What a hole Derian Hatcher will leave on the Flyer’s blue line if he can’t play this season. For that matter if he can’t play this season he’s done done. Say good-bye.
Jason Smith headed due north to Ottawa so Hatcher represents the only legitimate threat amongst Flyers d-men to staple-gun people (against their will I might add) to the boards. Oh yah, he also hacks, whacks, slices, dices, cubes and chops. Look out cooking channel!
Paul Holmgren will be keeping his ear to the ground looking for some jam on defense. With the Flyers cap issues, his challenge will be finding cheap jam that can help. Tough one.
Briere a Winger?
I don’t see any way around this. Mike Richards is a center and NOT a winger. Period. He has to log 20+ minutes a game.
Jeff Carter took his game to a level I couldn’t believe late last season when Mike Richards missed 10 games with a hamstring…and wait till you see him this season. He has trained real hard and gotten so strong it’s scary. He’s now built like a Greek God. A very tall one at that.
When he decides to take ownership of the puck, he will possess it wherever, whenever and for however long he wants. This possession dominance isn’t as effective on the wing. He also needs to be a 20 minute guy and he can’t get those minutes as a 3rd line center.
So how does Danny Briere get to the 20 minute mark? Wing baby! This makes all the sense in the world to me. Gagne – Richards – Briere. For that matter, Briere is smart enough to adapt to Jeff Carter style as well. John Stevens has a ton of options but the only one that makes sense to me to ensure his big guns getting enough opportunities to pull their triggers is Danny B on the wing.
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