The Flyers are a raging success, and Claude Giroux is their captain

The Philadelphia Flyers had a terrible start to the season. This is no secret. The reasons are many. They had tuned out the coach. The training camp was an absolute disaster. Claude Giroux suffered a freak golf injury during the offseason and missed training camp entirely. They had a terrible time to find the net, etc. These things aren't as much excuses as they are observations.

Then the Flyers were at a 1-7-0 record and seemingly at the end of their wits, team captain Claude Giroux had the following to say:

"We're not far off at all. How many points are we out, six? To think of the start that we had and we're that close. We never thought about not making the playoffs. We've got to go game by game and we will make the playoffs."

Reading over it now, the statement seems a little bit innocuous, but nevertheless a lot of media outlets picked it up as a sort of Mark Messier-esque guarantee. And so did fans, eager to have a laugh at the expense of a downed opponent. Just take a look at the commentary sections of this article on Yahoo, or this article on ESPN.

Commentators such as Ryan Lambert, the Bill O'Reilly of hockey, also had their field day dancing on what seemed to be a grave already. Particularly after the Flyers hit rock bottom in their lousy and embarrassing game against the Capitals. The cake probably takes the column entitled "Philadelphia Flyers are a screaming disaster and Claude Giroux is its captain".

Now we are here, 5 months later, and the Flyers clinched a playoff berth with a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers yesterday night.

While it would be a delight to go back and pick out some choice comments from the naysayers, but I think looking at the above mentioned comment sections speaks for itself. Rather, let's take a look at some of the factors why the Flyers made that remarkable turnaround.

First must be Claude Giroux. After the statement he made he kept his end of the bargain, placing first on the team in points and goals, and is as of this writing 4th in the NHL in points. After a brutal start that took him 6 games for the first assist and 15 games to score his first goal, that is quite something to behold. It even places him into the Hart Trophy race. I've made my feelings about this known, though unfortunately the Professional Hockey Writers' Association treats it as a general, league-wide MVP award so it is a foregone conclusion that Sidney Crosby is going to win it.

Claude Giroux also had several late-game heroic scenes, such as overtime winners against Chicago and Columbus in rather spectacular fashion, which showcases the Flyers resiliency. They have a ton of games in which they trailed at some point in the third only to tie it back up and get at least one point, or even win outright.

Special teams play has also been a constant factor. The Flyers are ranked 10th in Power play percentage and 6th in the penalty kill. The guys over at Broad Street Hockey have an excellent article on the Flyers PK unit and how they make their opponents lives tough through shot suppression.

The Flyers also were horribly snakebitten in the early part of the season. They only scored 11 goals in the first 8 games of their season. Since then everybody has stepped up, as the Flyers can now boast that they have 7 different players that have scored at least 20 goals. They are the only team sporting that number.

All of this is nice and fine, but the season is not over yet. They still have to vie for positioning. They are most likely playing the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs, and home-ice advantage will be paramount. They have a game in hand, but since the Rangers hold the tiebreaker the Flyers need them to screw up at some point, though their schedule is rather easy.

Claude Giroux should be the front runner for the Hart Trophy

Yes, the banner on my blog is Claude Giroux smiling and hugging Steve Mason. Yes, my blog is named after the general manager of the Flyers. Yes, I am very much biased in this matter, but hear me out.

In the recent months, Claude Giroux has risen through the ranks and is as of right now is sitting in 4th place in points scoring. He has scored the most points by any player since December 11th, and while that is kind of a cherry-picked date, it is nevertheless a very significant stretch of more than 3 months now. He is also a clutch player scoring amazing and timely goals such as this one and this one. He is the unquestioned leader of the Flyers, in terms of motivation as well as skill. He has all the things a candidate for the Hart Trophy needs, and then some.

However, it is also not exactly a secret that he had a very poor start. It took him 6 games to register his first point, and 16 to score his first goal on the season. The reasons for this are manifold, starting with a freak golf-injury late in the offseason, him missing the entirety of training camp because of said injury, to a coaching change very early in the season. As a result the Flyers lost 7 of their first 8 games and dropped to dead last, becoming the butt of dumb jokes such as "Q: Why are triangles higher than the Flyers in the NHL standings? A: Because a triangle has three points."

A lot of people use this poor start to knock Giroux. It was most certainly the leading cause for him being left off the Canadian Olympic Roster this year. People also proclaim that a Hart Trophy candidate has to be excellent year-round and Giroux is therefore not qualified. I disagree. I think this poor start showcases exactly why Giroux should be the front runner for the Hart Trophy.

If you recall, the Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to "the player judged to be the most valuable to his team". While the Professional Hockey Writers' Association frequently treats it as a de facto league-wide MVP award, it actually isn't as the last five words make a very important difference compared to the Ted Lindsay Award voted on by the players themselves. I am not arguing here that Giroux is the best player in the world (and for the record: nobody really has except for Peter Laviolette in the spur of the moment that one time). I think he has the potential to be, but he isn't there (yet). What I am saying is that Claude Giroux has the most importance to his team.

