Even better than Atheist Thanksgiving on 12/25?
- mayorofangrytown

Samhain is the New Year! It's when you remember the dead, cover your house in candles, open all the windows to let the smell of fall move into your life. Best of all you get to see everyone on the planet either join in or at least tolerate you being someone else. It's one of the few days where it's ok to be weird.
So much better than that holiday that took over winter solstice.

29 teams would absolutely be more than interested in all of:

Voracek, Giroux, Schenn (Brayden), Couts, Read, Simmonds, Mason and Gusty

Note: the average age of that group is 24...
- jak521

And if you trade away these guys...what are you getting in return? I note you only have 2 d-men there...and they are the 2 I would like to see them keep as they are not really over paid...

What about the other 60% of the non performing roster? and the lack of multiple trade peices in the minors without throwing in the towel...we are franked for a while with this team, and the long term signings of Simmonds and hartnell and going to be killing us for a good 5 years to come...

I grew a mustache.
- jak521

Yeah the fiancee might freak out if I glued one of those on. Growing one is out of the question!

I plan on it. The whole outfit is black and red so I break out the bright red lipstick and my bad ass walk...

- FlyersGrace

http://www.cbssports.com/...wing-darth-vader-uniforms

29 teams would absolutely be more than interested in all of:

Voracek, Giroux, Schenn (Brayden), Couts, Read, Simmonds, Mason and Gusty

Note: the average age of that group is 24...
- jak521

trading one of them opens up a hole.

lost in that very fact is this team was two wins away from the cup.... Now Carter and Richards have already done what Homer thought they couldn't do here...yes there were some holes ....but to basically trade away your young nucleus because of an early playoff exit after the cup run was ballsy and has proven out to be stupid.
- landros 2

Completely disagree. That team was awful, you forget they barely made the playoffs and almost got swept against the Bruins, not to mention Flyers ended up with a favourable match up VS Habs in Conf finals. Goaltending was horrendous. Flyers never deserved to be there, the only reason they were was because of luck.

Package. Like how Simmonds and Schenn gets you Mike Richards. Simmonds and Laughton should be able to land you a decent top line player. Maybe someone on the last year of a deal.
- youarewrong

I think the JVR deal has them gun-shy -- they don't mind doing a Harry Z for Rosehill or a Mason-for-Leighton, but I honestly think they're gun-shy about doing another deal for an impact player.

They're going to ride this core until they either produce or multiple people get fired. Laviolette and Kevin McCarthy are already gone. Homer can't be far behind.

Exactly -- we talked about it last night, in the gameday. Here's one of the posts after the end of the second period:

"I don't know that they had less energy...the Ducks, to me, are daring the Flyers defense to make the right plays, consistently.
Schenn looked horrific that period, Grossmann had some brutal turnovers...
Our mobility issues and average-to-below puck skills for the defense kinda showed up that period.
That being said, as you guys have noted before, if the forwards come back a little harder and a little deeper, some of that can be minimized."

We all saw what the problems were, and knew what they were. But some of us feel that dressing better players throughout the lineup helps mitigate that.

We aren't railing on the best players in the lineup for "nonproduction." We recognize that we need more good players -- and that slow defensemen with poor puck skills and two members of a fourth line who can't play don't always qualify as "good players."
- AllInForFlyers

So you still think that the reason why they have the record they have, is because of the defenseman and the 4th line players? That they aren't underacheiving to this point, and aren't capable of playing much better?

trading one of them opens up a hole.
- PhillaBully

I would rather fill our need for a top pairing defenseman and a top goal scoring winger and have a whole on the 3rd line which could easily be filled in FA.

I did.
In general terms, I saw one team that knew how to adapt to the game, and one that not only didn't, but also collapsed.

I'm not down on them in a bad way, though. They're young, and it's probably not the right mix of players either. Things will get better in the coming years, but right now they're not good.
- Scoob

I don't disagree with that, because that's how the game played out. The Ducks adjusted to a 1-2-2 in the 2nd and 3rd period, and the Flyers couldn't handle that. That's been an issue with the Flyers for a number of years now. But I think overall, there isn't a big gap between the two teams. The Flyers dominated them in the first period.

yeah playing on the team yes....Name one player on the AHL team that can get you a bonafied roster player?
- PhillaBully

Cousins, Alt, Lauridsen.

I think the JVR deal has them gun-shy -- they don't mind doing a Harry Z for Rosehill or a Mason-for-Leighton, but I honestly think they're gun-shy about doing another deal for an impact player.

They're going to ride this core until they either produce or multiple people get fired. Laviolette and Kevin McCarthy are already gone. Homer can't be far behind.
- AllInForFlyers

Flyers have never been gun shy on making big deals, and I don't see that happening now. And I also don't think the Flyers are unhappy with the JVR deal to the point that it would cause them to be gun shy.

