GDT: #46 | Flyers at Islanders | Thursday, January 16, 2025 | 7:30 PM | NBCSP, 97.5 FM

[Beef Invictus]

It's a start. The goal should be a .650 team with average goaltending.
At that point you're plus 100 points every year, and if your goaltender gets hot you have a shot.
Few teams have won a Cup without above average goaltending.

It's a start to nowhere. It's a start to where they've been for 13 years. Who cares.

No teams gave won a Cup while built like and playing like the Flyers are and plan to be. No team ever will.

 

[Curufinwe]

 

[renberg]

There is no way Rocky is not related to someone Flyers. How can he consistantly be the worst PP coach in the league for four years and still have a job.

He's just one of the many incompetent people in the organization. Any person who has hockey management ability is going to avoid the Flyers. They'd be surrounded by fools. The types of people that are currently in the FO don't want someone around who knew what they were doing. If that type of person came and had power, the rest would be out of jobs PDQ.

 

[FlyerNutter]

It's not moving forward though, that's the point. Being a bottom 10 team is infinitely a better spot to be than what trading late first round picks will do for you. There are two places to be in the NHL. Really bad or really good. If all your moves are just going to make you a playoff team with no realistic chance to contend. That's the worst possible thing you can do. It's okay to be in that middle ground is you're an ascending team just passing through on the way to the top but that's definitely not the Flyers. It is extremely doubtful that any trades they can make, will put them in that position.


Another situation where Tortorella improves the team but never to the point of actually contending. He fell short. Just as he has for the last 20 years.

I dont disagree with you. I don't approve of this plan, the general philosophy.

I don't see the floor beyond this season being in say top 7, if I'll pick a random number. 10th to 14th? Sure.

As has long been feared, they dont value the draft enough. Or more specifically, the high end draft picks that come when you have the balls to put yourself into a position to draft there. If we go with the above statements as fact, which I honestly can't see anyone disagreeing with... Well...

You may as well start dealing some of those picks.

The part that will piss me off, is if Briere does neither. Not tanking, and not moving on from any draft picks to secure players with a higher level of talent - is downright pure incompetence.

I am willing to begrudgingly go along with their plan - but they better start actually doing something because sitting on their ass in the trade market, or waddling up proudly to draft 13th, 26th, and 30th is asinine - even if they believe in a dogshit inbred scouting staff.

 

[bennysflyers16]

If they keep winning? They’ve beaten like four winning teams all year.

I also didn't quite get that post by Torts uncle.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Everyone kept talking about head or shoulder contact but no one brought up that it was pretty clearly a blindside hit.

 

[Cody Webster]

When they get average goaltending they're a playoff team, we saw that last year, we're seeing that now.
When they have the worst goaltending in the league, gee, they suck. What team wouldn't suck with that kind of goaltending?

Teams with average goaltending (GA - xGA)
Edm .678 (+3)
LA .655 (-4)
Minn .644 (+5)
Car .611 (-4)
COL .598 (+6)
TB .593 (-1)
CAL .557 (+1)
Mon .545 (-5)
Ottawa .545 (+3)
StL .522 (+7)

bad goaltending
FLA .598 (+14)
CBJ .556 (+19)
Van .545 (+15)
Boston .533 (+12)
Det .523 (+10)
Flyers .500 (+29)
Pitt .478 (+22)

Who cares if they are a fringe, first round exit, playoff team. Nobody wants that.

Everyone kept talking about head or shoulder contact but no one brought up that it was pretty clearly a blindside hit.

I said this last night. It was hard to tell from the different views if it was shoulder or head, but it was clearly a blindside hit which should have resulted in a penalty

 

[deadhead]

The problem with the hit is while he didn't actually leave his skates, he started low and struck with an upward motion, so even if he hit the shoulder, the angle of the hit ensured head contact.

It was deliberate, he could have hit the shoulder straight on and knocked Poehling five feet without a head hit.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

The Flyers have like four or five wins against teams with winning records.

 

[Cody Webster]

Laughton and that jagoff will probably end up with the same punishment

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Columbus was another failure for Tortorella. Had a 50 win and 108 point team and did nothing with it. Tortorella hasn't done squat in the NHL in the last 20 years. One of the most overrated coaches in the history of the league. He's basically a high end well paid interim level coach

You think that Columbus team is a 50-win/108-point team with most coaches?

Only on this board could taking a team that was 34-33-8 the prior season, after starting 0-7 under Todd Richards before Torts took over, and then turning them into a 50-win, 108 point team the following year, be twisted into a slur on Torts.

Here's your 108 point team that apparently Torts "did nothing with." Yeah, what an embarrassment of riches when Cam Atkinson is your leading scorer at 62 points, and your 2nd leading scorer is Alex Wennberg. This team was basically Bob, a 19-year old Werenski, and some decent but not great players, and you're trying to spin it into underachievement. How about some objectivity?

 

[MJL66]

The problem with the hit is while he didn't actually leave his skates, he started low and struck with an upward motion, so even if he hit the shoulder, the angle of the hit ensured head contact.

It was deliberate, he could have hit the shoulder straight on and knocked Poehling five feet without a head hit.

