(To preface, I am a Canucks fan who has spent a lot of this season watching Flyers hockey. I have friends who happen to be Flyers journalists, and their desire to watching a winning team, as well as Philly's similarity to Vancouver in terms of organizational competence has made me a pseudo-fan of sorts.)

Zegras-Dvorak-Konecny as a line have 2 5v5 points in their last 183 minutes together.

I believe the issue comes from the fact that Rick Tocchet's coaching focuses on a lot of chances in the low slot/right at the top of the crease. The Flyers fail to take advantage of the top of the slot, resulting in these low slot plays, even if they're getting through, not always getting through cleanly.

We also know that Tocchet's structure eliminates a lot of East-West plays, which increases the likelihood of a goal by a substantial amount.

My personal belief is that the most obvious first line to run would be Konecny-Zegras-Michkov. It would be similar to the Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Mikheyev line that was used in Vancouver. Let the center be responsible for switching the sides of attack, use one player as a retriever, and allow Michkov to find the soft spots on the ice for high danger chances from the hashmarks.

Tocchet has this idea that every line needs to "buy in" and play the same system up and down the lineup. I just don't know how much longer the Flyers can watch this and not recognize the need for change.

Dvorak can be a useful player. He reminds me of Pius Suter, without the 25 goal season. I just don't see the fit in the top 6. His ideal role would be a 3C on Powerplay 2 and PK 1. Someone who can fill in the top 6 due to injury, but nothing more. This idea that he can be a 2nd Sean Couturier for the Flyers is Pie in the Sky thinking, and having close to 23 minutes of TOA like he did against Buffalo is unacceptable.

9 comments

  1. I mean I hate the term, but a couple bad games doesn’t immediately turn it into a shit deal.

    Team is banged up & reeling. See if they can gather themselves before the break & get back to the form they showed the first 35 games after the Olympics.

  2. I don’t understand this “anti-east west” talk. Zegras, during the first half of the season skated a lot of plays into the zone going east-west? Sometimes into quadruple coverage even.

    Being real – most players on the Flyers don’t have the speed or raw skill to cut the play east-west. Also, fundamentally, we don’t win puck battles, we don’t win races to the puck and even when we do – we make bad plays with it lately.

    The last few games, the execution – specifically the passing not being tape to tape – has been the issue. We’ve been sloppy, bounces have not gone our way, and positioning has been mediocre to say the least. Most of those mistakes are obviously player mistakes vs raw system. Most hockey systems are simple – they just require player execution to work.

    Bury the coach all you want – but a young team exceeding expectations with hot goaltending shouldn’t vilify the coach. Flyers fans are being too harsh. We’re not the Devils with actual high expectations. Everything above .500 is validation for Taco. Everything below should be expected if we’re being real because that is who we are with the roster we have – especially with the injuries we have.

  3.  “I just don’t know how much longer the Flyers can watch this and not recognize the need for change.”

    Sadly, a lot longer than Flyers fans.

  4. 5 years after seeing him play better than he normally does for less than half a year is how the Flyers do. Disappointed? Yes. Not surprised? Also yes.

  5. The silly thing with Dvorak was Briere extended him *5 days* after he was first allowed to. Why completely rush into extending a veteran having the best 40 games of his life?

    Briere made the same mistake when he extended Hathaway on July 1st, a year away from him hitting UFA. There’s no need to rush these things.

  9. How are you going to judge a deal a week in? Yall get too excited when the team is bad.

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