Before the start of training camp, when no one was sure if Chris Pronger would be ready to start the regular season after undergoing back surgery, the general consensus was that if the Flyers would be OK if they could hang in through an early-season schedule loaded with marquee opponents. Most folks would have declared a 6-4-1 record a mild success.
Expectations were raised much higher when the club got off to a 4-0-1 start. The Flyers looked very strong and deep in wins over both 2011 Stanley Cup finalists, a shutout win in New Jersey, a hard-fought loss against Los Angeles (decided on an overtime power play for the Kings) and a blowout win in Ottawa.
Pronger started the season on time and soon began to regain his form at both ends of the ice. The new forwards started to contribute immediately, and Claude Giroux started out like gangbusters. The team defense overall was solid and the goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov and Sergei Bobrovsky was steady and reliable. There were also no significant injuries. Both sides of special teams looked excellent. Things were very good, with the exception of a tendency to take too many minor penalties.
As so often happens in hockey, the worm turned over the next five games (1-4-0), starting with a 5-2 loss in a measuring stick game against the Washington Capitals and carrying through desultory losses to St. Louis and Montreal, concluding with a bizarre 9-8 loss to Winnipeg last Thursday.
The defense and goaltending sprung a leak. Peter Laviolette shuffled the combinations all four forward lines to varying degrees. The penalty kill had untimely letdowns. The club was prone to late-period goals and poor responses to being scored upon, which led several times to opponents bunching closely spaced goals. The team also gave up an inordinate number of deflection tallies, primarily because other clubs were getting traffic in front with virtual impunity.
The injury bug also bit hard. Pronger sustained a frightening eye injury that overshadowed an otherwise satisfying win over Toronto in which Jaromir Jagr finally scored his first two goals as a Flyer (he now has five). Brayden Schenn, who got off to a red hot start in the AHL with the Phantoms and was called up after the win in Ottawa, sustained a broken foot. Danny Briere incurred a minor upper-body injury and sat out the team's most recent game, although he is expected to return to the lineup on Wednesday in Buffalo.
It is far too soon to declare that the Flyers have worked through their adversity and will now put together another string of excellent hockey. However, the team took a step in the right direction in Saturday's 5-1 win against Carolina.
In that tilt, Bryzgalov returned to form. The team defense endured (and survived) a few bad breakdowns but was much better than in previous games. The top forward unit of Giroux centering Jagr and Scott Hartnell took over the game in the third period. The only real negative was that the club fell to 1-for-14 on the power play in the three games since Pronger went down.
Over the course of practicing for the Buffalo game and playing three games in four nights, the Flyers will have to start creating some stability and consistency. There is still no timetable for Pronger's return, and the club will need to start getting more open shots on net from the point in his absence.
The club must also continue to rebuild their defensive rhythm. Overall, players such as James van Riemsdyk and Andrej Meszaros must step up their games for the club to get November off to a strong start in the same fashion as the first month of the regular season.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS
FORWARDS
Claude Giroux: Before the start of the season, Danny Briere commented that he felt Giroux would elevate his game even further this season now that he's the team undisputed top-line center. Giroux was tremendous through the first five games of the season, but then really did play particularly well -- points notwithstanding -- when the team hit its downturn. He returned to his dominant form in the Carolina game.
Jaromir Jagr: Jagr shot the lights out during the preseason but then it took him until the 8th game of the season to score his first regular season goal as a Flyer. Since then, he has racked up five goals over the last four games. Even when the puck wasn't going in for him early, he played well and racked up some beautiful assists in the first several games of the season. His all-around effectiveness dropped in the Los Angeles and Washington games in particular but then he closed out with a rush.
Scott Hartnell: Hartnell really struggled out of the gates, when he was separated from Danny Briere and played on the third line. Since moving to the Giroux line, he's hit a hot streak offensively by crashing the net and taking advantage of open space. With Hartnell, you know there will be some bad penalties, lots of time spent down on the ice and entire games where nothing at all seems to go right for him. But you also know that he'll go all out on the forecheck and he won't quit working.
