To start things off, Ryan Parent (shoulder) and Randy Jones (hip) will miss anywhere from 3-4 months due to injuries. That has forced the Flyers to give the teams first round pick in 2008 (18th overall) Luca Sbisa an extended stay with the big club rather than send him back to his junior team. Sbisa became only the third 18 year old in Flyers history to play for the Flyers.
The Flyers could have brought Nate Guenin up from the Flyers AHL farm team, the Philadelphia Phantoms, but Sbisa has impressed the team with his aggressive style of play.
Because of the injuries to Parent and Jones, the Flyers made a minor trade last Monday with the Boston Bruins for Andrew Alberts. The 27 year old Alberts played in only 35 games last season and are not an offensive threat by any stretch. His size is his best quality standing at 6’ 5”, but his defensive game is average at best and is by no means a long term solution.
The news gets worse for the Flyers. After only three games, the Flyers are tied for 28th in goals against average with a 4.40 GAA. The Flyers have not cut down on their average shots on goal average (24th, 32.2), from last season when the Flyers were 27th overall (31.8).
Sbisa is tied for a team worse -4 plus-minus rating, but than again only three players on the team is currently have a positive rating of +1.
As mentioned before, the season is early. Still, one has to wonder something. While most “experts’ feel that the Flyers best defenseman is Kimmo Timonen, I beg to differ. If you want say that he is the best “offensive” defenseman on the team, you could make that argument. Last season Timonen had 8 goals and 36 assists, while Coburn had 9 goals and 27 assists. Still, defenseman by nature is being paid to play defense.
Last season, that honor went to Coburn who had a team best plus/minus rating of +17, while Timonen was even. In fact, prior to this season, Timonen has only been a plus player in two of his 9 seasons in the NHL. He as a plus 2 in 2001-02, and a plus 20 in 2006-07 in
That way of thinking has the Flyers in a quandary, as usual, having overvalued a player they’ve targeted. To make matters worse, Timonen is signed through 2012-13 with a huge cap number at $6.33 million a year. Only Daniel Briere’s $6.5 million is higher on the team.
While the Flyers were rumored to be in trade talks with
Finding quality defenseman who are available are far and few between, and the competition for those players are always high. Even if Derian Hatcher comes back from injury, he is not the answer. Needless to say, help is far from being on the way for the orange and black anytime soon.
Still, the rumors will swirl by anonymous hockey bloggers who wish to crank up their hit counts. In the mean time, Flyers fans will have to watch the current crop of Flyers defenseman make due on any given night.
The key to the Flyers defense is to continue to cut down on the shots on goal. The Flyers also need to get balanced scoring from all four lines just as the team did last season. The problem is so far only six players have scored at least one goal this season, but only four have more than one goal.
The good news however is that Gagne looks like he is back to his old self having scored in four of his five games played this season.
As they say, the best defense is a good offense. Getting people on board offensively as well as getting the team to play better overall defense from their forwards will be the key to getting the Flyers back on track, because it won’t be the overall quality of defensemen that can be counted on to turn the tide.
It’s early and no reason to panic just yet. The Flyers have played better as each game as gone along except against a desparate Colorado Avalance team.
That is the good news. The bad news is the Flyers have
In the mean time Flyers fans, watch the Phillies in the World Series, or watch the Eagles if need. Let not your heart be troubled, and keep the faith. Better days are yet to come. It might take a while, but they will get there. Eventually.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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