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it does matter, the goal or any points accumulated was not done by the 4th line.
The goal was absolutely scored by a 4th liner, Abols. It was his first of the year. How many of the Top 9 forwards had zero goals going into last night’s game?
abols was on a diff line when he scored. not the 4th.
Doesn’t matter. Abols made the shot. He got 4th line minutes last night.
The Flyers got some goal production from spots where they needed it. A 4th liner (1st as a group), a Dman (5th as a group) and Foerster (1st in 7 games) put pucks in the net. They need more of that. On Nov 21, they have the 5th best win pct in the conference.
Friday was a nightmarish game for the goalies.
It was a nightmarish game for anyone who watched. I was afraid to blink or I’d miss something great or horrifying. Hopefully, the 10 goals given up in the last two games is an aberration. Vladar starts so the odds are better there. Tocchet needs to find some scoring combinations for guys who are playing with anybody not named Zegras. Zegras’ consistency has been a surprise so far. He hasn’t been held scoreless in more than one game in a row yet. The 4th line and the Dmen remain standouts in lack of goal production.
For stretches of the first period in particular, the Flyers couldn’t get out of their own zone even once they gained possession. Breakout attempt? There was a turnover. Rim the puck around the wall? It was either too soft and got intercepted or too hard and became an icing.
Dallas really knows how to D up and applies lots of pressure. More than the Flyers certainly. They’re a much better and much deeper team. Duchene, Benn and Harley were out and they still looked great. The Flyers got an on-ice view of what an elite team looks like. We’ll see if they can get anything out of it.
They can’t make as many sloppy turnovers as they did last night in consecutive games . . . I think. You never know with this team so I’ll just watch and see what happens. I laugh when I see all these gambling site ads during games. I can’t predict who’s going to win the next faceoff. Bottom line: 4th best win pct in the conference. Who saw that coming? Gotta make those games in hand count.
Ersson has been just as bad this year as he was last year so limiting shots against will be their only hope. Vlader is holding this team together with duct tape. If Vlader reverts to his career average the Flyers will be in position to draft a potential franchise player. As it is they are only 2 points from being last in the division.
Not understanding the love and support Ersson keeps getting. At some point, you just have to admit he’s too inconsistent to be a reliable NHL goalie. Maybe serviceable as a protected 2. Regardless of who the 1 and 2 goalies are, there’s going to be a rotation and it has to be managed. Vladar seems on pace for about 50 starts which is a good bit higher than he’s gotten in the past but not wildly high for a No. 1. I don’t see any reason to think he’ll sag under that workload. Flyers are roughly as close to the top of the conference as the bottom. I think the team D results they’re getting are sustainable and the goal scoring has upside. They’ve left 3-4 points on the table a sounder and maybe luckier team would have grabbed. I keep telling you guys it’s not that the Flyers are a perfect machine, it’s that you’re overestimating the rest of the conference.
The Blues are another team getting bad defensive results. Teams like that seem to find their checking game and do a nice job stifling the Flyers overly cooperative offensive game. The Flyers need two points here.
That’s very simplistic. If all you care about is winning a game in November that nobody will remember, sure. If your goals are more long term like say building a Stanley Cup roster, it absolutely matters. The short term thinking that has doomed the Flyers front office for years.
There’s a balance between short and long term thinking. I suppose the Flyers should be deliberately tanking for a better draft pick next year since they won’t win the cup this year.
Risto has missed 50% of his games since the start of 2023. He’s lost an entire season’s worth of games and not gotten above 20 pts since he joined the Flyers 5 years ago. He reinvented himself as a 3rd pair dman, when healthy, who now excels at not being asked to do a lot.
It’s great that Risto has reinvented himself as a defensive defenseman, when available, while still being paid to be the franchise/PP QB defenseman, for him. Him and his 9 PP points in 4 years. Ghost has had 90 PP points in that time frame and we wonder why the Flyers PP has sucked.
Risto gets paid to fill a roster spot. If he’s more effective than whoever he replaces, likely Juulsen, how is that bad for the team when that happens? None of where he was drafted, what scoring numbers he put up in Buffalo, what the Flyers gave up to get him, how often he’s injured or what his contract is matters.
Ghost hasn’t played here in a half a decade and has moved four times since. Not sure how focusing on everything other than how this year’s team is doing is even marginally interesting or relevant.
