The Flyers split their games over the weekend, but neither game was all that pretty. The Flyers loss to the Caps should be sobering--the Caps were 1-5-1 and generally a lifeless team, playing in the second night of back to back games, while the Flyers were coming off a 2 day break. Somehow the Flyers got outplayed. A win against Carolina followed, where a 5 goal outburst and 39 saves from Bryzgalov camouflaged a very sloppy performance.
In preparation for these games, Laviolette basically did what I called for in a post last week; he put together a line of Briere-Giroux-Simmonds, and spent their entire practice on Thursday on the power play. These changes yielded rewards, as Giroux and Briere combined for 5 points this weekend, mostly on a drastically improved PP.
Even taking these gains into account, I see scant hopes for long term success. Why?
-The Flyers have no threat on the back-end. With Carle departed, Meszaros out, and Timonen about to turn
-The forward corp is short on skill players or snipers. Even worse, with Simmonds and Hartnell both injured, they've also lost their 2 best goal scoring power forwards. Many dreary offensive performances lie ahead.
-B. Schenn and Cooter are not ready. This team is scary young down the middle, relying on a 21 year old and a 20 year old as their second and third line centers. There is no margin of error for these guys this season, and they don't appear ready for that burden. Shades of the disastrous 2006-07 season when 22 year old Carter and Richards weren't ready for similar roles and clocked in with <40 point seasons?
-General disorganization. The Flyers look disorganized. They still have coverage breakdowns, and their passing is slow and hesitant. You almost never see them snap the puck around between players.
The Flyers currently sit 14th out of 15 in the East. It's not an insurmountable hole for a good team, but the Flyers are not a good team this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment