After a bad effort on Monday night against the Buffalo Sabres in a 6-1 beat down at home. Every Flyers fan around the world knew that some changes would be made to the overall lineup, or shuffling that is ahead of tonight’s rematch against the Sabres. Flyers lines and pairings ended like this below last night:
G, Hayes, TK
Lindblom, Frost, Voracek
JvR, Patrick, Farabee
Raffl, Laughton, NAK
Provy, Sanheim
Gustafsson, Myers
Hägg, Braun
The overall team defense was brutal last night, and has been ineffective at times throughout both games to the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well. In those two games in particular against the Penguins, Carter Hart stole the show and played well to a 2.51 GAA and .925 Save Percentage. Simply put, the Flyers have to better with puck management and limit turnovers. These two areas of the game were exploited by the Sabres last night.
Head Coach Alain Vigneault switched the Right-Wingers last night looking for a spark for tonight’s game (With the exception for NAK), so it was to be expected to stick with the lines from late in the game last night. The Flyers have to be more PHYSICAL, and have clean zone entries and exits to lead the rush up the ice. This helps with puck possession time that the Flyers desperately need, I mean if the Flyers don’t have the puck how can they score right? “What I saw tonight was our decision making with the puck wasn’t good enough,” Vigneault said last night, “When it’s not good enough, obviously it feeds the other team’s transition and they come at you and they come at you hard. That’s what happened for the most part tonight. We need to be better with the puck. If we are, we will spend less time in our zone. We’ll get through the neutral zone and we’ll be able to do a better job in the offensive zone.”
Will shuffling the lines be enough for the Flyers to enter the win column again tonight? It should, and they should win 4-2. Only time will tell if this will be the case, but these lines and pairings should be a step in the right direction, a wake up call sort of speak. Vigneault knows how to get the most out of his players, so we should trust any decision he makes.
This was the team that couldn’t get past the islanders, slow to the puck, weak along the boards, intimidated physically and sloppy with the puck. There was no passing, just throwing the puck and hoping for the best. When you’re as slow as this team, you can’t throw the puck to an area, you will always lose the race to the puck. Lastly, Gustafsson was horrific, Ghost gets that spot as soon as he is healthy.!
Agree about Gustafsson he has been awful in his own end, but it doesn’t end with him. Sanheim has really struggled all 3 games in his own zone yet he gets promoted because he has joined the rush at least. The only players who hit are on the 4th line. The skill level is there on the first three lines but AV needs to have those skill players play more physical.
I don’t agree with the Flyers being a slow team. There are a number of forwards who can move. The problem really lies with someone like JVR who is terrible in his own zone and looks lost in the offensive zone if he isn’t sitting in front of the net.
Hi there!I would have to kindly disagree about Sanheim, as he is a player who put up 25 minutes in the next game versus Buffalo. A mighty big haul for such a young defenseman. As for JvR he is a player who is consistenty deflecting pucks, he may not be flashy but he is definitely one of the better leaders on this team. Buffalo is just a more eager team and their skating legs were obviously tuned in. Let’s not forget they faced Pittsburgh a good rival in their own right but let me reiterate when I put my last statement in CAPS-LOCK; We have wanted them to play better in front of Hart.
I believe I wrote on your Facebook page this morning stating how terrible this team is defensively. Especially with these weak pairings on defense, Gus and Hagg were terrible last night. Almost to the point that they’re left puck watching! Depressing!! Mind you I had my lines messed up a bit in a past video, but I am not gonna stand here and complain, I’m also am no great GM nor am I a player, just a person who watches his team struggle year after year with the same old issues.
PLAY BETTER IN FRONT OF YOUR NO.1 NETMINDER