While this important distinction between the Hart and the Lindsay is often brought up, an actual quantifiable measure is hard to come by and thus the discussion is often left to speculation and inference. "How good would team X be without player A, and would that be worse than if team Y lost player B?" etc.

Only rarely are there actual circumstances to put this theory to the test. Would the Pittsburgh Penguins be a playoff team without Sidney Crosby? Almost certainly. Just look at the 2011-12 NHL season in which Crosby was limited to 22 games and the Penguins finished 4th in their conference because they have a "backup" in Evgeny Malkin who won the Art Ross Trophy that year. This fact alone should exclude both Crosby and Malkin from any consideration for the Hart Trophy unless the other misses a significant amount of the season due to injury. Now this doesn't mean they aren't excellent players, but their teams would also be able to compete without them, decreasing their relative importance to their team.

However, would the Flyers be a playoff team without Claude Giroux? Almost certainly not. They are on the bubble as it is, and that is after the monster of a performance Giroux has put in recently. This is also where the poor start comes in, because in the fifteen games before Giroux scored his first goal, the Flyers were the owners of a 4-10-1 record and many people had them already eliminated from contention, scoffing at Giroux guarantee that the Flyers would make the playoffs. However, when Giroux started to get going, the Flyers actually became a threat. Since the December 11th date I mentioned above, Giroux has score 51 points in 38 games for a 1.42 PPG pace. Not coincidentally the Flyers are also 23-11-4 in that span.  He is the most important player of the team. The fulcrum around everything revolves.

In my opinion Giroux's season is an interesting study of what purpose the Hart Trophy really serves. Is it just a league-wide "best player" award voted on by a different set of people than the Ted Lindsay Award, or does it have its own meaning and parameters for gaining it? If the latter is the case, Giroux has to be one of the frontrunners for it.

Revisiting the Richards and Carter trades Part I: The Reasons

I love Mike Richards. There I said it. Not like a man loves a woman, but like a man likes a good cigar. Except fuck cigars.

Mike Richards is one of my favorite players, and definitely my favorite player not playing for the Flyers. He is a hard working role model. He is a leader by example. He is a proven winner having won a Stanley Cup, an Olympic Gold Medal, World Junior Championship Gold, a Memorial Cup and a Calder Cup. All he needs is a gold medal in the World Championship, which will be hard for him to get since the only time he ever was out of the playoffs is the season we do not speak off. He also should have a Selke in his trophy case if not for the voting system being really dumb. Richards is definitely one of the most underrated players in the league, and many teams can only dream of having a guy like him in its line-up.

He also seemed like the future of the Franchise in Philadelphia, having been named captain (a role tailor made for him) and with an admittedly ridiculous 12-year contract in the back pocket that would expire when he is 35 years old, with a rather manageable $5,750,000 cap hit. Seemingly he would be a Flyer for life. Plus his best friend and teammate Jeff Carter had also been locked up with a very similar contract.

I make no bones about it. I don't really like Jeff Carter as a person. However, he is a very talented hockey player and a true sniper. Someone that can add value to a team. However, I did believe that in 2010, when the Flyers trade away Simon Gagne to Tampa Bay for Matt Walker and a 4th round pick, the Flyers should have traded Carter instead and end the logjam at center while preserving a valuable winger. (Now that was a terrible trade, though I guess the Flyers owed the Lightning something for the Meszaros trade that happened just days earlier. The Sum total I guess is Simon Gagne and a 2nd round pikc for Andrej Meszaros, Matt Walker and a 4th, which makes it somewhat more palpable. And since leaving the Flyers, Gagne didn't exactly light the world on fire though I do find it nice that he did manage to get his name on The Cup).

All the more shocked was I when I woke up on the day of th 2011 NHL Entry Draft to learn that both Mike Richards and Jeff Carter had been traded, as I found out while checking my e-mails on my phone. The grogginess was immediately gone, replaced by pure anger. I was not ready for this. Nobody was. It was an absolutely unexpected bombshell that ripped the heart of the team out of the franchise. The fans reacted with immediate calls of mutiny, myself among them.

Well, after a day or two, I came down from the mad high I had gotten myself on and attempted to see the more rational side for the trades. It was time to actually look at what Paul Holmgren had received in exchange for his two super stars.

From Columbus the Flyers got Jakub Voracek, a 2011 first round pick and a 2011 third round pick which turned into Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins respectively. Voracek at the time was a young talent, a natural winger with some great goalscoring potential, as yet unrealized in the Columbus system (which has a terrible reputation with eastern european players). Couturier had been projected to go as high as 1st overall that draft, but contracted mononucleosis which kept his numbers down. At the time of the pick it was a gift however, as he was one of the most NHL ready players in the draft as he would prove in short order. Cousins was a troublemaker, but with some talent to back it up. He has as of yet to fulfill his potential in pro hockey, but finishing in the top 10 in OHL scoring in 2012 and 3rd in 2013 is promising (which could have been higher if not for a suspension).

