In two meeting this season, the Flyers dropped two wild games to the Winnipeg Jets 9-8 and 6-4. If that is any indication, we may be in for another wild game tonight.

This is the first game day in the league since the All-Star Break, and neither team has played since last Tuesday. Both teams are ripe for a sloppy game. Although, unlikely to be as sloppy as the 9-8 game from November, in which Ilya Bryzgalov relieved Sergei Bobrovsky and found himself lost in the woods. . Most recently, the Flyers beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in a shootout, while the Jets lost 3-0 to the New York Rangers.

Winnipeg has not scored more than 4 goals in a game in over a month, so it may be a good time for Ilya Bryzgalov to get off to a good second half start. He will be the starting goaltender tonight, while the Jets should counter with Ondrej Pavelec. Don’t underestimate a good start to the second half for the Flyers. Some of us (including myself) sort of passed it off after the Flyers had a very good January of 2011, winning 10 of their 12 games into the All-Star Break. Coming out, the Flyers lost 4-0 to Tampa Bay, they won their next 3, but the season slowly started to unravel. The Flyers traded for an injured Kris Versteeg, Chris Pronger kept getting hurt, Sergei Bobrovsky began to take a step back, Mike Richards’ wrist injury only got worse, combined with the fact that the unsuccessful 2010 Cup run began to take it’s mental and physical toll as tends to happen to the runner-up of the Cup Finals.

If the Flyers are looking for a good start, the Jets really need a good start. They’re 10th in the Eastern Conference, 5 points behind 8th place New Jersey, and they’re only one of three teams in the East to have played 50 games. They’ve only won 7 games this season on the road, and tonight they will be missing Alex Burmistrov, Dustin Byfuglien, and Evander Kane.

The Flyers will not have Danny Briere or James van Riemsdyk back tonight, but they will get Jaromir Jagr back. Jagr really needs to be 100%, or else he isn’t really of as much help. After hurting his groin in the Winter Classic, Jagr tried to come back and held back linemates Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell.

The Flyers also will have Ben Holmstrom centering the 4th line, with Tom Sestito being the choice over Harry Zolnierczyk an Zac Rinaldo, both of whom are available if needed. Sestito has had a much better showing in his second recall with the Flyers, and would really be a big help to this team if he can help in the cause to make Jody Shelley even more irrelevant.

Something of a controversy has erupted this week over which Flyers goaltender should get the start in their biggest game of the season. However, being a Flyers fan, I know this to be as normal as breathing. It turns out that Peter Laviolette is going with the hot hand, and starting Sergei Bobrovsky in the Winter Classic. While $51M goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov will watch, just like the rest of us. Peter Laviolette has not been scared to go with the hot hand, in the 2010 Winter Classic, he went with newly-acquired Michael Leighton over Brian Boucher in the game.

Bobrovsky has simply been the better goaltender this season. His save percentage is one actually becoming of an NHL starting goaltender (.914 vs. Bryz’s .890). Bryzgalov’s GVT (Goals Versus Threashold, which is equivalent to VORP in baseball) is the 5th worst in the NHL. Peter Laviolette really wants to win this game not just for the 2 points and pull into a first place tie with the New York Rangers, but also because the Flyers lost their first Winter Classic in Boston. The Flyers do not want to be the first team to lose two outdoor games.

Bryzgalov made a spectacle out of not playing the game yesterday, but I think that’s just his defensive mechanism. It might rub people the wrong way, but that’s what the Flyers signed up for. The team won’t be happy that he was the one talking about it, but it should have never gotten to that point. The team should have realized that there is so much more media presence around the game, and that the cameras were going to find Bryzgalov eventually. Remember, he’s only supposed to be talking to the media on game days, and he hasn’t had a game in over a week. The Flyers should have been proactive and just said Bobrovsky was starting. Given that this is a game between two division rivals, who have beaten both goaltenders this season already, you’re not hiding anything by keeping it a secret.

And I’m not really concerned that Bryzgalov is rubbing people the wrong way given how he has come off on 24/7. Three weeks ago he was a dynamic if not bizarre personality that Flyers fans couldn’t wait to get a look at. Now, that Bryz has struggled this season, people don’t like what they see and think he has come from another planet. That’s just the fickle nature of Philadelphia though, and I think the organization can’t wait to get past the Winter Classic and get rid of the HBO cameras. If only just so Laviolette and Holmgren can really tell Bryzgalov how they feel about how he’s played and it’s not as big of a joke as he’s making it.

Hopefully this gives Bryzgalov the impetus to look in the mirror. His play has not been what the Flyers paid for (not that it ever was going to be given his outrageous contract), and it has cost him a start in arguably the league’s biggest stage. He’s signed for 9 years, if he’s around that long, I’m sure he’ll be given another chance to play in a Winter Classic (NBC is just not going to deviate from the big markets, it’s a given that the Flyers will play again within the next 8-10 years).

The point stands though that there need to come a time where the Flyers have to ice the best lineup possible, and after a tour de force effort vs. the Penguins, the Flyers should not change anything about their lineup. There is no wiggle room to just ride Bryzgalov hoping that his play turns around just because it should, and not have their be consequences. One good, prolonged slump can take the Flyers from fighting for a division title, to being in the fight just to make the playoffs. Right now, Bobrovsky gives the Flyers the best chance to win games.

In Bobrovsky’s last two starts, the Flyers gave up the first goal in fairly short order. That’s going to have to not happen today vs. the Rangers, because they are so good when scoring first and playing with the lead. The Flyers have played well from behind, they’re the league’s best team when trailing after 1 period, but they’ve given up the first goal so much that eventually it’s going to start burning them if they keep doing that.

Here are the projected lines for today’s game:

Hartnell-Giroux-Jagr
Read-Briere-Simmonds
Talbot-Couturier-Voracek
JVR-Schenn-Zolnierczyk

Timonen-Coburn
Carle-Bourdon
Meszaros-Lilja

Among the forwards, aside from the obvious Giroux line, I think Danny Briere will have a good day. Briere has always been a big-game player, and this may be the biggest stage the league has aside from the Stanley Cup Finals. He will take shots, and getting pucks to the net will be at a premium.

That 4th line will also get more ice time than normal 4th lines, because that’s not really a normal 4th line. The Flyers can roll all 4 lines, and Lavy may give them some extra ice time given the conditions. If any one of those three guys can get on the scoresheet, it could really help their confidence.

Also, as normal, expect Meszaros and Bourdon to switch in and out playing with Carle as per usual.

Having seen the first episode of Flyers/Rangers 24/7, I wished I came up with thing to look for in the first week. So, hopefully, here is a guide as to what to look for on the Flyers end:

- The Flyers played 4 games (excluding the on-going game vs. Dallas), I suspect the focus will be on the three games vs. Washington, Montreal, and Boston. The culmination coming in the 6-0 pasting vs. the Bruins on home-ice, after a 7-game winning streak was snapped.

- Claude Giroux’s concussion tests during the week. I’m sure there won’t be a camera following him, but I’m sure the world would be interested in seeing the day-to-day actions.

- Marc-Andre scored his first NHL goal in Washington. Should be a neat story that HBO can get some play from.

-The announcement that Chris Pronger will be out for the season. Quite a bit of the intrigue this season was predicated from delving into the mind of Chris Pronger.

- Scott Hartnell has really gotten behind the #HartnellDown Twitter hashtag that has meant to make fun of his skating ability, if not completely demeaning. Nice to see him turn that around into a good cause.

- After last week’s trips into Zen Tempe of Ilya Bryzgalov, what will his next dissertation be about?

The Flyers to continue the outdo themselves when it comes to being up front with their injuries. Their long-term captain, who is signed until age 42 with little recourse, has gone from having a virus, to knee scoping, to concussion-like symptoms. That covers a lot of human anatomy, but the Flyers are going to be without Chris Pronger for the indefinite future. His troubles date back to getting Mikhail Grabovski’s stick to the eye. Holmgren also stated that Pronger told him that he didn’t feel great when the Flyers were in Winnipeg on November 19, and that was the last game he played.

The brutal reality is that the Flyers need to be prepared for life without Pronger, and even at that, if/when Pronger returns to the lineup, they need to be prepared for when he inevitably leaves the lineup again.

Kimmo Timonen, as usual, has been the reliable, durable player the Flyers can count on in any situation. He and Braydon Coburn will return to being Peter Laviolette’s #1 unit at even-strength, with Timonen often being near or over 24-minutes per night.

Matt Carle, as usual, has receive his share of heat from media and fans alike for some bad decisions and brutal turnovers. He continues to push the play forward, but he will also have more of Andrej Meszaros as his partner. Meszaros has been somewhat inconsistent on a nightly basis, however, the Flyers traded for Meszaros and his contract for just this type of scenario.

On the third pairing, Marc-Andre Bourdon has been a pleasant surprise since behind recalled from the Phantoms. Boudon’s QUALCOMP is the high on the team among defensemen, and has been getting fewer offensive zone starts than anyone else on the team, while posting a positive zone offensive zone finish ratio. He’s making the case that he’s better than Erik Gustafsson and Andreas Lilja right now. And do not underestimate that, because the Flyers have been horrible at developing defensemen at the AHL level. The Flyers have been deathly scared of giving anyone a chance, and at the very least, Bourdon has proven he can be a decent contributor when spotted properly, if he hasn’t already proven he deserves more ice time. Of course, it’s only been 8 games, but he has averaged more even strength time per game than Lilja has in 20. Perhaps he has a little bit more of an NHL future than even the Flyers felt in September.

Bourdon is a physical player, and will look to clean someone out. The other night against Buffalo, Bourdon took a boarding penalty, but also was willing to stand in and fight Matt Ellis. (link) He knew he made a mistake, hopefully he won’t do that again, but that’s just the mark of a young player who is still learning that things happen faster at the NHL level.

The Flyers welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, and we finally get the rematch of the resistible force vs. the movable object. Of course, a month ago, the Flyers and Lightning stalled each other out on national television. Both teams scored a power play goal, before Brett Connolly won the game in overtime for the Lightning. Obviously, no Chris Pronger for the Flyers, while the Lightning will be without Martin St. Louis.

NHL Network has picked up the game, so even when ‘boring,’ it’s still intriguing to see what happens this time. The Flyers are at home, and it’s on them to make sure they hold serve and get both points. If they do that, people can say what they want about what happened in the first game, the Flyers will have gotten 3 points to Tampa’s 2 with a regulation win. In their next game after they played the Flyers, the Lightning lost 3-0 to the St. Louis Blues. It was quite the reaction basically seeing some Lightning fans praising the Blues for breaking their own team’s strategy if not outright celebrating it. That was quite the circle of emotions.

I don’t think you will see the game stall tactics tonight vs. the Lighting. The Flyers are the home team, and they get to dictate the matchups. If the stall tactics do begin, and the Flyers fans boo, I think they’re savvy enough that it wouldn’t be the Flyers they are booing. However, if the Flyers intend on winning he Stanley Cup, they’re going to have to beat traps. It may not be 0-4-1, but other 1-3-1′s such as what the New York Rangers play.

One of my favorite Flyers traditions is their annual afternoon Black Friday game. This year played at 3pm, the Flyers will play the Montreal Canadiens in their second matchup of the season.

The teams last played in Montreal was near the end of October. The Canadiens scapegoated assistant coach Perry Pearn before the game after the Habs won just 1 of their first 8 games. Whatever the reason, it worked. Montreal has won 9 of their 13 games since Pearn’s firing, although they’re still trying to dig themselves out of that hole even though they’re tied for 8th in the Eastern Conference.

The Flyers are coming off three games where they’ve played down to – or below – their competition, losing in Winnipeg, home to Carolina, and squeaking out a comeback OT win vs. the Islanders on Wednesday. Sergei Bobrovsky was great in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky after Ilya Bryzgalov gave up 3 first period goals. I don’t think Bryzgalov was the reason the Flyers were down 3-1, but he gave up at least two stoppable goals to Kyle Okposo and Michael Grabner. However, the Flyers defense in front of the Islanders was wretched to say the least. Luckily for the Flyers, Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro had a poor night as well. Andrej Meszaros’ goal 18 seconds into the game has to be stopped, and goals by Scott Hartnell and the winner by Danny Briere were not that great either. The Flyers pulled out the win though, and come into Black Friday just one point out of the Conference lead.

The reason why I enjoy the Black Friday game a lot is that, other than it being an afternoon game, you generally get a live crowd and spirited game. People in the crowd would obviously rather be at the game than running around shopping all day at malls like crazy people. I’m sure many Canadiens fans will make the trip down from Montreal, as well, and games against Montreal are usually fun crowds as well.

