James van Riemsdyk and Team USA face a tough medal round quarterfinals matchup today when they take on the Czech Republic. The puck drops at 10 AM eastern time this morning, and the game will be aired on Versus. A European webcast feed is available
here.
The defending gold medalist Czechs are unbeaten in the tourney so far. They have been clicking offensively, playing strong team D and getting good goaltending from Atlanta's Ondrej Pavelec. Team USA has been very inconsistent from game to game and period to period. But one could also argue that they are due for a big 60-minute effort.
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I have been asked by numerous readers for my opinion of Mike Richards' tweet about CSN Philly/HockeyBuzz writer Tim Panaccio. I do not like commenting on media stories, because I do not believe that particular players' or coaches' relations with the media members should be a story. This is a situation in which social media were used to air grievances, meaning that the parties involved made the situation fair game for public discourse.
From a reporting standpoint, I don't see where Panaccio was in the wrong here. He did not report anything on CSN Philly that had not been widely rumored -- and originated from people who would know and would not have a motive to make things up. People in the national media also had the same tip from the same source.
Also, it was WIP -- not Panaccio -- that went public first with the story about Richards not speaking to Laviolette, and Tim included Laviolette's refutation in his own article. There was nothing the least bit irresponsible about the way he reported the story. The only thing beyond straight reporting he added was his own opinion that Richards can be "moody and withdrawn", which is what Richards jumped on in his Twitter comment.
Regarding the rumor about Richards and Laviolette not speaking, I had heard the same thing second-hand during the Buffalo series, checked into it with a different source and heard that things were "strained" between the captain and coach. Precisely what was said to me was that the story about Richards not talking to Laviolette was "not exactly true" -- meaning they communicated as absolutely necessary between a coach and captain even if there wasn't a strong trusting bond.
Since the same exact thing could be said about a lot of players on the team, the real story here to me wasn't so much Laviolette vs. Richards as that Laviolette and the team leaders as a whole need to communicate better next season. Laviolette himself said that his relationship with Richards is something "we're working on".
I will also say this. Knowing the Flyers, I suspect that management is likely seething in private that Richards would choose to air this out on Twitter. Yesterday, Paul Holmgren, in a much more professional way, responded on behalf of the player and coach. Homer could not have been more direct in denying that there was some sort of Real Housewives of Philly sort of feud that only involved Richards and the coach.
This week, Kimmo Timonen has said that he has pointed things to tell Holmgren when they have their meeting, saying "we won't be having coffee and cake" or words to that effect. Yesterday, Homer acknowledged Timonen's frustrations with the handling of things late in the season and especially during the playoffs. It's not that the level-headed Timonen wants out (at least I would doubt it) and not that the situation cannot be bettered.
It's that a major opportunity to win the Stanley Cup this season was blown in spectacular fashion. The series with Boston should have been pretty evenly matched, with an edge to the Bruins because of their goaltending but the Flyers with a tad more scoring depth. Instead, the series was a slaughter.
The people who care the most -- and Timonen is definitely one of those people, as I'm sure is Richards -- are angry and want answers. So, too, do the GM and coach.
Guess what? There is room for common ground after all. The challenge now is to root out the problems as best as possible, mend some fences and move forward.
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One question that people had about the Flyers going into the playoffs was whether they had enough size and grit up front to win a series against a big, physical team like Boston. Although many national commentators still talk about the Flyers as a big, bang-and-crash team, the forwards really weren't quite big or gritty enough to handle grind-it-out games against Boston in particular.
The Flyers already looked worn down heading into the series, and Boston pounded Philly into dust. You can't play physically when you don't keep your feet moving, and the Flyers skated in cement in three of the four games.
Within the top nine forwards, the Flyers are a bit undersized down the middle, which created some matchup issues in the Boston series. Richards has always been the Flyers' physical tone-setter, but he was not quite as effective in that area this season as he has been in the past. Claude Giroux plays bigger than his size and Danny Briere is not afraid of contact, but is hardly going to blast someone and create a turnover with a big hit.
Jeff Carter, of course, has size. His very best games (in which he often eventually scores at least one goal, too) are the occasional ones where he plays with a burr under his saddles. When healthy, he is also very good at maintaining the puck in the offensive zone for a prolonged period. But he's never going to routinely be a guy who delivers big hits.
A big part of the reason why James van Riemsdyk was so effective in the Buffalo series and Game 1 and (especially) Game 2 against Boston was that he was using his size and strength very effectively to set up his finesse game. But JVR has done that irregularly in his early career to date. As he continues evolving as an NHL player, hopefully the physicality and power continue to emerge.
Scott Hartnell was not nearly as effective physically in these playoffs as he was last year. He had significant hip issues, serious enough that it curtailed much of his effectiveness in the trenches, which is the bread and butter of his game when he's playing well.
Ville Leino is a finesse player. At his best physically -- and I'm still not convinced that his hip is sound, despite the fact that he's not on the off-season surgery list -- he is hard to take off the puck. In the second half this year, he was much, much easier to take off the puck and was falling down without contact almost as much as Hartnell.
Andreas Nodl can play a gritty game, and needs to in order to be effective. He did that well early in the season, not so well later on. If he had not suffered a concussion and been unavailable during the Boston series, he may have helped a bit in winning the little battles.
Kris Versteeg was acquired to bring a combination of speed and grit. He delivered irregularly. Versteeg is a smaller-than-average player, but can sometimes play bigger than his vital stats would suggest. He really didn't do that very often for the Flyers, although he picked things up a bit in several playoff games. It's tough to say how much Versteeg's abdominal tear curtailed his effectiveness, but such injuries are usually significant and tough to play through effectively.
In regard to the Flyers' checking group, Dan Carcillo (who had sports hernia surgery last year) was not nearly as effective on a regular basis this season as he was last season. Jody Shelley tries his best, but severely lacks speed.
Darroll Powe is one of the team's most effective physical players but lacks hands. Fourth line center Blair Betts is not a physical player. He skates well but lacks strength and has been affected by shoulder problems over the years.
A final point: Grit and physicality has a lot to do with faceoff winning percentage. It's not just all on the center having quick hands and feet. The majority of draws are not won cleanly. Either one center eventually outmuscles the other or the other skaters on the ice grit it out against the opposing side. One look at the faceoff percentages of the Bruins and Flyers in most of the ECSF games tells you all need to know about which side was grittier and stronger.
Basically, in the Boston series, the Flyers skated poorly and had way too little grit. The results were very clear on the scoreboard.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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