From Los Angeles Holmgren received Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and their 2012 2nd round pick. Flyers had to chip in Rob Bordson, but that was acceptable (Bordson has yet to play in the NHL, and the Kings did not give him a qualifying offer when they had the chance to do so). Simmonds was a young, raw, grinding middle-six winger with some untapped promise to score goals. Schenn was considered perhaps the best prospect not yet in the NHL, a two time silver medalist at the World Juniors and a former WHL rookie of the year. The draft pick would be packaged with a 3rd round selection in 2012 and flipped to the Dallas Stars later that year in exchange for defenseman Nicklas Grossmann.

So the verdict in total was that the Flyers got some very good value for the two centers the gave up, though it was largely in young and mostly unproven players. With other players of similar talent already on the team looking for more responsibility, players like Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers seemed to have gotten a whole lot younger, but not necessarily a whole lot worse depending on how the NHL replacements Voracek and Simmonds would fill in, and how other players would step up.

A definitive positive was that the shelves were restocked, as the Flyers prospect pool was almost entirely devoid of any definitive NHL talent with many of them having graduated to the big club and little having come after as many draft picks were used in trades to acquire roster players instead.

What was more worrisome was that it did not solve one of their larger problems, which was a logjam at center. Yes, the Flyers had traded away two centers, but they had also picked up three centers in Couturier, Schenn and Cousins. Add that to the fact that Giroux was looking to completely takeover the center position on the top line and Danny Briere still sticking around, the Flyers seemed to have too many centers again.

The biggest problem however was the reasons that motivated the trades themselves. I guess we won't be able to avoid talking about "Dry Island" so we might as well get out of the way. The story is that head coach Peter Laviolette asked his players to remain completely sober for an entire month. The practice was dubbed "Dry Island" by the players and Richards and Carter were the only two players that refused to participate, supposedly causing a rift between them and the coach. That Captain Richards routinely had his problems with the intrusive Philadelphia sports media was no secret and this may have contributed to the factors as well to the trade, but that would be nothing to the field day they would have with this story and how it related to the trades. I personally am still skeptical about how much of that is actually truthful and how much it influenced the trades.

Another factor was the presence of another-larger than-life character in the locker room. His name is Chris Pronger, professional troll and hockey player, as well as winner of a Hart Trophy, a Norris Trophy and the Stanley Cup among many other awards. Pronger is undeniably an asshole, but he is also one of the best defensemen to ever play the sport and a natural leader. Rumor has it that there was a division between Pronger and Richards (who had won Olympic Gold together two years prior) and the organization favored Pronger's leadership despite him only playing 50 games due to a languishing knee-issue. Without the ability to actually transfer the captaincy to Pronger and leave Richards with any dignity, Richards was traded instead.

The largest influence however was definitely the issues in goal. In the 2011 playoffs the Flyers employed a three-headed monster in net. They had Sergei Bobrovsky, a young goaltender out of Siberia that was practically a complete unknown when he showed up at training camp, winning the starting goaltender's job solidified by a great performance in a 3-2 win against the hated Pittsburgh Penguins in the first game of the season, spoiling the opening of the new Consol Energy Arena.

Backing up "Bob" was Brian Boucher, a veteran goalie who always had talent but never really stood up as a starting netminder and falling into a backup role periodically. Boucher was in his third tour of duty with the Flyers, the team that had originally drafted him in 1995, and despite his strong play in the playoffs the previous year he was again outperformed by another goaltender.

Waiting behind them was Michael Leighton, a borderline NHL goalie with occasional flashes of brilliance. One of those was the year before where he was picked up by the Flyers from the waiver wire due to a season-ending (and career threatening) injury to Ray Emery, then posted a 16-5-2 record with a .920 save percentage before going down to a high ankle sprain himself. This kept him out of the playoffs until the 2nd round, the day Boucher suffered two overextended knees after a goal-crease collision. Leighton jumped into the game, finished the shutout 50-50 and followed it up by letting a 2-0 lead stand for 59 minutes before Boston could score an ultimately futile goal. The following round Leighton posted three shutouts in five games against the Canadiens. However, he was made the lone scapegoat in a disappointing finish due to giving up a wake goal in overtime of game 6 which would give the Blackhawks the Stanley Cup.

Leighton had been extended for two years, but an offseason back surgery meant that he would miss the start of the season. By the time he was ready to play again, Bobrovsky had supplanted him and Leighton was placed on waivers, which he cleared and was assigned to the Phantoms. However, later in the season Bobrovsky's confidence was crumbling, as was the entire team as it finished with a 9-9-7 record from late February to the end of the season. Leighton was recalled and the Flyers themselves hardly knew themselves which goalie would start any given playoff game. They barely got by the Sabres in the first round before being dispatched in four games by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Bruins.


Philadelphia was known for a long time as a goalie graveyard in large part due to the mounting pressure caused by the expectations of the city's sports fans and media. Management decided it had to stop so they went out and got the biggest fish in the pond: Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryz was the beneficiary of a very strong defensive system in Phoenix under the guidance of head coach Dave Tippet, but the Flyers would definitely get him come hell or high water. And so they traded a 3rd round pick and minor league player Matt Clackson for Bryzgalov's expiring contract which they swiftly extended to the tune of 9 years and $51 million, a $5,666,667 cap hit.


Personally I still believe this to have been marching orders from higher levels which caused ripple effects for years to come. The Flyers already had a good young goalie that just needed some grooming and time, but this would not be soon enough as it appears.

Bryzgalov's monstrous contract would require some restructuring for the Flyers and with high salaried players like Briere and Pronger having the advantage of No Trade or No Movement Clauses in their contracts, it was decided to rebuild "on the fly" by trading Richards and Carter for younger talent and gun for the Cup a couple of years down the line.

The same effect could probably have also been achieved by trading only one of Richards and Carter, so why both? The answer is simple: They are best friends. It is no secret how pissed the two of them were after the trades. Carter in particularly crawled up in his shell and was unavailable to the media after being traded away from a booming night life and a talented team in Philadelphia to the perennial bottom feeder in the sleepy Columbus. I don't think there would have been much of a difference had his best friend Mike Richards been traded away with him remaining in Philadelphia.

On the other hand, I believe that Carter was the sole player traded and Richards had remained, the increasing rift between Richards and the management would have in all likelihood immediately exploded into a full fledged mutiny. In either case, the Flyers would likely have had to trade the other man in the duo sooner or later as well, only for their trade value to have tanked in between. Management opted for the band-aid approach, tearing it off fast and efficiently.

Flyers vs. Capitals: A blood feud in the making

There is no love lost between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals. Together with the Pittsburgh Penguins they are in a triangle disdain, with every team hating the other two very much. The Flyers-Penguins rivalry has been taking all the headlines, but now it seems that the matchup between the Flyers and Capitals is hitting its boiling point.

The two teams have been staring at each other pretty much since the end of the 04-05 Lockout. Alex Ovechkin was ascending to superstar status and the Flyers made a quick rebuild and played their typical Flyers hockey under the leadership of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. The two teams met in the first round of the 2008 playoffs which was decided in a game 7 overtime by a goal by Joffrey Lupul. Since then the two teams pretty much fought each other to a standstill with nine of the last fifteen regular season games decided by a goal or less, many of them in overtime, with each team getting one up on the other on various occasions (my personal favorite being the game on December 20th, 2008, in which goaltender Antero Niittymaki was the first star in a 7-1 Flyers win because he had 47 saves and miraculously kept the Capitals off the scoreboard in the first period. Perhaps the best game of his career).

But something changed this season. Perhaps it's that the two teams are back in one division as they were from 1979 to 1998, though I can't remember this rivalry ever hitting this level of intensity (mostly on the account of the Capitals sucking for most of their existence up to that point).

Many would say that the foundation was laid during the game on November 1st, but they might have forgotten about the chicken-wing elbow John Erskine dealt to Wayne Simmonds the previous season, earning Erskine a three game vacation. However, the first game of the season was indeed a doozy. The Flyers were down in the dumps after an absolutely horrid October in which they went 3-8-0. Though they had won two games against the Rangers and Islanders before being handed a 5-2 loss by the Ducks, the team was still in no mood and they were being outskated and outhustled by the Capitals. The Caps took a 4-0 lead with three goals in the first 3:49 of the 2nd period, and tempers flared and the Flyers lost newly acquired Steve Downie to an injury inflicted at the hands of Aaron Volpatti in a fight.

Joel Ward completed his hat trick early in the 3rd to finish off a 7-0 rout and then the game turned into a complete shit-show. The Flyers, frustrated and fed up with themselves and the Capitals skating circles around them, let it it all out and it ended in a line brawl that injured Vincent Lecavalier and made an enemy of the state of Ray Emery after he fought an unwilling opponent in Braden Holtby.

It was the absolute low point of the season for the Flyers. Bad play, bad sportsmanship and injuries. The future looked grim for the Flyers who had already dismissed Peter Laviolette after just three games and replaced him with Craig Berube. Nothing seemed to work and the team just completely embarrassed themselves.

Thankfully they could right the ship and went 7-1-2 immediately following the debacle against Washington, though they were struggling again when the teams met for a home-and-home in the middle of December. The Capitals were on a 12-5-3 run at that point, though 10 of those 20 games were decided in overtime or a shootout (7 of those won by Washington). The game on the 15th was no exception as the Capitals managed to rally from a 4-1 deficit and push the game to OT on a late tying goal by Ovechkin, and the game was decided in a shootout in which the Flyers are notoriously bad.

The rematch immediately followed on the 17th. The game was somewhat of a see-saw battle early in the 2nd period, but then the Flyers took a 4-2 lead by the end of it thanks to goals by Read, Streit and Voracek. The last two came on a power play following a vicious charging hit by Tom Wilson traveling the entire zone charge at Brayden Schenn, which earned him a 5 minute major. Wayne Simmonds added another tally in the 3rd for a Flyers 5-2 win.

The Wilson hit was subject of a review by the Department of Player Safety. The resulting explanation was a long-winded discussion about fore-checking by Brandon Shanahan, that seemed more like a distraction than anything else. It was very ambiguous in the end. No supplementary discipline was handed out and Shanahan failed to ever refer to the play as illegal, though he also not explicitly declaring the incident fair play. This gave fodder to people who believed that the play itself should not have resulted in a power play for the Flyers or a penalty on Wilson. Such was the opinion of Capitals General Manager George McPhee and head coach Adam Oates as well as many Capitals fans. Retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser disagreed, as did his former colleague Paul Stewart.

In the end it wouldn't much matter as Schenn, despite his dazed behavior directly following the hit, continued to play and did not miss a single game. However, it was undeniable that this hit cost the Capitals a win as the Flyers took all the momentum from the power play, grabbed a lead and never relinquished.

History would repeat itself in the next meeting of the two teams on March 2nd, now the two teams both in the hunt for a playoff spot and only separated by 1 point. The Capitals outplayed the Flyers in the 1st, outskating them and keeping the Flyers on the ropes. They had a 2-1 lead after the 1st period, which could have been greater if not for some great play by Steve Mason and an inconclusive goal review which was called no goal on the ice and could not be overturned.

The roles were reversed in the 2nd period with the Flyers coming out to play and Holtby having to keep them at bay with several unbelievable stops. The Flyers tied the game on a short-handed goal after a give-away by Ovechkin at the side of his own net, but the Capitals answered shortly after during a goal-mouth scramble and Dmitry Orlov would add his 2nd goal of the night (and 3rd of the season, all against the Flyers) with a low shot from the point through a maze of players. The Capitals lead 4-2 after two periods.

The Flyers struggled to get things going in the 3rd and things were looking grim when Brayden Schenn delivered a devastating but clean hit on Orlov. In retaliation Orlov ran Schenn into the boards seconds later. Orlov had to be put into protective custody immediately as Brayden's brother Luke was ready to rip his head off his shoulders, and this again resulted in a 5 minute major penalty that cost the Capitals a game against the Flyers. The Flyers scored once on the PP, then tied the game late with the goalie pulled and earned an overtime victory on a knuckler by Vincent Lecavalier that dipped just under Holtby's glove.

The Orlov hit again resulted in disagreement among hockey fans, with a minority faulting Schenn for putting himself into the position. The majority saw reason however, condemning Orlov for a dirty, high and leaping hit that was predatory and retaliatory. The Department of Player Safety saw fit to suspend Orlov for two games, which included the rematch on the following Wednesday.

The last game of the season series did not disappoint. The Flyers jumped to an early 2-0 lead on the account of a deke leaving Holtby stranded on his back, as well as a power-play goal by Jake Voracek. The game had been feisty up to that point with Zac Rinaldo attempting to turn Mike Green into a parking lot multiple times, but it erupted when a hit by Luke Schenn leveled Ryan Stoa, which prompted Tom Wilson to start a fight. Things did not get started at first as Schenn and Stoa had their legs tangled up, making both unable to get off the ice. When the two finally got separated, Wilson and Schenn dropped the gloves, but meanwhile John Erskine and Vincent Lecavalier looked to do about the same when Wayne Simmonds pulled down Erskine from behind. This lead to a full on line brawl. In the end Lecavalier and Erskine were both thrown out for the game, and after 56 penalty minutes were assessed in total the Capitals ended up on a power-play, which the Flyers killed off.

The 2nd period was not as grinding, but the Flyers extended their lead to 4-0 on goals by Giroux and Michael Raffl, which lead to the Capitals pulling Brayden Holtby in favor of Philipp Grubauer, their trade deadline acquisition Jaroslav Halak having not yet arrived. The Capitals looked just about dead by then with only 7 shots on goal up to that point and the Flyers skating circles around them. However, a power play goal Joel Ward gave them life.

That would be the story for the rest of the night. The Capitals came out guns blazing in the 3rd, putting in 12 shots on goal before the period was halfway done, but it would be the lopsided penalty calling which would work in their favor as the Capitals scored on two more power-play opportunities and a 4-on-4 from offsetting minors. Ovechkin's power-play goal appeared to punch straight through Mason's glove while that of Brooks Laich's tally was deflected with a stick just below the crossbar and sneaking just by Mason. Thankfully for the Flyers they never lost their lead as Jake Voracek scored an insurance goal for a 5-3 lead in between.

Many anticipated overtime with only a matter of time until Alex Ovechkin or someone would find the net, or the Flyers were called on yet another penalty, but the Flyers managed to hold them off until time ran out. Steve Downie scored on his second attempt for the empty net and the game ended, perhaps with things left undone.


What's left now is wait for the playoffs. With the new structure of the NHL, it is not entirely unlikely that the two teams meet in the first or second round. However, this would require the collapse of the Rangers, Maple Leafs or Red Wings, if not multiple of them. But if the two teams meet open warfare is to be expected with a slew of recent events resulting in bad blood. This rivalry has all the qualities to be a bitter one for years to come.

Why Vinny has to go

When the Winter Olympics come to a close and the NHL starts back up, there will only be a couple of games left before the Trade deadline and thus it is time for a lot of teams to evaluate their current positions and expectations. Are they buyers or sellers? Should they make some changes? Are there any holes to fill and are there people available for a reasonable price to do so?