It sounds like Jaromir Jagr and Chris Pronger will both be out today, so bring back Andreas Nodl – who shouldn’t be a healthy scratch to start with – and Marc-Andre Bourdon should play in his 3rd NHL game. If baffles me why Nodl sits as a healthy scratch and then comes into a 3rd line role. You should be playing your best players, and Nodl is one of the Flyers best penalty killers. He did have a knee injury, but the Flyers have started running into trouble on the penalty kill, and one of their best has been sitting and watching. No word yet as to whether or not the Flyers will start Bryzgalov or Bobrovsky, but Carey Price should make the start for Montreal.

It’s been 5720 days since the Flyers made a trip to Winnipeg – March 22, 1996 to be exact. Dan Quinn scored the Flyers only goal on former Flyers goaltender Dominic Roussel, and Craig Janney had 2 goals and 2 assists in a 4-1 win by those Jets.

You have to go back nearly three years before that for the last time the Flyers actually won a game in Winnipeg. On April 6, 1993, the Flyers got a goal and assist from rookie Eric Lindros in a 4-2 win. Winnipeg’s star rookie Teemu Selanne scored his 74th goal of the season in that game. Oh, how times have changed.

Of course, these are not the same Winnipeg Jets. Literally. Those Jets are not in Phoenix, these Jets came from Atlanta. These Jets gave the Flyers their last regulation loss on October 27. Of course, was that crazy, zany 9-8 game where Ilya Bryzgalov said he was lost in the woods. It’s assumed that Bryzgalov will start today (3pm start), and start in Winnipeg for the first time since he made comments last season about not wanting to play there. He claimed it was too cold, among other things, all of which he apologized for. When it comes down to this, it’s not an episode of Parks and Recreation, and Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones aren’t walking through that door. Bryzgalov is a professional athlete, and he will play like a real professional. Winnipeg 2.0 have had some injuries since that 9-8 game, but also have tightened it up. The Flyers have only dropped two overtime losses since that game as well.

Jaromir Jagr did not make the trip to Winnipeg because of a groin strain suffered at the hands of the old Jets/current Coyotes. Matt Read rescued the game by scoring the winning goal with 18.6 seconds left. Mike Smith matched former Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov save for save, until fumbling the late rebound to the stick of Max Talbot, who found Matt Read coming to the net, unmarked. Mike Smith’s contract with the Coyotes pays him $47M less than Ilya Bryzgalov. Smith has done extraordinarily well for Phoenix, but those types of plays where you lost points in the standings is why he’s Mike Smith and not Ilya Bryzgalov. If the roles were reversed, Bryzgalov would have been torn apart by media types, but Mike Smith gets a pass because he’s Mike Smith.

As for Jagr’s replacement on the line with Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell, I’d like to see Jake Voracek get a chance there. Andreas Nodl could be available to the Flyers coming off a knee injury, and he could slide into that spot on the line with Max Talbot and Matt Read. The other option could be to move Sean Couturier up from the 4th line, or try and take advantage of Max Talbot’s hot run by giving him some more ice time with offensive players. Talbot has scored on 30% of his shots, which simply just won’t last, so it would be nice to get as much as possible from him.

The Flyers have had an interesting week, despite playing just one game in the last 8 days. Last Saturday they smacked around the Jeff Carter-less Columbus Blue Jackets to the tune of 9-2. And the score was fair. Steve Mason was bad, the Blue Jackets hardly showed up, and their defense is awful.

On Wednesday, the Flyers employed a trolling tactic to outwait Tampa’s 0-5 trap.

If Tampa doesn’t want to attack the puck, well, they’re the home teams, and they’re boring their own fans. The Flyers didn’t come to Tampa just to commit turnovers and allow Tampa to dictate their game. Or, was it Tampa not wanting to let the Flyers dictate.

The Flyers with their depth should force the issue, since they have the puck. They’re just scared to attack the trap Or…Tampa with their undervalued superstar 50-goal/100-point scorers Steven Stamkos, Marty St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier are too scared to attack the trap. Flyers play the aggressive style, but Tampa once won a Stanley Cup under John Tortorella’s SAFE IS DEATH montra.

I’m confused.

Plainly said, it’s not worth it to single out either side playing Cat-And-Mouse to bush league levels. If you’re trying to win, it doesn’t matter. It compromises the spirit of the game, this is true. But the NHL has made plenty of rule changes that already compromised the spirit of the game. The biggest thing I’ve noticed in reaction driven my media types, is that those aspire to be in a position to make their agendas more pronounced sided with Tampa. More respected writers such as Elliotte Friedman and Bob McKenzie didn’t really take a position, while they seemed to reported that the players and GMs took the side of the Flyers, for the most part. I just found it hypocritical of writers crying about the Flyers, and people have been writing about the Devils killing hockey with the trap for the last 15 years. Too many people want it both ways.

