Time for a Switcheroo

Coburn Returns

So far this season the Philadelphia Flyers defense has been less than spectacular.  The lack of speed and lateral movement has been exposed in a league that is quickly moving in the direction of speed and athletic ability.

The return of Braydon Coburn will help the defense either tonight in Chicago or tomorrow in Pittsburgh.

Coburn may not be a sexy defenseman and will never be considered for a Norris trophy, but his skill set is desperately missed.

His penalty killing skills are missed along with his mobility and puck movement skills.  Having him in the lineup will stabilize a defensive corps that has been lit up over the past few games.

During the playoffs last year the New York Rangers took advantage of Ray Emery’s lack of lateral movement, allowing them to beat the Flyers in seven games.

Last weekend the Dallas Stars took advantage of the Philadelphia Flyers lack of mobility on the blue line and chased Steve Mason from the game.

The Flyers did come back and get their first win of the season coming from behind, but the lack of speed and movement on the blue line was exposed by a young, quick skating team.

Break up the top Lines

Last week I mentioned breaking up the top line of MichaelRaffl, Claude Giroux, and Jakub Voracek based on their even strength play so far this year.

The idea has gained traction elsewhere and as a further suggestion to that point I would swap Wayne Simmonds for Voracek on the right side of the top line dropping Voracek to the second line opposite Brayden Schenn and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

The benefits would be adding Simmonds physical play to the top line, replacing the physical, dirty work done by Scott Hartnell, who was traded to Columbus Blue Jackets in the offseason.

The addition of Voracek to the second line would add some skating and playmaking ability to a second line that was a bit too physical with both Schenn and Simmonds on the wings.

In short the idea of swapping Voracek and Simmonds allows a better balance in the top two lines which appear to be leaning a bit too much on the skating and physical sides. 

Goaltending

Last season, Steve Mason appeared to have regained the Calder Trophy form and the Flyers gave him a short contract extension.

This season Mason appears to be reverting back to the form that caused Columbus to trade him. 

During the Dallas Stars game they did not just expose the Flyers lack of mobility on defense, they were able to chase Steve Mason from the game.

His 3.78 GAA and .865 save percentage is not enough to get the job done.

The Flyers have latched onto this small problem the last few years where they give up the early goals and are forced into a position of playing from behind for most of the game. 

When they play from behind it puts more pressure on the team; most of all the goaltender.  In order for the Flyers succeed, the Flyers need better play from Steve Mason, who needs to regain the form that has endured him to Flyers fans since being traded.

Trade Rumors

It is the back end of October and the annual Coburn and Couturier to Edmonton rumors have started.  I heard it will be a blockbuster 25 team deal with the Flyers getting Weber and Ryan.  Sarcasm mode off.

Your 2014-15 Philadelphia Flyers Forwards

The 2014-15 Philadelphia Flyers stand in start contrast to the team assembled just a year ago.  Gone are 20+ goal scorer Scott Harnell and fourth line stalwarts Adam Hall and Jay Rosehill. 

Added into the lineup are Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Jason Akeson, whose playoff call-up added some jump to the roster.

Enforcer Jay Rosehill has been sent down to the Phantoms as of the time this article was penned and posted, but may be recalled after some LTIR issues are dealt with.

The biggest change to the roster will be the promotion of Matt Read and Sean Couturier to the second line from last year’s third line, a move that will make many fans happy.  Already in preseason games they appear to have clicked with Wayne Simmonds making for a potentially strong second line to supplement the Schenn-Giroux-Voracek top line.

The third line will comprise Vinny Lecavalier, Michael Raffl, and R.J. Umberger back for a second tour with the Flyers.

The Flyers will stand in stark contrast to last year's team in a number of areas and it is in these areas where Ron Hextall has already put his stamp on the roster. 

In the offseason, Hextall spoke a bit about roster construction and the difficulties in finding a perfect three man line.  He talked about finding two player combinations and then inserting a third player to complement the first two. 

That said, Brayden Schenn will be called upon to complement Flyers Captain Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek on the left wing.

Fans have been expecting more from Brayden and the promotion to top line left wing should do the trick.  Last season’s 20 goals were only 3 goals behind Voracek and 8 goals behind Giroux, not that much of a drop-off considering he centered the second line.  His six game winning goals was second on the team to Giroux’s seven. 

Fans need to keep in mind that this will be Brayden’s second full 82 game season with the team and only 23 years old.  He is still growing into his role and maturing as a player, but another 20+ goal season is not out of the question.

The second line will now be manned by Sean Couturier and Matt Read, a strong combination that has clicked since they were paired together.  The complementary piece, if you can call him that, is Wayne Simmonds the Flyers leading goal scorer with 29. 

Simmonds will have an interesting role as Couturier and Read are well known around the league for their strong defensive play, but not as well known for their offensive prowess. 

Read was able to tally 22 goals and Sean Couturier just 13 but do not let Couturier’s numbers mislead you.  Couturier logged 3:25 seconds of shorthanded ice time per game, leading not just the Flyers but the NHL for forwards as well.  Word around the NHL was that a number of teams held Couturier in high regard and were surprised when the Flyers did not push for him to be included in the candidates for the Selke trophy.

At 21 years of age Sean Couturier has shown a level of play on par with the top ranked players in his draft class.  More will be expected of him offensively centering the second line, but as fans we have to remember how far Couturier has come in a short period of time and his age.

The third line appears to be a work in progress as RJ Umberger replaces Scott Hartnell and Michael Raffl returns for his sophomore season with Vinny Lecavalier centering the third line. 

Time will tell how they work together, but for now the third line appears to have a nice mix of skills that may work out best in the end.

Finishing out the forward corps is a fourth line of Zac Rinaldo, Pierre-Edouard Bellemere, and Jason Akeson.  The three will be asked to provide a bit of grit along with some push to give the top lines a bit of rest.  One key here that is a huge difference from previous years is the plus skating ability of all three players. 

It should be noted that in not having Scott Hartnell, Jay Rosehill, and Steve Downie not on the roster the Flyers lose 263 penalty minutes, not a trivial amount when one considers the Flyers led the NHL in penalty minutes last season with 1180 minutes of penalty time. 

Broken down further the Flyers accumulated 14 minutes and 23 seconds of penalty time per game and 357 minor penalties.  The loss of Scott Hartnell, Jay Rosehill, and Steve Downie amounted to 68 minor penalties or almost 20% of the total.

If Zac Rinaldo can play more restrained hockey and bring down his total from 150 penalty minutes and 29 minor penalties then the team will be much more disciplined allowing for more opportunities for the top line players. 

Why do I mention more restrained play?

One of the complaints about the Flyers has been about their poor puck possession statistics.  Part of the may be due to a number of poor skating players who moved on in the offseason along with the high number of penalty minutes.

The high number of penalty minutes led to some problems last season where an ineffective fourth line would be trotted out on the ice to rest the top three lines which were constantly juggling time between the power play and penalty kill.

A more effective fourth line combined with fewer penalty minutes should provide additional shifts for Sean Couturier and Matt Read to capture more power play and even strength ice time leading to better puck possession statistics overall.

A point that Hextall has made with his draft picks is their ability to be plus skaters.  In the past the Flyers fourth line consisted of many slow afoot forwards whose sole goal was to provide the muscle.  The addition of a plus skating fourth line will mean more effective play from the top to the bottom as the fourth line could be trusted with more responsibility.

Later today the defense, goaltending, and my thoughts about this season.