For the Philadelphia Flyers this will be a bit of a conundrum, as they have a definitive and glaring need (a #1 defenseman), but few sellers in that category. To make matters worse, it seems like the player they would do best to trade away was a recent signing that just doesn't seem to fit in: Vincent Lecavalier.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I was rather happy with the Lecavalier signing. I thought last year the Flyers lacked a veteran presence among the forwards who could guide some of the younger players. I would have preferred a wing, but Lecavalier was in my opinion the best forward available, could provide some leadership, give the Flyers some depth in case of injury, and should also improve the Flyers horrendous face-off percentage from last year (Giroux was excellent at 56.9%, but the player with the best percentage after that took at least 100 draws was Maxime Talbot at a measely 47.9%, with Couturier, Schenn, Briere, and Fedotenko being even worse. This lead to Giroux taking the most face-offs in the entire league. Meanwhile Lecavalier won 54.5% of his faceoffs last year). Even price point seemed pretty reasonable at $4.5 million a year, though I would have liked somewhat less than 5 years and the NMC seemed annoying.

The problem is, that it didn't quite work out as it seemed. The plan was definitely for Lecavalier to be placed at 2nd line center, and permanently convert Brayden Schenn to wing. However, the Flyers had an absolutely horrible time at finding chemistry early in the season. Various lines involving Lecavalier showed promise, but even they couldn't break the Flyers out of their team-wide scoring slump and the line-juggling continued until the injury bug struck and took out Lecavalier himself for a total of 13 games so far.

In the meantime, two changes to the line-up seemed to bring some life into the team. First Maxime Talbot was traded to Colorado in exchange for Steven Downie, giving the team an actually competent 3rd line winger. Then when Lecavalier suffered a non-displaced fracture in the back, Michael Raffl was recalled and showed some promise after being placed on a line with Giroux and Voracek.

And then suddenly the Flyers had some balance in their roster. They had a finesse-scoring line lead by Claude Giroux. They had a grinding scoring line dominating the boards with Hartnell, Schenn and Simmonds. They had a shutdown line frustrating the opponents with Downie, Couturier and Read. And they had an energy line of Rosehill, Hall, and Rinaldo, getting limited ice time. While the individual lines got hot on separate occasions, they all had a defined and complementary purpose.

When Lecavalier eventually returned, the Flyers had a problem in finding a spot for him, reluctantly placing him as a wing with Couturier. Lecavalier himself is rather ill-equipped to handle this role, being a negative possession player and being woefully inept at playing wing, a fact he himself admits in an episode of the Flyers web documentary series Flight Plan. The odd man out on this scenario was Steve Downie, who would get placed on the 4th line or scratched altogether for BS reasons such as "lacking intensity".

Before the Flyers went on a 5-out-of-6 run ahead of the Olympic Break, they had some struggles, leading to further line-mixing in order to get things going, leading to the following lines:

Hartnell - Giroux - Voracek

Lecavalier - Schenn - Simmonds

Downie - Couturier - Read

Raffl - Hall - Rinaldo

Now this line-up isn't all bad, and giving the Flyers a very competent 4th line (which has also been a weak point throughout the year, though the contribution of Hall on the PK and in the face-off circle can't be understated), but Lecavalier is still placed on a position he can't succeed, and his stats show it. Bouncing around the line-up Lecavalier has only collected 23 points in 46 games this year. His only valuable contribution at the moment is that he gives a powerful threat on the 2nd power-play unit, as seen in his 7 power-play goals and 11 points on the man-advantage, but that only emphasizes his lack of production at even strength.

Now this isn't entirely Lecavaliers own fault. It is hard to find your role in the line-up when injuries strike and your line-mates change so often. However, it also shows that Lecavalier is the odd-man out as the Flyers are actively searching for a spot for him as no natural integration into the line-up is taking place.

Lecavalier is the solution to a problem that the Flyers don't have, namely a 2nd line Center. Thus it leads to the natural course of action the Flyers should undertake: Trade Vincent Lecavalier. Ideally for a defenseman and/or a left wing.

Now this could be a messy divorce as Lecavalier decided somewhat quickly on Philadelphia, partially because his wife reportedly loved the city after visiting it and asking him to leave again so quickly could leave a bad taste. The bigger problem is that Vincent Lecavalier's contract has a No Movement Clause. This doesn't mean that Lecavalier can't be traded, only that he has to approve a trade. Considering that he is most definitely not oblivious to the fact of his changing linemates and scoring trouble, it shouldn't be too hard to convince him that he would do better playing for a different team that could actually accommodate him.

The other problem is finding a suitable buyer who can offer an appropriate return. While Lecavalier's trade value is definitely down after this season, he should have enough name recognition and promise left to get at least a decent offer. A defenseman is a top priority here because despite some good prospects like Gostisbehere, Hagg and Morin in the pipeline, the Flyers have an immediate need on the blue line. Another thing that would need be addressed is replacing Lecavalier's production, limited as it may be.


