WHAT JVR DOES IS NO REFLECTION ON SCHENN
There is a phenomenon in sports -- which has always existed to some degree, but has become much more visible in the internet age -- of what might be called "foul weather" followers.
The fair weather folks jump on and off the bandwagon repeatedly. The foul weather ones are not happy unless they are miserable.
Every roster move is wrong. Every signing is a bad one for too much money. Every loss calls for a front office bloodletting and massive roster change. Every player's weaknesses are more important than his strengths and his role on the team. Heaven forbid the team the team actually wins or a designated whipping boy player makes a good play or has a good game, the response is either one of silence or one of dismissing the success as unsustainable.
The fair weather folks gets too caught up in the small picture of the last game or two. They get too high or too low. The foul weather fan is mostly concerned about being right. They'd almost rather see the team fail so they can say "I told you so."
There is also a subgroup who can't move on from taking a player's performance as some sort of personal vindication or affront. When a player who did not live up to lofty expectations changes uniforms, a lot of time and energy gets spent worrying about he does in his new city. They wring their hands over over any hint of success with his new team and rejoice in any hint of failure.
James van Riemsdyk was a polarizing player during his career in Philadelphia. Now that he's in Toronto, some of the same folks who were all too eager to see van Riemsdyk run out of town want Luke Schenn -- the player for whom he JVR was traded -- run out of town and are saying that the Flyers really could use a big, skilled scoring winger like van Riemsdyk among other team needs. The grumbling picks up every time van Riemsdyk has several good offensive games or Luke Schenn is out for a few goals against and then quiets again when van Riemsdyk goes quiet again for awhile. He's still rather streaky.
For some, the success that van Riemsdyk has enjoyed for Team USA at the Olympics in Sochi has, for some, reopened the debate from two summers ago about the wisdom of the Flyers sending JVR to Toronto in the one-for-one trade for Schenn.
From day one, I understood why the Flyers made the trade. They wanted to address their blueline, adding a righthanded stick to the defense corps (something they lacked and the New Jersey Devils exploited in their forechecking strategies during the 2012 Eastern Conference Semifinals) and get a young defenseman who could eat minutes.
Personally, I would have rather seen the Flyers add another puck mover to the mix, especially when they ended up losing Matt Carle to unrestricted free agency that summer. I also thought the Flyers were selling low on JVR, who was coming off a poor year that was basically ruined by a series of significant injuries (a torn oblique muscle, a concussion, a broken foot and a nagging hip problem). Of course, the Leafs were also selling low on Schenn, a player who had once been touted as a potential elite shutdown defender.
Nevertheless, I was hopeful that the older Schenn brother would do well as a steady defensive defenseman for the Flyers. During the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Schenn was exactly that. I would go so far as to say that his overall play was one of the few bright spots in the Flyers' poor season last year.
The 2013-14 season thus far has been a different story. Schenn struggled in training camp and the early part of the campaign. Even before he was briefly made a healthy scratch, his ice time was severely reduced from where it was the previous season and he was voluntarily taking extra skating after practice (a credit to his work ethic).
Since that time, the 24-year-old Schenn's play has been uneven. His ice time has increased a bit but he is still lower in the depth chart than he was last season. He'll have stretches where it looks like he's turned the corner and is getting back to the level he displayed pretty consistently last season. Then he'll have multiple-game stretches where it seems like he's frequently getting out of position or else getting beaten in transition off the rush. In the games leading up to the Olympic break, including the Flyers' five-point road trip through California, Schenn played some of his best hockey of the season.
With that said, hockey is a team game. As with all defensemen, apart from his individual coverages and puck play, it makes a whole lot of difference for Luke Schenn's effectiveness how the team is playing.
Look first at whether the forwards are providing support, the team collectively has its feet moving and if the goaltending is feeding into a team's confidence level. When those things happen, the defenseman has a much better chance of success. When they don't, the Dman is probably going to look bad regardless of what he does.
Luke Schenn is one of the Flyers players who might benefit from the Olympic break. He ended the pre-Olympic portion of the schedule in solid fashion, along with the entire team. That created some confidence to come back strong and focus on the stretch drive, where the games are increasingly played with more shift-in and shift-out intensity and attention to detail.