Coming up, the Flyers play the Florida Panthers after a a few more days of team bonding. The Panthers have surprised some with a good start to the season. They went on a spending spree of trades and signings, which included trading two draft picks to the Flyers for Kris Versteeg. Versteeg is the leading scorer for the Panthers with 17 points in 15 games. This begs the question wondering where this Versteeg was with the Flyers last season. One answer is that his gas tank may have been low after being with the Blackhawks Cup winning team in 2010, and going to the conference finals the year before, plus being traded twice in that span. Another answer is that he was hurt most of last season, and no one really cared about hearing that because they just wanted to whine and complain about him somehow being a team cancer of sorts.

The Panthers coach is former Flyers captain Kevin Dineen, who has paid his dues working his way up the ladder as a coach. He’s working to to really change the culture in Florida, but we’ve seen the Panthers bring in veterans before and have this not work. However, it’s worked early in this season, and the Flyers will be facing a tough customer on a strange Sunday 5pm start time. Not that it would be excuseable, but it wouldn’t shock me to see the Flyers come out flat. And don’t forget after the game they head to Raleigh for a game against the Hurricanes tomorrow night.

And that’s about all that can be said for tonight’s matchup. In a healthy world, the Blue Jackets would bring Jeff Carter with them in an emotional game, but that’s not the case. Jeff Carter’s return to Philadelphia will be spent in the press box as he has a broken foot. It’s worth noting that the Blue Jackets have failed to win in Philadelphia in their first four tries.

On the Flyers end, Jakub Voracek will still be playing against his old team for the first time. He has had trouble finding the back of the net of late, and the hope would be that he can elevate his line into a more consistent threat at even strength.

However, the Flyers are starting to run into some injuries. James van Riemsdyk was banged up in Buffalo on Wednesday and did not play Thursday, as he was not benched; the same going for Matt Read. Tonight, it sounds like Andreas Nodl will probably not play, so Eric Wellwood may enter the fold.

The Flyers have to have their guard up against complacency, as the Blue Jackets right now are the worst team in the league. They only have 2 wins, with a 4-day break upcoming. If the Flyers do win (especially in dominant fashion), there is a decent chance that GM Scott Howson, and Scott Arneil will be wished well on their future endeavors. The Blue Jackets have reached a breaking point, and in November, can’t afford to fall out of the playoff hunt more than the 9 points they already trail by.

The Flyers got away with 3 points in a lackluster back-to-back in Buffalo and against the Devils. I felt the Flyers were fortunate to get a point vs. the Devils, even though they never trailed in the game. The Flyers will have Ilya Bryzgalov as the starter tonight, who did keep the door shut vs. Buffalo, despite some bad luck goals against him.

Opposing the Flyers is Steve Mason, who has let in some bad goals early in games. Columbus is the team that could least afford a bad start, which they have not only had this season, but often in games themselves. Mason has not quite lived up to the billing of his Calder Trophy winning season of 2008. Jeff Carter is hurt, and James Wisniewski was suspended for the first 8 games. A number of Jackets players are a collection of okay-to-good veterans, along with having had some patience with young players.

Tonight will simply be going out and taking care of business. If the Flyers are focused and sharp, the Blue Jackets could succumb early lose hope.

When the Flyers lost to Tampa Bay 8-7 last year, I didn’t think I’d see another game quite like it for a long time, especially live. The only reason I even went to the Flyers game was because I wanted to see the new Winnipeg Jets 2.0 live. Few games turn into the barnburner, and this one sort of took a different course than the game against Tampa last year. The Flyers were down 5-1, changed goaltenders from Sergei Bobrovsky to Ilya Bryzgalov, fought back to take a 7-6 lead early in the third, and then not only seized control of the game after Winnipeg took a time out, but gave up the lead in short order. The Flyers tied the game 8-8, but couldn’t hold on for less than 4 minutes to even so much as to secure a point. It’s only one game, but there’s a lot of serious problems in there.

One of the most obvious problems is that the Jets had 9 goals on only 25 shots. Winnipeg wasn’t even scoring on every third shot – it was less than that (every 2.8 shots). Each team scored seven times at even-strength.