The Flyers could also gamble and retain Lecavalier. During the Olympic break he would have had some time to heal from the injuries he suffered earlier in the season (and quite clearly returned to early from) and the team would have to hope that he would finally acclimate to a position as a wing. Another road to go down could be trading the Schenn brothers, but considering what the team has given up to acquire the two I think Paul Holmgren would be loath to do that.

The madman solution for the problem of finding a spot for Vinny is placing him at first line center and moving Giroux to wing. Giroux has played wing before and Vinny is definitely a natural center. However, Giroux is the top line center on this team and there is no reason to move him out of that position and disrupting the Flyers current best line.

To make a long story short, Vincent Lecavalier is a player that simply doesn't have a role in this line-up and seems incapable of adapting to a different role than a scoring center. I would definitely not be surprised if he was gone at the trade deadline.

Book Review: Flyers Lives

A couple of months ago I was combing through Amazon in search for a hockey book. Amazon recommended "Flyers Lives" by Jakki Clarke and I picked it up. Of course the first thing I noticed was the name of the author, and sure enough it is written by Bobby Clarke's daughter. While this would definitely allow for some special "access", I was also somewhat worried about what this relationship between the author and one of the high ranking officials in the organization could imply.

But let's put first things first: The book is a collection of mini-biographies/interviews with twenty-one players throughout the history of the Philadelphia Flyers, reaching from the Broad Street Bullies to modern day. Each chapter focuses on one particular player, discussing his career, their relationship with the organization, as well as some personal anecdotes. Interestingly, the book also asks each player to weigh in on the current state of player development and advice they would give to parents.

The players showcased are in order: Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke, Bob Kelly, Bill Barber, Dave Schultz, Paul Holmgren, Brian Propp, Tim Kerr, Brad Marsh, Mark Howe, Dave Poulin, Rick Tocchet, Ron Hextall, Chris Therien, Keith Jones, Keith Primeau, Danny Briere, Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Chris Pronger and James van Riemsdyk. This list covers a lot of ground and most of the big names that have suited up for the Orange and Black. It also includes some people I would not have expected in such a book, namely Bob Kelly and Brad Marsh, and reading it also provides a nice sense of continuity and passing the torch. But it also has some omissions that seem odd, leaving a glaring hole in the 90s with none of Eric Lindros, John LeClair or Eric Desjardins getting their own section. It should also be noted that many of the retired players still have very close ties with the organization, as members of the front office, ambassadors, or broadcasters, and thus seem to be somewhat chosen due to availability.

The book in general seems a bit whitewashed. Eric Lindros is hardly mentioned, and Pelle Lindbergh's death isn't talked about at all despite having such a large impact on many of the players that are subject to this book. Given this, I am surprised that the tragic death of Tim Kerr's wife, Kathy, shortly after childbirth was brought up at all. However, the book surrounds it in Kerr's history of injuries, and the quote of Kerr following it seems to be in response to a question solely about his injuries.

While the whitewashed nature of the book could have been expected given the author's relation to the organization, the most peculiar part of the book are the last two chapters revolving around Chris Pronger and James van Riemsdyk. Both are no longer players of the organization through different circumstances. Pronger is in injury-related quasi-retirement, and van Riemsdyk was traded, a fact that the book acknowledges. As a fan of the organization this leaves a somewhat bitter taste behind when reading it, particularly as the end of the book. An additional chapter, with a general overview and a look forward into the future would have been nice.

The book as a whole seems somewhat rushed in order to capitalize on a recent fascination with the history of the franchise in the wake of the 2012 Winter Classic, an HBO documentary about the Broad Street Bullies, and the announcement of the plans for a feature film directed by Rob Zombie dealing with the same subject matter. The last two chapters seem to have survived and been included over more interesting and less bitter options due to deadline pressure.

The writing is technically competent, but one thing that bothered me throughout the book is the overuse of a framing device. Each time the book jumps forward a couple of years in the life of a player to the next important formative experience, the book puts it into the context of the current events of the day, e.g. what there were Olympics, political uprisings, or a certain significant event in pop culture. This leads occasionally to repetition, and also becomes a disruption to the flow of the reader when some pages are almost entirely a footnote, explaining who Brian Boitano or Bill Buckner were.

Overall, the book is a decent time-waster and at least a nice glimpse into the lives of several Flyers heroes of the past. However, it falls woefully short of the potential that lies within the concept, largely in part of executive meddling and/or in the interest of self-censorship. I would also have a hard time figuring out any reason to be interested in this book if I wasn't already a fan of the Flyers.

Sidney Crosby's cap hit is not the standard

When the NHL and the NHLPA signed a new collective bargaining agreement a little over a year ago, fans around the globe had to learn a new world order. No longer were cap-circumventing contracts running 12 or more years allowed. No longer could the cap numbers be lowered and obscured by adding small-salary years at the tail end. This of course makes comparison between contracts under the previous system and a new one a little bit problematic, and that seems to impede the instant-analysis of most armchair GMs around the league.

