GDT: #54 | Flyers at Avalanche | Sunday, February 2, 2025 | 3:00 PM | NBCSP+

[ellja3]

Most Dmen are fully known commodities by the time they are 23. "Dmen take longer" is a myth.

There is more to offense than the act of shooting. A thing the Flyers do not understand, and a reason their obsession with shoot-first players like Tippett has never paid off.

I ask again. If offense is easier than defense, why don't the Flyers just score? They're already doing the hard thing. Why not do the easier thing too?

Because they lack the high-end skill and creative spontaneity to create something from a free-flowing game, therefore have to slow the game down to have any chance. Once it happens, you cannot score from rushes etc., you actually have to rely on cycles, broken plays and grinding the goals in, unless you're MM/TK, but MM is being load-managed. That's why it feels like Tippet's absence hurts so much - he would mindlessly throw everything but the kitchen sink at the net and something would eventually fall in.

 

[flyersnorth]

Tortorella barely plays their like 1 of 2 players on the team that can actually create offense.

Michkov is the type of talent to rise above this going forward but it doesn’t make it any less stupid now & concerning when it comes to other players who aren’t as talented.

Why does he do this? Every team he's coached, he picks one of the most talented players to basically alienate - Laine, Dubois, Michkov.

He's from the bygone era of "I have this box, and you *will* fit inside it." He also has a tremendous penchant to gaslight ("Oh, I didn't even know Sanheim was from Calgary").

 

[ybnvs]

Just curious, if the point of playing in juniors is to develop future pros, why do none of these coaches teach the importance of defense? Do they teach it in Europe? Why do kids get to the highest level with all these bad habits?

I can't speak about JRs from personal experience, but I organize Tier I/II/III youth travel tournaments (some of the fun stuff before JRs) and the biggest thing honestly is skating. The better skating teams (and deeper benches) tend to win more games (especially when you have no delayed offside or allowed to ice on PK). With no delayed offside the better skating teams will catch the opposition flatfooted in the neutral zone and defenders on the blueline, and then in the matter of two seconds and two simple entry passes are already behind the defense, and it's basically 2 on 0 against the goalie. The best defense in youth hockey is a fast offense. Control the puck. You don't need to have dangles or great stick skills, just skate and pass.

Each kid develops at such drastically different rates from ages 8 through 18, which creates a lot of variance and disparity in skating and ability. All game long you'll hear, "SKATE SKATE SKATE!" from the bench. Kids can work by themselves on individual stick/puck handling drills, skill moves, etc, but getting ice-time and becoming a great skater (depending on region and accessibility and finances) takes kids very far early on in their "careers" (and will likely improve network connections them within their organizations to move up to higher levels); and ice time is not cheap at all.

 

[Curufinwe]

He's a petty, petty man.

Cole Knuble - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Cole Knuble, 2004-07-01 Grand Rapids, MI, USA USA. Most recently in the NCAA with Univ. of Notre Dame. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Knuble is a fun name to say. So there's still a little joy left in Flyerland.

 

[ellja3]

He's a petty, petty man.


Knuble is a fun name to say. So there's still a little jot left in Flyerland.

Latvian heritage. Are you surprised it's a fun name if it has originated from the country that gave NHL Zemgus Girgensons, Teodors Bļuģers and Rodrigo Ābols? [: