As the preseason begins to wind down, one of the biggest priorities for the Flyers will be to tighten up their team defense. They have been pretty inconsistent in that area in the games to date. It has been obvious that, apart from the goaltending issues, the club's added depth in defense is still not so great that the club can stand to be without Chris Pronger once the season starts.

One related team defense story line to keep an eye on: the healthy return of Blair Betts. His health becomes even more critical now that the club is going to be without Ian Laperriere. Last season, the strong play of the fourth line was one of the few bankable constants during an inconsistent regular season. The Flyers can withstand life without one of Betts or Lappy, but I am worried about the impact of not having either veteran player if Betts were to go down again.

The good news is that Betts is ahead of his initial recovery timetable from shoulder surgery. We'll see what happens now that he has been cleared for full contact. The bad news is that he has a recurring history of shoulder problems and it is far from a certainty that he will hold up better this season than he did last year, despite the off-season surgery.

While some of the young forwards in camp -- Ben Holmstrom, Mike Testwuide and Andreas Nodl -- have shown promise, it is a stretch to believe that any can fill the hole that will be left if Betts suffers a setback on top of Laperriere's forced hiatus due to post-concussion syndrome.

Right now, the fourth line and the healthy return of Pronger are bigger concerns for me than the goaltending situation. I honestly don't think there's much of a difference in quality between Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton -- both are suspect as long-term NHL starters but Boucher has shown himself perfectly capable of playing well for stretches.


****

Andrej Meszaros was not in the lineup last night, but I wanted to comment on his play so far in the preseason. His performance hasn't been disastrous by any means, but it also hasn't been of the caliber that the Flyers are banking on this season.

Fairly or unfairly, in order to justify the trade with Tampa, Meszaros needs to produce like a $4 million defenseman who was worth bypassing potentially more consistent UFA defensemen to acquire.

Meszaros will need time to adjust to his new team and all judgment of the deal should be withheld until his body of work for the season and playoffs is complete. But it's fair to say that he will need to elevate his game to a considerably higher level than he's shown in the preseason. Simply not being a liability isn't good enough when you carry such a hefty price tag against the salary cap and your acquisition was a key factor in why the club elected not to seek a clear-cup upgrade in goal.


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Getting back to the issue of forwards' roles in team defense, do not forget that the club has also subtract one of its best two-way players in Simon Gagne and replaced him with the defensively suspect Nikolai Zherdev. Zherdev has delivered offensively in the preseason, but the defensive question marks in his game remain.

Something else to keep an eye on in that regard is the defensive play of Danny Briere, which has never been a strength of his game especially when he plays in the middle. Playing him on wing for much of last season may have reduced some of his offensive production during the regular season but it also made some of his defensive shortcomings a little more obvious.

Final words: The Flyers have the personnel to be a very good two-way club this season. But it's far from a certainty that they will be much improved on the defensive end of the game, and it needs to be a main focus in the final games before the season starts.

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