Danny Briere: Briere had his ups and downs through the first 10 games of the season (he missed the Carolina game with an upper-body injury). He started off slowly, and struggled to develop chemistry with new linemate Jakub Voracek. Briere's line was reshuffled a couple of times. Even so, he arrived at the end of the month having scored 4 goals and 10 points. He arrived there by lighting up the scoreboard in the Winnipeg game (2 goals, 2 assists) but also through some clutch plays in the Los Angeles game.
James van Riemsdyk: JVR is off to a better offensive start this season than last (4 goals, 7 points in 11 games compared to no goals and four points in 11 October games last year. Even so. his game-in and game-out overall consistency is still not quite where the Flyers need it to be. No one can expect him to play every night to the level he did in the first 9 games of the playoffs last year, but a little more assertiveness at times is in order. He put up some points but did not completely mesh with Giroux and Jagr in the first week of the season, as all three players prefer to handle the puck frequently. JVR moved to a line with Matt Read and Voracek that had absolutely zero chemistry. Placed on the Briere line after Schenn's injury, JVR had a strong game against Winnipeg.
Wayne Simmonds: Simmonds appears to be a burgeoning power forward but has been pressing offensively of late (pointless in his last four games, six games removed from his most recent goal). However, he has generally continued to do a lot of the little things right with his physicality and deceptive speed. He is one of the team's best forecheckers in terms of creating turnovers. Simmonds had a strong offensive preseason, which carried over into the first few games of the regular season. Some streakiness is to be expected with Simmonds, but he can't afford for his recent point struggles to become a full-fledged drought or spill over into frustration in other areas of his game.
Jakub Voracek: Voracek needs to be a lot better than he's been through the first 11 games of the season. His best all-around games have actually been a couple (especially the one in Ottawa) where he didn't get on the scoresheet, but he is being relied upon for more offense (2 goals, 3 assists) than he has provided so far. Peter Laviolette has yet to find a line combination on which Voracek's game really fits.
Matt Read: The rookie has been a real nice addition to the third line, but looks much more comfortable and effective as a wing rather than a center. With the injury to Briere, Laviolette was forced to move Read back in the middle again. Read, who has four goals and seven points to date, has gained the coach's trust in a short period of time.
Sean Couturier: The Flyers' 2011 first-round pick has shown that he's capable of defending in the NHL and has a pair of goals and four points despite limited somewhat limited five-on-five time. Personally, I would have liked to have seen him get the shot at filling in for Briere on Saturday rather than staying in fourth-line duty. Over time, he'll need to improve significantly on faceoffs.
Brayden Schenn: Not very much has gone right so far for Schenn, apart from tearing up the NHL in his brief season-opening sting with the Phantoms. He's been injured twice (currently out 4 to 6 weeks with a broken foot). Although he had some strong shifts in three of his four NHL games, he came away without a point and wound up minus-five (although not directly attributable to defensive mistakes he made). The Flyers tossed Schenn in the deep end of the pool, centering the third line against Washington in his Philadelphia debut. He was then moved to Briere's left wing.
Max Talbot: Apart from the faceoff department, Talbot has been an upgrade over Blair Betts on the fourth line. He brings a little sandpaper to the game, forechecks and backchecks effectively and has even chipped in three goals (including a critical SHG in the Carolina game) and five points to date. He can also move back and forth as needed from wing to center, and has occasionally skated shifts with members of the upper lines.
Andreas Nodl: He has been offensively challenged for almost his entire pro career to date, but I thought Nodl was playing well even during the team's downturn. He was one of the few players who kept his feet moving during those games. Nevertheless, Nodl was a healthy scratch for a couple games.
Zac Rinaldo: The rookie has been effective in limited minutes, throwing his body around and causing havoc, such as he did early in the Los Angeles game with a big open ice hit on Drew Doughty (which, unfortunately, caused a shoulder injury to LA's top defenseman) and a fight with Dustin Penner. Rinaldo played well enough to remain with the big club all along but was a salary cap casualty when the club needed a little space to incorporate Schenn's salary upon his callup. Rinaldo took minor penalties in each of the first three games of the regular season (one of which was an awful call, another was marginal but based on his reputation.
Jody Shelley: Shelley has played four games since coming off his suspension at the start of the season. His first game was one of his best in a Flyers uniform. With the Flyers having played mostly played opponents (except Toronto) that don't employ a regular fighter, Shelley has not yet had need to drop the gloves during the regular season.
