GT: Philadelphia Flyers @ Buffalo Sabers|1/20/13|12:30 PM

[More-Than-Most]

Let's not go overboard with "great". I think he's been pleasantly good. But it's hard to consider him being great when we've given up 6 goals on the weekend (not counting the 2 empty netters). He could have had that 2nd goal against Pittsburgh. He could have had one, maybe 2, of the Buffalo goals. That's what a great goalie would have done.

I'm willing to admit when he's playing great, and he had a lot of great moments. But a truly "great" weeekend, no matter how bad the defense is, isn't 3 GAA.

I disagree strongly.... He stopped almost everything that was not deflected and even on the deflected ones was over to the spot where the puck was originally going to go... Your using the goals over what he has looked like and how crisp he has been in the net. He moves from side to side so much quicker and even has played the puck out of his net with confidence. Besides the of the faceoff goal I am not sure how he could have any blame for any of them and that off the face off goal I think from neal is something he specializes in.

Your just looking at the 6 goals.... 2 of which were on break aways and 3 of 4 were flat out deflected into the net. He has been very very good with our defense and special teams being flat out horrible.... People can use the refs to a point but beside Bryz and Gerioux nobody came to play and we did not deserve to win

[castan_b]

that's really comparing two different style of players and two different situations, though. with carter, the problem was that his talent far exceeded his effort on most nights. in other words, if he would've just tried, even a little, he would have been a much more consistently productive player, just because he's so talented.


with simmonds, on the other hand, i mean lets call a spade a spade. he doesn't have the raw talent that carter does. however, he makes up for that in effort. when he's not into a game, he's completely non-existent. i mean carter at least shot the puck because that's all he ever wanted to do, but simmonds will just flat out disappear from the game. that being said, it's all the more frustrating to watch such a talented player like carter simply not care enough to try as opposed to a guy like simmonds.


therefore, the effort is appreciated from simmonds. he honestly has to play that way in order to be effective. he can't get away with just showing up every once in a while or snapping a hard wrister like carter could. his game revolves around him being physical and working his *** off for what he gets.


like i said, ultimately i'm not really giving him a pass either. of course i want him to put the puck in the net. everyone is going to expect him to do that now that he scored 28 goals last season.


i guess in a way i'm happy he hasn't come out of the gate content and just expecting to produce because of the year he had last year. it's nice to see he recognizes how he got to where he got last season and he's not going to just go through the motions. that's all i'm really getting at.

well said ... watching Carter was like watching a student who could get an A on a test get a C because they didn't study at all the night before ... underachieving

Simmonds is right on par with expectations.

[1908_Cubs]

I disagree strongly.... He stopped almost everything that was not deflected and even on the deflected ones was over to the spot where the puck was originally going to go... Your using the goals over what he has looked like and how crisp he has been in the net. He moves from side to side so much quicker and even has played the puck out of his net with confidence. Besides the of the faceoff goal I am not sure how he could have any blame for any of them and that off the face off goal I think from neal is something he specializes in.

Your just looking at the 6 goals.... 2 of which were on break aways and 3 of 4 were flat out deflected into the net. He has been very very good with our defense and special teams being flat out horrible.... People can use the refs to a point but beside Bryz and Gerioux nobody came to play and we did not deserve to win

I'm not blaming him. Simply put, no one is going to have a great weekend if you're averaging 6 goals given up. A great goalie comes up a little more then that.

I never criticized you or him. But "great' is an adjective that doesn't describe a 6 goal allowed weekend. If that's a great weekend, I shutter to see what we consider as "good". I think the expectations on him are low if that's where we're going with great, is all. He played well. And I'll give you that fully, I thought he played well. But there is upward mobility on what I'd call great.

It's more semantics on the word than anything.

[1908_Cubs]

Hartnell - Giroux - Voracek
Fedotenko - Couturier - Read
McGinn - B. Schenn - Simonds
Wellwood - Laughton - Talbot

Timonen - L. Schenn
Grossmann - Coburn
Meszaros - Gervais

Bryzgalov
[Leighton]

New line combos from practice today. And honestly, they look awful to the naked eye. Fedetenko is exactly what Couturier doesn't need, McGinn is awful and I can't figure out why he of all people is on the 3rd line, and Laughton gets bumped from the 3 down to the 4. Blech. Come back Briere.

[Flyers271]

Simple stats do not tell the whole story. Jimmy Howard, Lundqvist, Quick have let in 5+ goals in a single outing.

Goal off Schenn. Can't blame Bryz for that. Just unlucky.

Neal goal off the faceoff. That's on Bryz.

Ott goal in the slot. You have to put some blame on Bryz, but how does Ott get a clean shot in a high scoring area?

Vanek PP goal. A breakaway on the PP? Not sure I have seen that before. Breakaways are basically a coin flip.

Goal off Timonen. Again, can't blame Bryz for that.

Hodgson tip in. Bryz stops the Vanek breakaway with Voracek and Coburn trailing behind him. Neither of which pick up Hodgson. Coburn follows Vanek into the corner, Voracek overskates. Not sure how you blame Bryz for this. He stopped the breakaway, how is there no support for him afterwards?

So really we are looking at THREE goals in two games that he is responsible for. No to mention he had countless big saves. His mobility and confidence are much better than last year. He is standing his ground and not giving up depth in certain spots.

Fluky goals are going to happen unfortunately.

[Youarewrong]

I disagree strongly.... He stopped almost everything that was not deflected and even on the deflected ones was over to the spot where the puck was originally going to go... Your using the goals over what he has looked like and how crisp he has been in the net. He moves from side to side so much quicker and even has played the puck out of his net with confidence. Besides the of the faceoff goal I am not sure how he could have any blame for any of them and that off the face off goal I think from neal is something he specializes in.

Your just looking at the 6 goals.... 2 of which were on break aways and 3 of 4 were flat out deflected into the net. He has been very very good with our defense and special teams being flat out horrible.... People can use the refs to a point but beside Bryz and Gerioux nobody came to play and we did not deserve to win

I have to agree and disagree with a few points. First with Bryz. I agree he looks great. No complaints by me. Of course you want your goalie to make some of the hard saves like the break-aways, but he is no-where near the reason we lost.

As for for Special teams and Defense. I will agree the PK is awful, as is the 2nd PP unit. However, I am content with the defense. Grossmann had a difficult game on Sunday, but overall I think they played well. They held one of the best offensive teams to 2 goals in the first (not counting empty netter) and played very well 5-on-5 against a fresh team. Kept most chances to the perimeter.

And there were a lot of guys that "showed up" other then Bryz and Giroux. Simmonds, Laughton, Couturier, Talbot, Schenn, just to name a few.

[Youarewrong]

Hartnell - Giroux - Voracek
Fedotenko - Couturier - Read
McGinn - B. Schenn - Simonds
Wellwood - Laughton - Talbot

Timonen - L. Schenn
Grossmann - Coburn
Meszaros - Gervais

Bryzgalov
[Leighton]

New line combos from practice today. And honestly, they look awful to the naked eye. Fedetenko is exactly what Couturier doesn't need, McGinn is awful and I can't figure out why he of all people is on the 3rd line, and Laughton gets bumped from the 3 down to the 4. Blech. Come back Briere.

This is horrible, but maybe there is a reason. It might have to do with the NJ forecheck. If it was me...

Hartnell-Giroux-Schenn
Read-Couturier-Voracek
Wellwood-Laughton-Simmonds
Fedotenko-Talbot-Sestito