The real wacky thing is that in the Flyers last game against the Atlanta Thrashers last season, the Thrashers (currently the Jets) won 1-0.

You obviously couldn’t predict another 9-8 game at any point, but I suspect the Flyers will find themselves in a few more wild games like this during the season. The Flyers generally have two one-way top lines. Among the top 9 players, Claude Giroux is the most capable defensive player. Even though he does kill penalties, he wouldn’t be characterized as a ‘defensive forward.’ So that’s a role that the Flyers are essentially going to count on from a bunch of rookies – Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn, and Matt Read. Schenn is out until around December with a broken foot, so he is off the table. Matt Read moves up and down the lineup, but Couturier is going to consistently be the third-line center for the foreseeable future. His support system consists of Max Talbot, who is a very serviceable player, and Andreas Nodl, who didn’t play last night in favor or not one, but two sub-7-minute players – Jody Shelley and Zac Rinaldo.

Andreas Nodl at this point is essentially a defensive ace for this team, he should be getting more ice time, and not less. How much energy and fighting did Shelley and Rinaldo provide when the Flyers were falling behind 5-1 and 6-2? None. In a game where the Flyers lost 9-8, it would have been nice to have Andreas Nodl playing, who knows his role and plays well in his own zone.

Also, if the Flyers are this dependent on Chris Pronger, the Flyers are kidding themselves if they honestly think they’re Stanley Cup contenders. Before the season even with Pronger, I would say they’re not, I was looking more toward next season for that. Kimmo Timonen knows how to step his game up, but the Flyers got subpar efforts from Andrej Meszaros, Matt Carle, and Braydon Coburn.

The Flyers obviously didn’t get help in net either. Ilya Bryzgalov gave up all 5 goals in the loss to Montreal on Wednesday, so it was likely that he was going to sit out on Thursday. Sergei Bobrovsky played very well in his two games, sparking the media to try and start a new goaltending controversy. After Bobrovsky gave up 5 goals in half the time on Thursday, it ended that. Bryzgalov game in and gave up 4 more and ended up taking the loss in the game. Most people have heard the comments he made after the game, basically throwing himself under the bus. I think both goaltenders are too good to not be better than what has happened in the last two games. However, it’s alarming either for the goaltender or the defense to have given up 14 goals in 2 games. You’ll lose every time, and the Flyers were fortunate to have given up 9 goals and not have been blown out. It has been 15 years since an NHL team scored 8 goals and lost the game, A game Jaromir Jagr even played in.

In what was good for the Flyers, they did pound the Jets to the tune of 48 shots on goal, and chased Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec themselves. Pavelec had to return after his replacement Chris Mason was hurt soon after coming into the game. Pavelec gave up one more goal, but survived for a win. And for Winnipeg, I think it will be a great win for them, after blowing a big lead. They had nine different goal scorers, and the Jets have had a very tough time closing out games. When the Flyers closed the game to 6-4 before the end of the 2nd period, they had to be thinking that they were going to find a way to blow it. I was actually surprised that Claude Noel changed goaltenders before calling time out, but he got it right, and the Flyers had lots of egg on their face losing a game where they scored 8 goals.

Tonight, the Flyers get the Carolina Hurricanes, who played last night and beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0. And they should be getting Brian Boucher as the opposing goaltender. Ilya Bryzgalov will start for the Flyers, and I’m positive that he will be better and the team in front of him will be better. Bryzgalov really took the bullet for the whole team the other night, and continued poor team efforts defensively may allow some mistrust to creep in between skater and goaltender, which is something the team can’t really afford. Besides, the team would side with the $51M goaltender anyways.

Attention Philadelphia Flyers, please please PLEASE send Sean Couturier back to juniors. Do not let him play in his 10th NHL game tonight, and leave yourselves the clock ticking on his contract, and free agency.

I do not disagree with Paul Holmgren and Peter Laviolette that Sean Couturier was impressive in pre-season, playing mostly a defensive role, but looked very good none the less. However, there is a vast difference between impressive pre-seasons and NHL-ready players. The Flyers tend to insist that pre-season results hold more value than long-term profitability of the team. Let’s run through some simple history:

Luca Sbisa was kept on the Flyers roster in 2008-09, despite having a good pre-season. He looked better than anyone the Flyers could have brought in from the Phantoms. But that did not mean that he was NHL ready. And he wasn’t, despite “experts” around the league lauding how impressive he looked. Sbisa was constantly indecisive with the puck, but was praised for skating himself out of trouble. If someone has to skate themselves out of trouble, more often than not they skated themselves into trouble. He also was routinely knocked off the puck by players as big if not smaller than he. I’m not simply hating here, when the Flyers drafted Sbisa, he was my top prospect remaining on the board.

Sbisa made the team also because the Flyers, as usual, were in cap trouble, and needed a salary >$1M to stick with the team. They started shuffling him around, having him play forward when the Flyers were hit with injuries. After the Flyers brought Randy Jones back from injury and traded for Andrew Alberts 2 games into the season, the main reason Sbisa made the team – cap space – was the reason he was sent back to Juniors. When he was traded to the Ducks, they thought they had an NHL-ready player, but rightfully sent him back to Juniors when he started the next season as a sinking ship. Sbisa’s first NHL season was a disaster in terms of how he was handled, and never overcame that with the Ducks. Thankfully, it’s the Ducks issue.

Justin Williams, in 2000-01, also was kept on the roster straight out of the draft, after only ONE full season in the OHL (at age 19). Williams looked good, never embarrassed himself, but with Eric Lindros looking like he was going to sit out the entire season in a contract dispute, the Flyers were desperate for offense and kept Williams on the team. Keep in mind, this was the Peter White year. The Flyers also got lucky when Keith Primeau had a career year. However, the next year the Flyers hired Ken Hitchcock as head coach, and while Williams improved on his 12-goal, 25-point season, Williams was constantly in the dog house (as tends to be with young players under Hitchcock) for not having his defense up to par, as he didn’t have a chance to go back to Juniors to hone his skills in those areas. Williams was traded to Carolina in 2003-04 for Danny Markov, when the Flyers defense corps were ravaged by injuries. After the lockout, Markov was traded to Nashville to get under the salary cap (in order to sign Peter Forsberg, Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje), and Williams flourished into a 30-goal scorer in his first full year in Carolina, getting real ice time under Peter Laviolette, winning the Stanley Cup.

On the other side, consider Claude Giroux. Giroux almost made the Flyers out of training camp in 2007-08, a full year after his draft, and then got another season in juniors. Granted, Giroux was a late first round pick, just like Mike Richards, but also just like Justin Williams. He was also able to play in the 2008 World Juniors as a first line player for Team Canada.

Giroux was given a 2-game emergency recall due to injuries, but he also had an impressive pre-season and was allowed to go back to juniors in that second year after the draft. Giroux also spent half of 2008-09 with the Phantoms, and then was one of the Flyers best players upon being recalled. Today, Giroux is the Flyers most potent offensive player, being given a full opportunity to be a seasoned player before establishing himself as an NHL player.

Also, don’t forget Simon Gagne. Gagne was drafted out of the QMJHL 22nd overall in 1998. He was allowed to go back to Juniors, improve on his game (he went from 69 to 50 goals and 120 points), and had a great World Juniors. He made the Flyers out of training camp the following season, never playing a game in the AHL. In short order, Gagne established himself as one of the premier two-way players in the game. He earned an all-star appearance in 2001 in his sophomore year. He was also named three times to Team Canada’s Senior National Team in best-on-best tournaments, winning a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey (which was basically the NHL season that year).

Ideally, Couturier would play in the AHL – but that can’t happen. The question that should be being asked, is whether or not Couturier’s contract holds more value at 18, than it will at 21. At it stands now, Couturier’s contract expires at the same time as Brayden Schenn, Andrej Meszaros, Matt Read, and Claude Giroux, while Danny Briere would still have one year left.

Will Sean Couturier give you as much as Ben Holmstrom or Harry Zolnierczyk would as role-playing penalty killers. Or, wouldn’t it be nice for once to not be within pocket change of the salary cap. It’s not like the Flyers won’t be making a trade at some point to bring in some sort of defensive forward. It would be nice to have the cap space AND reserve room to make a trade, so that we’re not sending 2nd round draft picks as throw-ins just to entice the other team to do it.

I would feel a little bit better if there was some sort of assurance that Couturier will consistently get 15-16 minutes per night like Patrice Bergeron did when he was 18. However, that looks like that’s going to be Brayden Schenn’s role. I find little value in Couturier taking even strength shifts being flanked by Jody Shelley, who shouldn’t be playing over Andreas Nodl.

Please, just do the right thing. For everybody.