Harry Zolnierczyk: Harry Z has only played one game with the big club, scoring a goal in Ottawa in his NHL debut. However, he had a good preseason and was a late cut before the start of the regular season. He's been making a good case in the AHL for callup consideration (5 goals, 9 points in 10 GP). Although he's another somewhat undersized player, it is not hard at all to envision Zolnierczyk as an effective role player on the big club in the near future.
DEFENSE
Chris Pronger: Until the eye injury, Pronger appeared well on his way to regaining the form he showed for much of the 2009-10 season. He had a few rough patches in the season opener in Boston -- which was to be expected with him coming off back surgery and only having played one preseason game -- but got closer and closer with each passing game. Offensively, he posted 7 points (1 G, 6A) in the first seven games before going down in the first period of the Toronto game. The club has sorely missed him defensively, on the power play and off the ice.
Kimmo Timonen: The season is just 1/8 done, but Timonen would be a shoo-in as the Barry Ashbee Trophy winner for the first month of the season. He played a tremendous game in the opener in LA and has not looked back. The veteran Finn has been the one defenseman who has truly elevated his game in Pronger's absence. It also does not hurt that he's chipped in 9 assists and is plus-five in the early going.
Matt Carle: Carle has historically been a fast starter in his career, and this season was no exception. He played almost flawless hockey in the first five games of the season. Carle had a couple dreadful games, however, immediately after partner Pronger went down but had an improved performance in the more under-control Carolina game.
Braydon Coburn: Like Carle, Coburn has had some very good games and some horrific ones in the first month of the season. With Coburn, keeping the game simple is always paramount for him. He's at his best when there's a little burr under his saddles but when he stops playing within himself, he becomes vulnerable to getting beaten, turning pucks over and taking bad penalties.
Andrej Meszaros: Even when the Flyers were winning early on, I did not think the reigning Barry Ashbee Trophy winner played anything close to his best hockey. He has looked more like the Tampa version of himself, with lots of low-percentage plays, coverage gaffes and missed shots from the point. He showed last year that he can do much, much better than that, and the Flyers will need him to both until and after Pronger returns.
Andreas Lilja: Lilja performed decently in the sixth defenseman role in the first few games of the regular season, but got exposed thereafter. I would not say that he has been an equal replacement for Sean O'Donnell so far, even at a lower salary.
Matt Walker: Walker has had a bizarre season so far. For salary cap flexibility reasons, he was waived before the start of the regular season after a strong training camp. Since then, he has mostly been a healthy scratch and virtually unusable when he has played. I suppose the team is keeping him around for his physicality and the fact he has a righthanded stick -- the shot is immaterial but it comes into play in terms of playing right defense. But for a team that is over the cap and relying on LTIR for Schenn, Betts and Ian Laperriere, I don't think Walker bring enough to justify carrying that $1.7 milllion cap hit.
Erik Gustafsson: The offensive-minded puck mover had a good training camp and was called up after it was obvious that the club could not get by with both Lilja and Walker in the lineup at the same time. Gustafsson had a rough first game against Winnipeg but simplified things and performed better against Carolina in 16:31 of ice time. As with any rookie defenseman, growing pains are to be expected.
GOALIES
Ilya Bryzgalov: He was not nearly as bad as he said he was, but Bryzgalov's play was part of the problem during the skid. The club is paying him big bucks to match or exceed the other team's goalie and he did not do that in the Washington, St. Louis or Montreal games. The Winnipeg game was a defensive nightmare that made life impossible on all four goalies who played in the game -- much like an All-Star game where teams simply attack at will. However, he let in one awful five-hole goal and only made one stop that could be remotely categorized as clutch. The Bryzgalov we saw against Carolina was the one who started out very strong in the early October games.
Sergei Bobrovsky: Bobrovsky was victimized by a series of crazy deflections in the Winnipeg game and the wide open nature of that game in general makes it tough to put any stock in from a goaltending point of view. A baseball equivalent would be loose defense putting a pitcher in a bases-loaded, no-out jam and then hoping he finds a way to get out of the inning unscathed. It rarely happens. Bobrovsky played very well in his first two starts of the season.
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