The Flyers' 3-2 victory last night against the Carolina Hurricanes was a good example of a team playing a solid regular season game to come away with two points. Playing for the third time in four nights, the Flyers kept things simple and had the game under control. Even when gave up a goal in the final half-minute of regulation, there was never much sense of concern that the Flyers would blow the game.
To their credit, the Flyers didn't skip a beat last night despite the suspension-related absence of Danny Briere and the injury absences of Andrej Meszaros (concussion) and Andreas Nodl (shoulder). Scott Hartnell (two goals), Claude Giroux (PPG) and Ville Leino (assist) kept on doing their thing. Jeff Carter stepped into Briere's spot between Hartnell and Leino and had a strong game. Oskars Bartulis filled in admirably on the third defensive pairing and Eric Wellwood showed the type of speed and energy the club hoped he would in his NHL debut.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' powerplay tallied again last night, as Giroux put the team ahead in the second period. Over the last four games, the Flyers are 7 for 23 (30.4%) on the man advantage.
In goal, Sergei Bobrovsky turned in another solid performance for the club. He made several big stops when he had to, and he was very calm under pressure.
The first goal he gave up was on a breakaway that started because James van Riemsdyk tried to do a little too much stickhandling up around the offensive blueline and lost the puck. Bobrovsky was perhaps a little far too back in his net on that one, giving Patrick Dwyer some net to shoot at, and getting beaten glove side. But the bottom line on that one was that breakaways are a coin flip -- sometimes the shooter is going to win, sometimes the goalie will -- and the real mistake was the one that created the breakaway in the first place. The late Joe Corvo goal was scored through a heavy screen that made it tough for Bobrovsky to pick up the trajectory of the puck, although it came from an angle the goalie usually should have covered.
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Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at Claude Giroux.
If you ask Giroux about any of the jaw-dropping plays he makes, he will inevitably chalk it up to simply being in the right place and reacting -- without realizing that he actually isn't reacting to the play at all.
Instead, he's anticipating correctly where the puck is going to go and what the defender is going to do next. What Giroux possesses in spades is the coveted "hockey sense" that coaches, GMs and scouts often discuss in roundabout terms. He is actually thinking a step ahead of the defenders and goalies.
Unlike Jeff Carter, Giroux isn't blessed with size and strength, nor does he possess a "heavy" shot with the type of natural movement that Carter's wrist shot generates (which hasn't always been a boon to Carter, but that's a topic for another day). But Giroux is deceptively competitive.
He is not afraid to get hit to make a play and he already shown that he rises to the occasion in big games. His point-per-game average this season and offensive consistency (he has yet to be held pointless in back-to-back games through the first dozen games) have been the next step in his evolution as an NHL player.
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The Flyers have deemed Andrej Meszaros' injury as a "mild concussion" and put him on day-to-day status. I have a sense that, in this particular instance, the club held him out last night for precautionary reasons. He was skating yesterday, two days after sustaining the injury. That's a positive sign.
Nevertheless, I detest when GMs -- not just Paul Holmgren -- downplay injuries by using the "mild" designation for concussions or groin injuries in particular. Doing so puts subtle pressure on the player to hurry back in the lineup while, in the next breath, the team inevitably says the player will be given as long as he needs to recover. Everyone should know by now that those sorts of injuries are tricky, and setbacks can occur very easily. I realize there are gradations of concussions, but they are all dangerous.
In Meszaros' situation, it looks like the club is taking the appropriate steps. Even if he felt close to 100%, that's not enough when it comes to a concussion. It appears he won't miss too much time, but even if it turns out that he misses several games, it's better than the alternative of risking more serious problems.
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Next week marks the 25th anniversary of the car accident that claimed the life of Flyers goaltending star Pelle Lindbergh. The other day, I was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Mike Jensen for an article tied to the quarter century remembrance of the tragedy.
I will post a link to the article when it runs.
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In addition to the shocking decision to designate leading Phantoms scorer Patrick Maroon for reassignment, the organization has also issued warnings to Stefan Legein and Jon Kalinski that further insubordination will not be tolerated.
I understand that the situation with Maroon reflected a pattern of behavior that the player had allegedly been warned about several times in the past, and that he also reputedly had problems with some teammates. He also didn't do himself any favors by playing in the Inline Hockey World Championships for Team USA this summer, although I can of far worse ways to spend the offseason.
At some point, the buck has to stop with Greg Gilbert and/or John Paddock when it comes to locker room problems involving multiple players, and with Paul Holmgren for the players brought into the organization. OK, so let's assume Maroon was a bad apple. That can happen, especially with a late round project who came with some baggage about his conditioning and coachability. You gave a shot at turning him around and it didn't quite work, at least not to the organization's satisfaction.
But when there are also problems with two of your other better minor league players, there's a problem somewhere that goes beyond the players themselves. Perhaps its the coaching. Perhaps its the mix of players brought in (and the Phantoms are hardly overflowing with talent, especially at forward).
Fairly or unfairly, Legein had something of a flaky reputation before he came to the organization; largely a byproduct of him deciding to quit hockey and then returning. I had not previously heard of problems with Kalinski. Former Flyers coach John Stevens praised the young player when I was writing a feature on Kalinski two years ago, although it could have been just the standard platitudes or the player's attitude could have soured in the interim as he's struggled to stake down an NHL job.
Whatever the case, the fact that Paul Holmgren had to get involved in disciplinary issues with the club's struggling AHL team does not reflect well on those who are running the day-to-day operation. I respect Paddock and I know Gilbert has had success as a coach when there's been more talent to work with. I am not in the locker room and I don't know the dynamics on this club. But, at least from the outside looking in, it looks like the Phantoms are a rudderless ship and morale is very low.
Rather than sparking the club, the Phantoms have continued losing since Maroon was designated for reassignment. It's only Nov. 2 and it looks like it's going to be a long, long season in Glens Falls.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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