Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Unable to Fully Recover, Lose 6-3 to Caps

Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Unable to Fully Recover, Lose 6-3 to Caps
- bmeltzer

Thanks bill. As always a great breakdown of this poop show.

Great analysis, Bill. Right to call out Zamula. And with no offensive cohesion, I think the reliance on stretch passes will be even more problematic against better teams.
Our 5 on 5 is abysmal, with four of six D unable to bail us out. Fedotov a mystery.

Comments about Couturier, while positive, are pretty damning for a player making $7.75MM for the next 5-6 years. Seems to be a trend....they paid him and are getting nothing, they paid Tippet and are getting nothing, they paid Farabee and are getting nothing.....

a valiant effort comes up short. what a shame.

Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Unable to Fully Recover, Lose 6-3 to Caps
- bmeltzer

any insight why they keep playing Zamula over 19 mutes a night? They mist see something other are not.

Great analysis, Bill. Right to call out Zamula. And with no offensive cohesion, I think the reliance on stretch passes will be even more problematic against better teams.
Our 5 on 5 is abysmal, with four of six D unable to bail us out. Fedotov a mystery.
- therabbi

Agreed on all counts. Multiple issues with this team right now. I wonder how many more starts feds gets? I’m not saying completely give up on him, but can he not be sent down at least for a conditioning stint? Gain some confidence playing in the a? Give kolosov a few starts and see what we have. It a win win

Wrt to feds, I also notice that he tends to flop a lot. Ends up on his belly and out of the play. Thats not good.

Comments about Couturier, while positive, are pretty damning for a player making $7.75MM for the next 5-6 years. Seems to be a trend....they paid him and are getting nothing, they paid Tippet and are getting nothing, they paid Farabee and are getting nothing.....
- mr4tno

I can’t argue any of this. Bee especially has me concerned.

Only saw the second half of the game, but Fedotov still looks basically lost to me (.833 save pct. ain't gonna get it done). How does a guy his size look small in net. The breakaway goal was an embarrassment. Way too easy to score on that. I wanna take some breakaways on him! How did this guy win a Silver medal at the Olympics? Farabee looks disinterested or disgruntled, and may need a change of scenery. Last night was a good example as to why Frost is a lightning rod on here. That wrap around HAS to be a goal! He seemed afraid to take that extra step out front and score into what was an empty net! I also noticed lazy passes from him where he doesn't make that sharp pass with authority although he's certainly not the only one guilty of that. I'm not even gonna discuss the Drysdale play with the net empty. That's basic hockey 101 that a pro hockey player should NEVER make. Thanks!

Agreed on all counts. Multiple issues with this team right now. I wonder how many more starts feds gets? I’m not saying completely give up on him, but can he not be sent down at least for a conditioning stint? Gain some confidence playing in the a? Give kolosov a few starts and see what we have. It a win win

Wrt to feds, I also notice that he tends to flop a lot. Ends up on his belly and out of the play. Thats not good.
- Hextall271

the positive the ivan looked ok after the 4 goals.

to me he still has issues tracking pucks and does not move all that well. those long distance shots that are goals are happening every game.

Main flaw with the team is lack of talent. So guys like Farabee are going to struggle. He is not good enough to get a lot of points on plays he creates. So he needs players to play off of. When those players are not good offensive players he will struggle to put up points. Not making an excuse just really calling a spade a spade.

I thought Coots, TK, Frost, Michkov had good games for the forwards. Everyone else was meh or worse.

Fedotov 5 hole is still a glaring issue. At least this game he did not back into his crease as much.

3 shots on goal by the Flyers in the 1st period is just unaccaptable to me, especially after losing the game the night before. The only positives was the PP looked good wtih Couts out there taking faceoffs and providing a net front screen. And of course Michkov, who by himself is a reason to watch these games.

Positives...since my first post was negative (folks are rubbing off on me). Michkov looks like the real deal (point per game player thus far) and Coots looked better the last couple of games. That was a winnable game against a team that plays with a defensive structure. Finish a couple of those chances and we are talking about an impressive comeback. Just play TK, Coots and Michkov together for awhile! Dare I say Drysdale has looked a little better? He still seems tremendously weak on the puck in his own zone though.

Fedotov 5 hole is still a glaring issue. At least this game he did not back into his crease as much.
- Trox88

He was better the second half of the game but he was not asked to make a save above routine more than one time. The leg save was a nice save. So I give him credit there. He was awful the first half of the game though.

Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Unable to Fully Recover, Lose 6-3 to Caps
- bmeltzer

7 games in and a -14 goal differential - This team is going places

7 games in and a -14 goal differential - This team is going places
- corduroy

They have not played well overall but a good portion of the -14 is Fedotov's awful goaltending.

John Tortorella's serial line juggling has downright excessive and counter-productive to trying to establish any sort of cohesion. Some of the combinations have been downright baffling at time.
- bmeltzer

Torts needs to calm the hell down with the line changes. It's become a source of ridicule.

https://www.hockeystatcards.com/
Zamula sticks out like a sore thumb, he needs to sit even if he is Michkov's interpreter. Let's get Andrae some developmental NHL ice time.

Feds was better over the 2nd half the game but you could have driven the Coors Light train through his 5 hole during the first 30 minutes. Do you think DB grovels and overpays Feds to come over if he had to do it all over again?

I think the image of Drysdale passing into a line change to nobody with the empty net behind him is going to be a lasting one. There was never going to be a good outcome from doing that even if Zamula had tried to play the puck, just different degrees of bad.

And Torts, for the love of god, if they ask you what you want to see from your offense, when your offense sucks, in an interview, do not say "backchecking".

The worst answer to a question since Ghostbusters.

He was better the second half of the game but he was not asked to make a save above routine more than one time. The leg save was a nice save. So I give him credit there. He was awful the first half of the game though.
- mickel25

Hopefully it gets better, still a lot of uncertainty. Still going to be hard to get a team save %.900 or above. Until that happens, realyl no shot at playoffs. He who shall not be named had a .906 save % last season. No coincidence, when he was removed, playoffs went away.

That 3rd period penalty to Frost initially looked like a 'WTF are you doing' moment. But the replay from the other angle showed Frost leaning on the caps player and the player's skate blade broke in half, causing the fall. Just cursed there.

the positive the ivan looked ok after the 4 goals.

to me he still has issues tracking pucks and does not move all that well. those long distance shots that are goals are happening every game.
- hello it's me 2050

Fedotov has been horrible. I wouldn’t say the goals were soft…but NHL goalies need to stop the puck. He’s simply not making saves to keep his teams in the game for the most part. Yes last night he was able to get a couple of stops to keep it close, but that was after he had put them behind the eight ball again. I expected a hell of a lot more out of a soon to be 28 year old. I mean give me a (frank)in break with this, he needs to track the puck better…lol….he’s not a 20 year old, he’s a seasoned vet with 9-10 years of pro hockey. The fact that we are pointing to one or two saves in a game where he got torched yet again is a joke.

Hopefully it gets better, still a lot of uncertainty. Still going to be hard to get a team save %.900 or above. Until that happens, realyl no shot at playoffs. He who shall not be named had a .906 save % last season. No coincidence, when he was removed, playoffs went away.
- Trox88

Exactly, when Hart left the stability in their goalie tandem left and that is a huge problem to overcome.

Positives...since my first post was negative (folks are rubbing off on me). Michkov looks like the real deal (point per game player thus far) and Coots looked better the last couple of games. That was a winnable game against a team that plays with a defensive structure. Finish a couple of those chances and we are talking about an impressive comeback. Just play TK, Coots and Michkov together for awhile! Dare I say Drysdale has looked a little better? He still seems tremendously weak on the puck in his own zone though.
- Phillywhiteout

Not easy to find positives for this team. They mailed in the first half of the game and didn’t show much. The line of Michkov-Konecny-Couturier looked good and should remain in tact for at least the 1rst period next game.

Fedotov has been horrible. I wouldn’t say the goals were soft…but NHL goalies need to stop the puck. He’s simply not making saves to keep his teams in the game for the most part. Yes last night he was able to get a couple of stops to keep it close, but that was after he had put them behind the eight ball again. I expected a hell of a lot more out of a soon to be 28 year old. I mean give me a (frank)in break with this, he needs to track the puck better…lol….he’s not a 20 year old, he’s a seasoned vet with 9-10 years of pro hockey. The fact that we are pointing to one or two saves in a game where he got torched yet again is a joke.
- landros 2

This team needs a .900 save pct. in most games to have a chance. This guy still looks awful to me. He is not tracking the puck well and he looks like a statue at times. That 3.2 mil contract could be a bad one, but at least it's only 2 years (I believe). Even that great save that he was given credit for, there was plenty of net to hit up high. Not sure how many more games they can give him before trying the other guy out.

This was a a tale of 2 games. That first period was just difficult to watch. Horrible hockey that just reminded me of so much Flyers play for that past number of years, last year first half as the exception.

Zam needs to sit for a while. Bring up Andrae and let the kid play a stretch of games. If he's better than Zam has been, waive or trade Zam. Flyers can get another interpreter for MM.

Agreed on the Frost assessment, though the penalty he took wasn't even close to a penalty. The Caps player went down because he lost his skate blade. Frost was just in the wrong place when it happened.