You can spend $51 million on a goalie, but you can't buy class. Pens beat Flyers 6-4
by Hooks Orpik on Feb 19, 2012 11:10 AM EST
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PrintBig hits, sticks swinging, gloves to the face, scrums after every whistle. Typical Penguins / Flyers hockey. Back and forth lead changes, penalties all over the place, trash talking, gestures flying. You name it, Pittsburgh versus Philly probably has it.
Matt Cooke gave the Pens an early lead but the Jaromir Jagr scored two goals 18 seconds apart to put the hometown team up 2-1, much to the delight of the Philadelphia faithful. Then in the second period, short-handed magic started for Pittsburgh. First Jordan Staal wristed a shot right at Ilya Bryzgalov's glove that somehow the goalie missed. Then Cooke scored the rare 3 on 5 goal when he blew past the tentative Kimmo Timonen and beat Mr. Universe to put the Pens back on top.
Right before the second ended, Deryk Engelland made a mistake, trying to turn right in front of his net with the puck. Eric Wellwood pounced on the gift and flipped in past Marc-Andre Fleury to send the game tied into the final period. The Pens decided it early with Dustin Jeffrey, Matt Cooke and James Neal all scoring in the first half of the period to skate away with a 6-4 win.
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You have to wonder if Paul Holmgren has any system or plans he’s trying to follow to build the Flyers lineup. If you look what they had prior to this past summer, it seemed like they had a lineup that made sense (except for the goalie situation obviously). They had young but already developed talent, veteran presence, up and coming talent, and a great supporting cast. One problem perplexed them, and they took a stick of dynamite to their system in order to try and solve it. They have guys like Briere and Timonen that won’t have too many more chances at a cup while they threw their developed talent away for rookies, players without any playoff experience, and a aging winger.
The whole thing just confuses me.
Thank God For Shero.
Except that Matt Read and Sean Couturier have already proven themselves to be solid contributors with high ceilings (especially Couturier) and Brayden Schenn has started to show some of his promise now that he’s healthy. Except that Jeff Carter is a giant turd of a hockey player and they were immediately a better team the second they traded him.
Carter and Richards have combined for 26 goals and 23 assists with a -11 for their new teams. The players the Flyers brought in with those deals (Simmonds, Voracek, Couturier, and Schenn) have combined for 49 goals and 53 assists… not to mention Jagr and Read’s production. The flyers are immensely better without Richards and Carter and with the pieces they acquired in those deals.
by SidgeniMalsby on Feb 19, 2012 12:32 PM EST up reply actions
I don’t doubt that those moves will help them… in 4 or 5 years. My point was that they have guys that are ready to win now. They now have a mix of guys that will have to develop like Read, Couturier, and Schenn, all while guys like Pronger, Timonen, Briere will be retiring by that time.
If you think about it in the long run, and what it takes to go far and win a Cup, they will not have that experience for a while with the players they acquired.
My point wasn’t that they are going to be a worse team, it was that they have players on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of experience. That’s not a good mix when you’re looking to win now.
by Clank Brimsoy on Feb 19, 2012 12:51 PM EST up reply actions
That’s a fair point, but I disagree. I think the mix of veterans and youth is a very good thing. In my opinion the Flyers have done a ridiculously (and infuriatingly) amazing job of building a team that is capable of winning now and for years to come.
by SidgeniMalsby on Feb 19, 2012 2:07 PM EST up reply actions
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