The biggest nuisance here is when new contracts for star players such as Getzlaf, Perry, Giroux, or even speculated extensions for players like Toews and Kane are being inevitably compared to the contract of Sidney Crosby. Usually the phrase "Crosby money" will be used. The problem here is that it really isn't.

Outset
Matter of fact is, Sidney Crosby's contract is of a cap circumventing nature. Crosby makes $104.4 million stretched over 12 years. This of course exceeds the new limitation on contract length of 8 years. In three of these four additional years, his salary is only $3 million, pushing his cap hit down to $8.7 million. It should also be noted here that Crosby chose this number in reference to 87, his lucky number.

All of this also means that the Penguins run the risk of a cap penalty should Crosby retire early (and though I do not wish it upon him, with his history of concussions this is a distinct possibility). For example, should Crosby retire in 2020, the Penguins will have reaped cap savings of $15,900,000 and will be punished by having a cap penalty of $3,180,000 until 2025.

True Cap Numbers
While all this is true, it tells us very little about his actual worth. For this I have taken the first eight years of his contract and calculated the cap hit they would cause if those were the only contract years. I've done the same for several other players who have cap circumventing contracts.

Name	Duration	Last year	Total salary	Adj. Cap hit	Act. Cap Hit
Sidney Crosby	8	2020-21	$85,800,000	$10,725,000	$8,700,000
Alexander Ovechkin	8	2015-16	$74,000,000	$9,250,000	$9,538,462
Ilya Kovalchuk	8	2017-18	$79,000,000	$9,875,000	$6,666,667
Zach Parise	8	2019-20	$80,000,000	$10,000,000	$7,538,462
Ryan Suter	8	2019-20	$80,000,000	$10,000,000	$7,538,462
Shea Weber	8	2019-20	$92,000,000	$11,500,000	$7,857,143

I've also added Ilya Kovalchuk's contract. While the contract is no longer active, I believe it to be the most significant example of old cap circumvention. I should also note that Ovechkin's contract is somewhat odd in structure with the more expensive years coming in the 2nd half of his contract, making his adjusted Cap hit less than his actual cap hit.

Now let's look at some contracts which are in fact compliant to the new CBA:

Name	Duration	Last year	Total salary	Cap hit
Evgeni Malkin	8	2021-22	$76,000,000	$9,500,000
Corey Perry	8	2020-21	$69,000,000	$8,625,000
Ryan Getzlaf	8	2020-201	$66,000,000	$8,250,000
Claude Giroux	8	2021-22	$66,200,000	$8,275,000
Steven Stamkos	5	2015-16	$37,500,000	$7,500,000
Eric Staal	7	2015-16	$57,750,000	$8,250,000
Rick Nash	8	2017-18	$62,400,000	$7,800,000
Phil Kessel	8	2021-22	$64,000,000	$8,000,000
Dion Phaneuf	7	2020-21	$49,000,000	$7,000,000
Kris Letang	8	2021-22	$58,000,000	$7,250,000
Jason Spezza	7	2014-15	$49,000,000	$7,000,000
Brian Campbell	8	2015-16	$57,143,000	$7,142,875
Drew Doughty	8	2018-19	$56,000,000	$7,000,000
Tukka Rask	8	2020-21	$56,000,000	$7,000,000
Henrik Lundqvist	7	2020-21	$59,500,000	$8,500,000

Some of these contracts such as those of Staal, Doughty, Spezza and Campbell were signed before this new CBA.

The take away here should be comparing the Adjusted cap hit of the Non-compliant contracts with the cap hit of the compliant ones. When we do, the difference is very little. Top players are being paid pretty comparable amounts before and after the change in the CBA. The only difference is that players are no longer being padded out and Cap hits aren't being artificially decreased.
The statement that players are being paid "Crosby money" and do not deserve it is a false one, as Crosby's adjusted cap hit still exceeds those of top players by a healthy amount.

The myth of rising player salaries
Another interesting secondary myth that rises from these changing contract structures is that 2nd line players will soon be paid in the vicinity of $9,000,000. This myth arises from two factors: the perceived rise of salaries of top line players as discussed above; and the expected rise in the salary cap in the coming years.

While it is generally expected that the cap will rise to around $71.1 million next year, it's not like General Managers around the league are unaware of that fact or this is any kind of surprise to them. GMs plan for this sort of thing. 71.1 million is also on the trajectory the salary cap followed since its introduction, except of this season due to the lockout.

Top players are being paid accordingly, but there hasn't really been any jump here and they aren't going to pull the salaries of 2nd liners upward unless they themselves experience a similar adjustment upward. Further, even if there is a scarcity of talent o the open market, General Managers are not all going out on a spending spree and outbid each other while handcuffing themselves from obtaining true talents or paying their drafted talents (exceptions like Ville Leino not withstanding).
While further in the future it will certainly be possible that 2nd liners will be paid the amount top players are being paid today, this will only happen if the NHL experiences a significant boom and its revenues explode, or due to inflation and the devaluation of the U.S. dollar (in which case the value of those dollars will be very different).

So overall, if someone refers to a contract extension as "Crosby money" or talks about player salaries exploding, they're probably wrong.