So you still think that the reason why they have the record they have, is because of the defenseman and the 4th line players? That they aren't underacheiving to this point, and aren't capable of playing much better?
- MJL

I think it's all of it -- it's the sum total of a bad team.

Can the team be better, on any given night? Yes. The team CAN play better.

But this is what a bad team looks like. Good teams expose what you can't do and take away what you can do. They take away your best players and dare your lesser players to make plays -- and if you have enough lesser players, you lose.

That's where the Flyers are right now. Yes, the reason we have the record we do is because the defense is slow and has poor puck skills. And because we keep trying to dress a fourth line that rarely, if ever, contributes. And because we have some forwards who have underachieved.

But some of those factors impact the others -- the defense was turning the puck over last night, and the only one two who looked like NHL defensemen for the entire 60 minutes was Coburn and Streit -- and Streit really needs to start hitting the net when he's got shooting lanes.

It's not any one thing. But some of those things, like poor foot-speed and puck skills, or Michael Raffl missing the net on a point-blank chance, come back to bite you, and then we wind up blaming the best players in the lineup for what lesser players can't do.

Samhain is the New Year! It's when you remember the dead, cover your house in candles, open all the windows to let the smell of fall move into your life. Best of all you get to see everyone on the planet either join in or at least tolerate you being someone else. It's one of the few days where it's ok to be weird.
So much better than that holiday that took over winter solstice.
- FlyersGrace

But you get to give gifts to the people you love and watch the disappointment of you not being able to read minds wash over their face. You get to remember why you don't give them sh!t the other 364 days of the year.

I think the JVR deal has them gun-shy -- they don't mind doing a Harry Z for Rosehill or a Mason-for-Leighton, but I honestly think they're gun-shy about doing another deal for an impact player.

They're going to ride this core until they either produce or multiple people get fired. Laviolette and Kevin McCarthy are already gone. Homer can't be far behind.
- AllInForFlyers

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think that Homer wasn't making any deals because he legit thought this group of young players was good enough to take the team to the next level. But with the struggles over last season and this season it is begining to become obvious this group isnt growing together.

We need a pure goal scorer. Gaborik, Yakupov... I dont know... Does anyone know of someone else that is a pure goal scorer that is on a team that may be willing to trade them in a rebuild situation?

http://www.cbssports.com/...wing-darth-vader-uniforms
- wilsonecho91

Oh that is just AWESOME!

Howbout that Mark Streit?

Blundering D on the go ahead goal last night... yet again!
He's been pretty bad defensively when it matters.
Not impressed with this guy at all.

I don't disagree with that, because that's how the game played out. The Ducks adjusted to a 1-2-2 in the 2nd and 3rd period, and the Flyers couldn't handle that. That's been an issue with the Flyers for a number of years now. But I think overall, there isn't a big gap between the two teams. The Flyers dominated them in the first period.
- MJL

What was it 5 games in 8 nights for the Ducks? All on the road? Theres no way the Ducks should have been getting to all the pucks in the 3rd.

So you still think that the reason why they have the record they have, is because of the defenseman and the 4th line players? That they aren't underacheiving to this point, and aren't capable of playing much better?
- MJL

I think the reason the are faltering is because of the top line not producing, the 4th line not being able to handle a defensive role, and our top defenseman looking like bottom pairing defenseman.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think that Homer wasn't making any deals because he legit thought this group of young players was good enough to take the team to the next level. But with the struggles over last season and this season it is begining to become obvious this group isnt growing together.

We need a pure goal scorer. Gaborik, Yakupov... I dont know... Does anyone know of someone else that is a pure goal scorer that is on a team that may be willing to trade them in a rebuild situation?
- youarewrong

That's fine -- I hope I am wrong, and I hope, if there is a deal available, that they'd pull the trigger.

But I've never known Paul Holmgren to go this long with a team that clearly needs some help.

Regarding the roster, we need to make a decision on one of Hartnell or Simmonds this year and move the other. They both aren't good enough to be in your top 6 together. Neither of them can drop down to a 3rd line checking role.

I would rather fill our need for a top pairing defenseman and a top goal scoring winger and have a whole on the 3rd line which could easily be filled in FA.
- youarewrong

What team would would give you a top pairing dman for a third liner talent...seriously

Cousins, Alt, Lauridsen.
- MJL

And what are they going to get you? More third liners 5/6 defenceman? We need more of those

What team would would give you a top pairing dman for a third liner talent...seriously
- PhillaBully

PACKAGE! Why is it so hard to grasp?