Bill Meltzer: Meltzer's Musings: Read and Zepp at All-Star Break Crossroads

Zepp needs to replace Emery as the backup. Read is worrying me mightily. Guy might just need a change of scenery...

Zepp needs to replace Emery as the backup. Read is worrying me mightily. Guy might just need a change of scenery...
- hereticpride

Hopefully Read comes back from the break recharged. But can we really expect whatever injury he has to be healed after a few days when it's apparently been months in the mending?

Zepp needs to replace Emery as the backup. Read is worrying me mightily. Guy might just need a change of scenery...
- hereticpride

I was just about to post Read can regroup............somewhere else

I really like Read alot but his play this year has been atrocious but then again the entire teams play, with exception of G and Voracek, has been inconsistent. The young guys have not stepped up and grown into the roles that were set out for them. The Defense lacks a #1 guy to look up to. Mace has been pretty good but if he actually had a d in front of him you could get a better picture of him. Finally, the coaching IMO has not been good. Berube needed to sit players down that did not perform (coburn, RJ, etc) and he chose not to do that!

Read's sub par play is one of the biggest reasons why the Flyers are having such a down seasons. He is that important to this team. Hopefully he gets healthy, regains his speed, and continues to be the strong player that he has been in his career.

Hopefully Read comes back from the break recharged. But can we really expect whatever injury he has to be healed after a few days when it's apparently been months in the mending?
- wolfhounds

I question that as well. Could just be a lost season for Matt Read.

I question that as well. Could just be a lost season for Matt Read.
- MJL

Could be. I definitely wouldn't trade him away because of this sub-par season, that's for sure. And hopefully he starts playing better, regaining his confidence, scores a bit and pushes the PK toward better performance. At the same time, I'm not looking for the Flyers to win a bunch of games because Read provides a big spark...unless they can make it into the playoffs, which seems very unlikely.

Conundrums.

I question that as well. Could just be a lost season for Matt Read.
- MJL

Perhaps. But it is six days of respite without a practice/ morning skate and a full week between games. Hopefully he comes back feeling -- and skating -- better.

Perhaps. But it is six days of respite without a practice/ morning skate and a full week between games. Hopefully he comes back feeling -- and skating -- better.
- bmeltzer

It's all a big snowball. The skating leads to struggles, which lead to confidence issues, which lead to thinking too much, and hesitation, bad decision making, which manifests itself into a player that looks like he has completely lost his game.

It's all a big snowball. The skating leads to struggles, which lead to confidence issues, which lead to thinking too much, and hesitation, bad decision making, which manifests itself into a player that looks like he has completely lost his game.
- MJL

Well said.

Think Berube ever goes back to try him on the 1st line?

Flyers yard sale coming soon

Think Berube ever goes back to try him on the 1st line?
- MatveiDmitrii

Maybe, Berube has tried to use Giroux and Voracek to get players who were struggling going. It didn't work for Read, there didn't seem to be a difference. The injury makes sense when you look at his season.

Flyers yard sale coming soon
- ob18

Hope so. Something has to be done. Picks would be fine with me

Think Berube ever goes back to try him on the 1st line?
- MatveiDmitrii

Read hasn't looked good on L1 in years past, even when healthy

That being said: I'm on the fence about him. This season is sunk-cost -- they're not making the playoffs, so you have to make sure you are evaluating players fairly.

If he's hurt, OK. We get it. Sometimes, it just isn't your year and the numbers just aren't there.

But that means one of two things: While fans won't know, the Flyers certainly need to be aware exactly how much that presumed injury has factored into Read's season, and before next season, they need to make sure they aren't as exposed if this season by Read isn't an aberration and is a case of a guy just losing his game.

In other words: Hedge your bets and do whatever possible to get better depth on the roster, a player who might not be Read at his best in scoring, but can contribute on the PK and has some hockey sense.

I get it: There aren't 20-goal scorers who can play the PK just growing on trees. But the Flyers have to find a way to protect themselves a little better for next season, somehow, some way

It's all a big snowball. The skating leads to struggles, which lead to confidence issues, which lead to thinking too much, and hesitation, bad decision making, which manifests itself into a player that looks like he has completely lost his game.
- MJL

if you're mindset is that fragile you shouldn't be in the nhl let alone the flyers

Why Read wasn't being set down to heal is such stupidity it's beyond me.

Why Read wasn't being set down to heal is such stupidity it's beyond me.
- twpguy

I'm trying really hard to maintain some perspective, though it's frustrating, because I always remember something Daniel Briere said back when he was dealing with abdominal issues for an entire season: Players aren't robots and sometimes they just aren't going to have great seasons. You just have to believe that they will rebound to the norm.

Read's numbers are horrific, and the eye-test has been just as cruel. But as best I can, I'm just going to try to hope that this one's just an aberration.

But as to your point: When you're going like he was...yeah. He really needed to sit, because he just wasn't helping the team and was actually hurting the cause in some cases

if you're mindset is that fragile you shouldn't be in the nhl let alone the flyers
- 2Real

Has nothing to do with fragile mindset. All players can lose confidence in themselves. It is just like heckling players. People say oh they are paid pros who should be able to deal with that. So basically what they are saying is that their paid to not have human emotions which is ridiculous. If you hear something enough times you start to believe it. It is not because the mind is fragile, it is because once you start hearing it, you start to notice things about yourself that make that true. Say if people kept saying you are a terrible hockey player, you shrug it off at first but you keep hearing it, then you start noticing your mistakes more often and you start to believe it.

Hockey players are human. Just because they are paid millions to play hockey does not make them immune to emotion. What next? Should Parise stop being upset during the season about the death of his dad because he's paid to be a professional hockey player? It is ridiculous.

Not having a healthy Read has hurt. Read trying to soldier on is commendable, but he should have been shut down.

Id much rather Coburn and Grossman be gone before Read. If there's a forward we (try to?) move, it should be Vinny.

I was just about to post Read can regroup............somewhere else
- MatveiDmitrii

I've decided to give Read a bye this year, because of the injury and because of the lack of confidence/poor decision making that it has seemingly yielded.

Hopefully he'll recover enough over the break to salvage a horrific first half. If not, then an entire off season of rest and rehab should do the trick.

If that doesn't help, then I'd be looking for a team willing to take a chance that a change of scenery would jump start him.

Id much rather Coburn and Grossman be gone before Read. If there's a forward we (try to?) move, it should be Vinny.
- mochoson

Agree. I'm not ready to give up on Read even if it is a lost season. I'd only trade Read if it upgraded the team now in the form of a younger player, I wouldn't trade him for a pick.

Any question that Read was injured ended on the Kulemin play. He was obviously skating as hard as he could, and simply couldn't catch Kulemin.