As for James van Riemsdyk, I am happy for the player that he's on pace for his first career 30-goal season in the NHL. I'm glad he's playing so well for Team USA in Sochi and, as an American, I hope he has big games in the semifinals and (hopefully) the gold medal game.
In the big picture, though, whatever JVR does is of no reflection on Luke Schenn. They are very different players who play different positions. The Flyers knew from the get-go that a JVR-for-Schenn swap was going to look unequal from a point-production standpoint. Ultimately, what matters is whether the Flyers fulfilled need to become a better team.
Thus far, that has not demonstrably been the case. However, if the trade never happened and the Flyers had kept JVR, I also don't the Flyers would be any closer to a Stanley Cup than they are right now. As such, I don't the JVR-for-Schenn trade has made all that much impact on the team's success level, either pro or con.
Final thoughts: James van Riemsdyk is a likable person and a very skilled hockey player. Likewise, Schenn is a nice guy off the ice and understands his role on the team. That didn't suddenly change because they traded the crests on their uniforms. There is no one here worthy of being vilified. It was just a hockey trade.
We can second-guess and debate whether it was the right move for the Flyers either in foresight or hindsight. The reality, however, is that what's done is done. The focus from a Philadelphia standpoint needs to be on getting the most from the personnel that is here and, if necessary, on ways to improve the current mix.
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RAFFL RETURNING TODAY
Flyers forward Michael Raffl is departing from Russia today to return to Philadelphia. He and the members of the Austrian team are embroiled in a bit of a controversy back home, stemming from the team's subpar performance in the medal round qualification game against Slovenia. More specifically, it has to do with the night before the game.
According to
an article in Die Presse, members of the team hung out at a couple of different night spots partying until 6:00 a.m. the day before the game.
This much is for sure: Austria played a horrendous game against Slovakia.
Ordinarily, I steer away from talking about these sorts of stories in my blog. I am of the belief that what athletes do away from the rink is their own business, so long as it does not negatively affect their sporting performance. However, since this story is getting major attention in the Austrian players' home country and it does involve the team's on-ice play, it deserves mention.
The Austrian national federation has said it will investigate what really happened and said there could be consequences against some players. Interestingly, Austrian head coach Manny Viveiros told the media on Wednesday afternoon that "we will publish the names" for the public to know who behaved irresponsibly and "there will be consequences" in terms of future selections for the national team.
Austrian Ice Hockey Federation (ÖEHV) president Dieter Kalt has already said it was a mistake to name NHL star Thomas Vanek the team captain saying it was based mainly on his experience as a player and "this [decision] obviously went wrong."
According to Die Presse, NHL players Vanek, Michael Grabner and Michael Raffl wrote a letter of apology to the ÖEHV. Coach Viveiros said, "The players themselves are so disappointed, they know what it means. We have players who got left at home who have given everything and it would have been a dream for them to be here. Difficult."
For the record, I thought that Michael Raffl played well in every game for the Austrians -- including the debacle against Slovenia -- and gave his all from buzzer to buzzer. There was a huge drop off on the Austrian team beyond a couple of players, and a big disparity of talent within the roster even under ideal circumstances. I thought the Flyers forward distinguished himself throughout by looking like he belonged competing against even teams like semifinalist Finland.
It should also be stated that, although Raffl was one of the three players who apologized the national federation along with the other Austrian NHLers, he has not been directly censured. It remains unclear which players on the team were the ones who came to the rink in no condition to play.
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CASINO ROYALE FUNDRAISER WITH FLYERS ALUMNI
On Sunday March 9 starting at 5 p.m. Abrams Hebrew Academy will hold its annual Fund Raising Dinner and Casino Royale Night at Congregation Beth El in Yardley, PA. Special guests for the night will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Bill Clement, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
Apart from the dinner and casino event, there will also be a host of items available via auction, including a signed stick by all three members of the Flyers' legendary LCB line (Reggie Leach and Hall of Famers Bob Clarke and Bill Barber), boxes of Bernie Parent's signature cigar line, a handsome Clarke lithograph and many more goodies.
All proceeds go to benefit the school. My nephew, Sammy Sherman, attends Abrams and my sister, Liza, helped to organize the event and line up the Flyers alumni guests. The slogan for the event is "Help Abrams Make Its Goal."
For more information,
click here.
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