It was a completely legal hit. The shoulder was the principal point of contact. It was reviewed on ice. The officials actually did a really good job with that.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

The problem with the hit is while he didn't actually leave his skates, he started low and struck with an upward motion, so even if he hit the shoulder, the angle of the hit ensured head contact.

It was deliberate, he could have hit the shoulder straight on and knocked Poehling five feet without a head hit.

That's how I saw it, and still see it.

The hit was directed toward the head. The fact that he glanced the shoulder first on his trajectory to Poehling's head shouldn't excuse it.

This wasn't a case where the force was directed shoulder-to-shoulder, and the head was hit incidentally.

 

[Danko]

Folks who don't believe the GM/Triumvirate arent in love with Torts completely dismiss the fact that they allow him to keep Rocky Thompson on the coaching staff...a man who has no business in his position, unlike Brad Shaw. A man who is so bad at his job that the flyers had to try and bring in Dany Heatley, John Leclair and Patrick Sharp to advise on the powerplay.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Why is a former minor league goon running an NHL powerplay?

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

Why is a former minor league goon running an NHL powerplay?

He did a great job with the Sharks.

 

[mr4tno]

I think Briere will be open to a package trade, picks, prospects & players for an upgrade.
But maybe a half dozen deals a year where a top young player moves in a trade.
And Briere shouldn't even consider adding a player over 25 or so.

The way to madness is to trade real assets for older veterans who you don't want to extend (because you don't want a 8 year contract starting at 30) to get a bounce for a year or two.
These players, if added at all, should be in FA on short-term deals, if G wanted to return . . .

Kevin Hayes is the cautionary tale for the above...

 

[deadhead]

You think that Columbus team is a 50-win/108-point team with most coaches?

Only on this board could taking a team that was 34-33-8 the prior season, after starting 0-7 under Todd Richards before Torts took over, and then turning them into a 50-win, 108 point team the following year, be twisted into a slur on Torts.

Here's your 108 point team that apparently Torts "did nothing with." Yeah, what an embarrassment of riches when Cam Atkinson is your leading scorer at 62 points, and your 2nd leading scorer is Alex Wennberg. This team was basically Bob, a 19-year old Werenski, and some decent but not great players, and you're trying to spin it into underachievement. How about some objectivity?

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Getting 50 points out of Gagner should qualify Torts for the HOF as a HC!

 

[mr4tno]

Why is a former minor league goon running an NHL powerplay?

Same reason why.......
- a former agitator is POHO
- a former semi-goon is coaching an AHL team
- a former legitimate NHL goon was head of player development...

Flyer Hockey baby

 

[MJL66]

He's just one of the many incompetent people in the organization. Any person who has hockey management ability is going to avoid the Flyers. They'd be surrounded by fools. The types of people that are currently in the FO don't want someone around who knew what they were doing. If that type of person came and had power, the rest would be out of jobs PDQ.

There is a reason why Keith Jones, a broadcaster with zero experience was hired to be the POHO. With the absurd triumvirate hierarchy, no serious outside candidate wanted the job. So they had to hire a cheerleader to be the POHO

 

[VladDrag]

You think that Columbus team is a 50-win/108-point team with most coaches?

Only on this board could taking a team that was 34-33-8 the prior season, after starting 0-7 under Todd Richards before Torts took over, and then turning them into a 50-win, 108 point team the following year, be twisted into a slur on Torts.

Here's your 108 point team that apparently Torts "did nothing with." Yeah, what an embarrassment of riches when Cam Atkinson is your leading scorer at 62 points, and your 2nd leading scorer is Alex Wennberg. This team was basically Bob, a 19-year old Werenski, and some decent but not great players, and you're trying to spin it into underachievement. How about some objectivity?

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View attachment 962670

That season from Sergei Bobrovski was arguably the best goaltending performance since the RTSS dataset was developed in 2007-2008. If nothing else, it was by far Bob's best single season performance.

 

[Curufinwe]

Who cares if they are a fringe, first round exit, playoff team. Nobody wants that.


I said this last night. It was hard to tell from the different views if it was shoulder or head, but it was clearly a blindside hit which should have resulted in a penalty

Blindside hasn't been in the rulebook for 15 years

https://thehockeynews.com/news/the-problem-with-blindside-hits-right-now-they-re-not-illegal

 

[deadhead]

That season from Sergei Bobrovski was arguably the best goaltending performance since the RTSS dataset was developed in 2007-2008. If nothing else, it was by far Bob's best single season performance.

It's why I've learned to look at goaltending performances when evaluating a team.
Few goaltenders play at a high level year to year, so an outlier can fool a GM
Think Mason in 2015-16. Elevated a 85 point team into the playoffs, and Hextall then sat on his hands.

 

[VladDrag]

It's why I've learned to look at goaltending performances when evaluating a team.
Few goaltenders play at a high level year to year, so an outlier can fool a GM
Think Mason in 2015-16. Elevated a 85 point team into the playoffs, and Hextall then sat on his hands.

For sure. If you believe Evolving Hockey, he was responsible for 18ish standing points above replacement level players. His career average is ~5, and his time in CBJ was 7.3.

The other thing you need to start looking at is goals for on the power play, note not xGF.