remains tied after one PP each, go into double OT. After double OT, a draw is called, as you don't want regular season games dragging on and on.

-A shorthanded goal ends the game on the spot.

-Double OT could even be something like a 30-second 5-on-3.

Hockey has no multiple point scoring plays, so this system would lack the risk/reward choice football has with a TD versus a FG, but a SH goal being a wildcard gamewinner could be pretty fun.

Now this system still breaks OT down into a specific aspect of the game, but PP/PK is a much more prominent part of the game that teams prepare for under the normal course of the season, as compared to 4-on-4 play, which isn't unusual but is brief, sporadic, and generally uneventful. For the same reason, this idea is much better IMO than say other more wild ideas like 3-on-3 as OT wears on.

You'd get some nice frenzied finishes if the team going second knew they had to score in the final seconds of their PP. They'd pull their goalie to make it 6-on-4, fans would be screaming shoot, everyone would crash the net. Likewise, a penalty killing skater might be more inclined to join a shorthanded rush for an automatic gamewinner.

I don't know, just throwing a wild idea out there. I think it could be pretty fun, and no one really likes the shootout anymore, do they?

Return of Leighton is Like Awkward Dinner Guest

Michael Leighton is back playing, and the Flyers successfully appealed to extend his conditioning stint in the AHL. As long as he is stashed in the AHL, his salary does not count against the cap. This arrangement can only last a few games however.

How the Flyers arrive here is kind of strange. I think the Flyers jumped the gun on signing Leighton this offseason, the day before free agency. In many ways Leighton saved the season, but he was not good in the Stanley Cup Finals, and I can't imagine many teams were hoping to pounce on him in free agency. I think the Flyers would've been better off bidding for other goalies, and if that didn't work out, Leighton would likely have still been available. Either way, the Flyers signed him 2 years at $1.55m/year.

Given the free agent goalie market this offseason, that proved to be an overpayment, as more desired goalies went for basically the same price. The Flyers either believed in Leighton, or they misread the market. Given what's happening to Leighton now, I suspect it's the latter. Of course Leighton showing up to camp injured surely must've rubbed management the wrong way.

The Flyers aren't too anxious to have him back on the roster. They can absorb his salary by doing something with Walker, who has yet to dress for any games, or putting Laperriere on LTIR. Still, that leaves the Flyers with 3 goalies, which is never a desirable arrangement.

I suspect one way or another, Leighton will get in a few games, but his leash will be short. Everyone is Bobrovsky crazy right now, even if it's still very early for him. I don't think much of Leighton personally (he's been released or traded for a bag of pucks 6 times, including being waived by the Flyers in 2007--all those teams can't have been wrong), but I think the Flyers owe him at least at look after last season, and Bobrovsky and Boucher are hardly a bulletproof tandem.

Interest in JVR

Tim Panaccio has reported that the Leafs are sniffing around for a JVR trade, and Darren Dreger confirmed that "[a] few teams called, asking about JVR early in the year."

In a down draft year, JVR was the number 2 pick. Most of the drafts in this decade were outstanding overall, producing some damn good players from that slot; Malkin, Doughty, Staal (x2), Heatley, Ryan. Of course every draft year is different, and draft slot is no guarantee of success.

I said previously that JVR is still trying to find his game in the NHL. You can see the assets that made him a high draft pick--the size, the skating, and the stickhandling. While a 35 point rookie season is hardly a disaster, he has done little to make Flyers fans sit up and take notice. I know the Flyers thought he rested on his laurels by playing a second season at UNH instead of going to the AHL, but he did get in shape over this offseason. Unfortunately a promising preseason was for naught after a pretty bad start to the regular season.

It's too early to say much about his NHL career. The Flyers will probably ride out this season, and see how it goes for him. Next year will be more of a make or break season for him. The Flyers tend not to let prospects hang around for very long--the prospect either takes advantage of the chance the team gives him, or the Flyers deal him.

Unless the Flyers get a pretty sweet offer for him (high first pick + other goodies), they should wait and see. Their (lack of) cap space makes getting a roster player back impractical.

As for the Leafs, it is difficult to see what they could offer to tempt the Flyers. The Flyers farm system is pretty bare at the moment, but the Leafs are in rebuilding mode and probably don't want to part with their prospects. Also the Leafs don't have a first pick this year either, so I can't imagine anything happening with the Leafs.

Is Scott Hartnell the Worst Breakaway Player in the NHL?

Seriously.

Last night;

The last Hartnell shootout attempt I can remember from a few seasons ago;

He's obviously confused by the breakaway play in general, because he's not much better at defending them either;

Over the last few seasons, by my count Hartnell has gotten more breakaways than any other Flyer. He's just terrible at them. I was hoping at some point he'd show a significant in improvement in breakaway skills to capitalize on just a few of those, but nope.